School of Natural Resource Management :
The Mandates of the School are :-
- To develop competent human resources through quality post-graduate education at M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels with an aim to excel SNRM into a Centre of Excellence for teaching and research in Natural Resources Management.
- To act as a lead centre in planning, coordinating and monitoring R & D programmes related to natural resources management and to act as a repository of natural resources with special reference to the Northeastern Hilly Region.
- To bring an improvement in productivity of hill agriculture through the sustainable management of soil and water resources and thereby achieving quality and security of food production, health and welfare of humans and livestock.
Salient Achievements under the School :-
- Twenty five students have been awarded M. Sc degrees in the disciplines of Agronomy and Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry.
- Two of its students have joined Agricultural Research Services in 2012. They are Miss Chirsty B. K. Sangma (Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry) and Mr. Badapmain Makdoh (Agronomy).
- The School has completed four Intramural Projects and another Intra-mural Project is in the verge of completion.
- Five externally funded projects, two from Department of Science and Technology (DST), one from Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. of India and two from Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have been sanctioned with a total fund value of Rs.243.76 lakhs.
- Two more projects are under consideration for funding from DST and at final stage.
- Another project has been submitted to Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. of India.
Laboratory Facilities :-
In the Bio-geochemistry laboratory of the School, students get the feel of an environment of international standard. They also get the first hand experience of working with all the state-of-the-art equipment.
| Sl. No. | Equipment |
| 1. | Ultra freezer. Model U410-86. CO2 back up system (U9043-0008), Racking system. Boxes and dividers |
| 2. | Lysimeter UMS Make with data-logger |
| 3. | Environmental shaker, ROTEK LES |
| 4. | Soil Moisture Metre: Mini Trase |
| 5. | Guelph Permeameter |
| 6. | Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis apparatus set |
| 7. | Eliza Cum UV-VIS Spectrophotometer |
| 8. | Fastprep homgeneizer, Thermo make |
| 9. | Double Beam scanning UV-VIS Spectrophotometer |
Alumni of School as ARS and Placement of SNRM Alumni :-
| Sl. No. | Sectors | No. of Students Placed |
| 1. | ARS, ICAR | 2 |
| 2. | Agriculture Officers, Government Services | 12 |
| 3. | SMS in KVKs | 5 |
| 4. | Pursuing PhD in other Universities | 2 |
| 5. | RAs and SRFs in Projects | 4 |
- M.Sc in Agronomy and Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
- Ph.D in Agronomy and Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
Dr. Pradip Kumar Bora
Professor and Chairman (i/c)
Mr. Khrawpyrkhat Myrboh
Field-cum-Lab Assistant
Mandate :
- To develop site-specific, cost-effective and eco-friendly agricultural resource management technologies, such as crop diversification and improvement in existing cropping patterns, higher input use efficiencies, exploitation of bio-resources and efficient soil and water conservation practices in an integrated manner.
- To act as a lead centre in planning, coordinating and monitoring R & D programmes related to natural resources management and to act as a repository of natural resources with special reference to the Northeastern Hilly Region of India.
Thrust Area :
| Sl. No. | Focused research thrust areas | Prioritized researchable issues |
| 1. | Characterization and management of natural resources for improving soil and water productivity. | Natural resource characterization using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS), modelling of rainfall runoff process, estimation and prediction of carbon stock and pool, and enhancing soil and water productivity. |
| 2. | Improvement of nutrient use efficiency and organic carbon dynamics in acid soils. | Cataloguing and characterization of soil biota community and its exploitation in enhancing nutrient use efficiency and soil quality, and development of soil quality indices both under conventional and organic production systems. |
| 3. | Improvement of existing cropping systems through crop diversification and development of integrated farming system in NEH region. | 1. Evaluation of cropping systems, and crop diversification through legume and high remunerative crops.
2. Development of eco-friendly and profitable rice-based farming systems. |
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Externally Funded Projects :
| Title | Principal Investigator | Funding Agency | Fund Attracted | Duration | Status |
| Derived crop co-efficients for enhancing water productivity of important crops of Meghalaya | Dr. Pradip Kumar Bora | Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (National) | No. SR/S4/AS-73/2011 Dt. 17.8.2011 Rs. 58.00 lakhs |
3 years | On going |
| Assessment of habitat specific environmental micro bacterial population in North East India | Dr. Dwipendra Thakuria | Ministry of Environment, Govt. of India (National) | Vide No. 387/IFD/E/2012 dtd 05.03.2012 Rs. 35.94 lakhs |
3 years | On going |
| Endophyte diversity in wild versus cultivated rice across the environmental gradients in North East India | Dr. Dwipendra Thakuria | Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India (National) | No. 102/IFD/SAN/1301/2012-13 Dt. 25.6.2012 Rs. 45.50 lakhs |
3 years | On going |
| Impact assessment of Jhumming on native plant and soil microbiota and restoration of sustainable jhum agroecosystems in North East India | Dr. Dwipendra Thakuria | Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India | No. DBT/NER/Agri/14/2012 Dt. 31.10.2012 Rs. 74.32 lakhs |
4 years | On going |
| Techno-economic feasibility of gravity-fed drip irrigation System in Hilly Regions of Meghalaya | Dr. Lala Iswari Prasad Ray | Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (National) | No. DST/WTI/2K12/37 Rs. 28.56 lakhs |
3 years | On going |
Intramural Projects (Completed/Ongoing) :
| Sl. No. | Title | Principal Investigator | Status |
| 1. | Effect of Fertigation through drip on the yield of Vegetables and Soil acidity under Polyhouse in high rainfall areas. | Dr. Pradip Kumar Bora | Completed |
| 2. | Assessment of Microbiota Community and Biological Pools of Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorous in Soils of Rice Ecosystems in Hill Agriculture. | Dr. Dwipendra Thakuria | Completed |
| 3. | Response of quality protein maize (Zea mays L.) + groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) intercropping to planting patterns and fertilizers schedules. | Dr. Vishram Ram | Completed |
| 4. | Contingency crop planning based on three decadal weather data. | Dr. Lala Iswari Prasad Ray | Completed |
| 5. | Prediction of soil organic carbon stocks in soils of rice ecosystems in hill agriculture. | Dr. Naorem Janaki Singh | On-Going |
| 6. | Assessment of Soil and Nutrient Losses in Maize-Potato based Cropping System | Dr. Lala Iswari Prasad Ray | Ongoing |
Salient Findings from the Projects :-
- The cropping intensity and productivity can be increased with Maize: Groundnut intercropping at 1:1 ratio by better utilization resources.
- Soil pH is considerably reduced by application of Urea, KNO3 through drip fertigation
- Contingency crop planning for Tura, Baghmara, William Nagar, Barapani, Nongpoh, Jowai, Cherapunji, Shillong and Nongstoin have been prepared.
- Eight Phosphate solubilizing bacterial isolates having multiple plant growth promoting traits were screened and developed as potential bioinoculants for use in acidic soils of hill rice ecosystem.
Expected Outcome from the Projects :-
- Crop Coefficients for five important crops of Meghalaya viz. Tomato, Potato, Maize, French bean and Capsicum will be determined thereby increase the water productivity of these crops. (DST: No. SR/S4/AS-73/2011)
- Generation of base line database on 16S rRNA sequence based environmental micro-bacterial diversity in various habitats of NE India and end users will be the professionals of veterinary, medical and agriculture. (MoEF Project)
- Development of bio-inoculants of endophytic origin for use in rice based cropping system and these will be shared with other advanced laboratories in rhizosphere based breeding programmes (DBT, GOI, No.102/IFD/SAN/1301/2012-13)
- Development of Microbial based eco-restoration practices in jhum fields of NE India (DBT/NER/Agri/14/2012)
- Popularization of gravity-fed low head drip irrigation system thereby reducing the external energy requires and cost of irrigation system (DST/WTI/2K12/37).
M.Sc. Thesis Abstracts :
- Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry: Click Here to Download
- Agronomy: Click Here to Download
School of Natural Resource Management
