Department of Crop Physiology
The Department of Crop Physiology was established in 1978 with the foresight and keen interest by the then Vice-Chancellor Dr. H.R. Arakeri. Prior to this, the Crop Physiology was a part of Agronomy Department, considering the developments in science with a view to cater the needs of farming community, especially in the field of plant growth regulators, micronutrients, herbicides, drought, tissue culture and production physiology, it was thought to give due importance to Crop Physiology and the Department came to existence during August, 1978 and Dr. Y.C. Panchal headed the department from 3rd September, 1979 to 30th September, 1991. Further, Dr. M.B. Chetti took charge as Professor and Head of the department on 1st October, 1991 to 24th October, 2009. Consequently, Dr.S.M. Hiremath, Dr.R.V.Koti, Dr.D.I.Jirali, Dr.V.P.Chimmad and Dr. C.M Nawalghatti have served as Heads of the Department. Dr.M.B.Chetti, in his longest tenure of 17 years as head of the department, has been awarded as a best teacher and scientist.
The department offers courses for B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture, and B.Sc. (Hons) Ag. Maco. and B. Tech (Food Technology) degree programme also. The department has full-fledged Post Graduate Programmes leading to M.Sc. (Agri.) and Ph.D in Crop Physiology: The Ph.D programme was started during academic year 1986.The department has developed several technologies based on physiology for several crops and contributed towards increasing the productivity. Department has earned name across the country and has organized several national seminars and short summer courses and winter schools. The PG students have also been awarded with best poster presentations in PG conferences.
PG Programmes in the Department
| 1 | M.Sc. in Crop Physiology | Offered since 1978 |
| 2 | Ph.D. in Crop Physiology | Offered since 1986 |
PG Students admitted in last five years
| Sl. No. | Course No. | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
| 1 | M.Sc. (Agri.) | 08 | 08 | 07 | 07 | 01 |
| 2 | Ph.D. | 03 | 03 | 02 | 01 | 01 |
Faculty
| Sl No | Name | Designation | Specialization |
| 1. | Dr. C.M Nawalagatti | Professor and Head | Post harvest physiology |
| 2. | Dr. M.B. Doddamani | Professor | Plant growth regulation |
| 3. | Dr.Nethra.P | Assistant Professor | Stress Physiology and Molecular Biology |
Supporting Staff:
| Sl No | Name | Designation |
| 1 | C.J. Patil | Lab Assistant |
| 2. | Vittal . Y. Renuke | Group D |
| 3 | VeerabhadraiahPujar | Field Assistant |
| 4 | Mahadevi. G. Humberi | Field labour |
| 5 | Basappa.S. Jamanal | Field labour |
B.Sc. Agriculture (Hons.) courses
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| 1 | CPH 101 | Fundamentals of Crop Physiology in Agriculture | 2+1 |
| 2 | CPH 301 | Applied Plant Physiology and Crop Modelling | 1+1 |
| 3 | CPH 302 | Fundamentals of Nanotechnology in Agriculture | 1+0 |
B.Sc. Agriculture Business Management (Hons.) courses
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| 1 | CPH 201 | Post harvest physiology and market produce | 1+0 |
B.Sc. Community Science (Hons.) courses
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| – | – | – | – |
B.Tech. Food Technology (Hons.) courses
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| 1 | CPH 102 | Post harvest physiology | 1+0 |
- Sc (Crop Physiology) Courses offered
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| 1 | PP 501 | Principles of Plant Physiology 1- Plant Water Relations and Mineral Nutrition | 2+1 |
| 2 | PP 502 | Principles of Plant Physiology 2- Metabolic Processes and Growth Regulation | 2+1 |
| 3 | PP 503 | Plant developmental biology:Physiological and molecular basis | 2+1 |
| 4 | PP 504 | Physiological and Molecular Responses of plants to Abiotic Stresses | 2+1 |
| 5 | PP 505 | Hormonal Regulation of Plant Growth and Development | 2+1 |
| 6 | PP 508 | Physiology of Field Crops | 2+0 |
| 7 | PP 510 | Seed physiology | 2+1 |
| 8 | PP 507 | Photosynthetic processes, crop growth and productivity and concepts of crop modelling | 2+1 |
| 9 | PP 506 | Physiological and molecular mechanisms of mineral nutrient acquisition and their functions | 2+1 |
| 10 | PP512 | Crop growth regulation and management | 2+0 |
Ph.D (Plant Physiology ) courses offered
| Sl. No. | Course No. | Course Title | Credits |
| PP601 | Functional genomics and genes associated with a few physiological processes | 2+0 | |
| PP602 | Signal Perceptions and Transduction and Regulation of Physiological Processes | 2+0 | |
| PP605 | Experimental Techniques to Characterize Plant Processes for Crop Improvement | 0+2 | |
| PP606 | Global Climate change and Crop Response | 2+0 | |
| PP607 | Physiological and molecular aspects of source-sink capacity for enhancing yield | 3+0 | |
| PP608 | Seed and fruit growth and their quality improvement | 2+0 | |
| PP609 | Weed biology and physiology of herbicide action | 2+0 |
Ongoing Externally funded ad hoc Projects:
| Sl No | Name of Adhoc Project | Duration | Funding agency | Project Outlay | Objectives of Project | Expected Outcome |
| 1 | Lime Induced Iron Chlorosis tolerance in F5 Groundnut Genotype and their Molecular aspects | 3 years | RKVY | 53.00 lakhs | To identify the Groundnut genotype which is tolerant to lime induced Iron Chlorosis | On going |
Major Projects completed (Last five years):
| Sl No | Name of Adhoc Project | PI/Associate | Duration | Funding agency | Project Outlay |
| Methodology for prediction of regional level cotton yield by GIS and Remote sensing and crop models | Dr. B C Patil | 2001-2006 | CIACR-ICAR, New Delhi | 11.30 lakh | |
| Micronutrient based technology for control of rust disease in soybean | Dr. R V Koti | 2003-2004 | Governament of Karnataka | 1.25 lakh | |
| Invitro cell line selection for salt tolerance and protoplast studies in cotton | Dr. B S Janagoudar | 2003-2004 | NATP(CGP) ICAR, New Delhi | 18.40 lakh |
Technologies Developed:(Last Five Years)
| Sl. No. | Technology | Name of the Scientist |
| 1 | Vacuum packaging for long term storage of chilli | Dr. C.M Nawalagatti |
| 2 | Use of magnesite in groundnut | Dr. K.N Pawar |
| 3 | Use of bio-herbicides for control of Chromolaena odorata | Dr. K.N Pawar |
| 4 | Chemical weed control in garlic and onion: Butachlor@1.5 kg/ha | Dr. K.N Pawar |
| 5 | Use of pulse magic in soybean (1%/litre of water) | Dr. C.M Nawalagatti |
| 6 | Melia dubia based agroforestry system | Dr. H.Y Patil |
| 7 | Use of chickpea magic(0.8%/litre of water) | Dr. C.M Nawalagatti |
Awards/Recognitions of the students attended Seminar/Conference
| Sl. No. | Name | Award | Year |
| 1 | Karthika | Best poster presentation award in 1st PG conference | 2016 |
| 2 | Akshaya | Best poster presentation award in 1st PG conference | 2018 |
| 3 | Venkatesh Dore | Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship | 2015 |
| 4 | Kiran B O | Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship | 2015 |
| 5 | Navyashree R | Best Research Scholar Award | 2023 |