Agenda

DAY 1  -  DAY 2  -  DAY 3 - POSTERS - DOWNLOAD

Tuesday, 3 Ocotber, 2017

12:00-13:00 REGISTRATION AND LUNCH

• 13:00-15:30 Welcome and Opening Presentations (Chair: Arti Bhatia)

• 13:00 Welcome and Purpose (Arti Bhatia, Mark Sutton, N. Raguram)

• 13:10 Introduction of the Newton-Bhabha Fund (Aditi Sharma)

• 13:15 Introduction of DBT (Shailja Gupta / Sanjay Khalia)

• 13:20 Introduction of RCUK (Andrew Telford)

• 13:30 Introduction of CINTRIN (Tina Barsby)    

• 14:00 Introduction of INEW (Peter Shewry and Karnam Venkatesh) 

• 14:30 Introduction of IUNFC (Philip Poole and D.L.N. Rao)

• 15:00 Introduction of NEWS (Mark Sutton and N. Raghuram)

15:30-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

• 16:00-18:00 Offered Presentations from CINTRIN (Chair: N. Raghuram)

• 16:00 Howard Griffiths: Cambridge Crop Sciences: Opportunities for expanding partnerships 
  A new Cambridge Centre for Crop Science (3CS), between the University and NIAB, is collaborating across south east UK institutions and India. A major GCRF award (TIGR2ESS) provides capacity strengthening and additional translational opportunities to complement the VJC award, leading to empowerment and enhanced health and nutrition for female farmers and rural communities in India.

• 16:15 Roger Sylvester-Bradley: The theatre of nutritional efficiency 
  Nitrogen (N) use by crops is not decided by plants but by people. Thus, new N efficient lines will only have impacts through being recognised in end-uses, markets, farming systems and government policies. Grain protein is by far the most influential and heritable trait underlying efficiency of N use by cereals, and in the theatre of nutrition it must fulfil many different roles.

• 16:30 Emma Wallington: NIAB Crop Transformation and early progress in the CINTRIN project 
  The NIAB Crop Transformation group focus on the transformation of wheat, barley, rice and oilseed rape. Within the CINTRIN project we are using our highly efficient wheat transformation platform to validate key gene candidates using transgenic and gene editing (CRISPR/Cas9) approaches, together with the characterisation of existing TILLING mutants, to study the effect on NUE and grain yield.

• 16:45 Vasudev Kumanduri: Data integration/overview of use of KisanHub technology 
  KisanHub provide cloud based technology for precision agriculture. Seamless integration of repertoire of tools and decision support system help users in making informed decisions. Integration of field trials data further provides reference datasets and in future will help farmers understand the yield gaps. NIAB and KisanHub together are on-boarding and integrating data coming from CINTRIN project.

• 17:00 Stephanie Smith: Translating mechanisms of biological nitrogen response from Brachypodium to cereal crops 
  I am investigating the relationship between nitrate availability and shoot branching in Brachypodium at the molecular level, and aim to identify some key genetic and biochemical players for translation into crops to help optimise N-use in agriculture.

• 17:15 Stéphanie Swarbreck: Scaling wheat nitrogen response and partitioning from pots to field studies 
  I will discuss our efforts in establishing experimental protocols to assess the N response and partitioning by different wheat varieties and pre-breeding lines, at small scale using pot-grown plants. Our aim is to identify the mechanistic processes underlying high NUE that translate into low N requirement in field-grown plants.

• 17:30 Varinderpal Singh: PAU-Leaf Colour Chart for improving nitrogen use efficiency in field crop 
  The PAU-Leaf Colour Chart has emerged as potential tool for need-based N application in crops. A pilot study revealed saving of 81.8 kg N per hectare in comparison to the farmers’ practice in wheat. The transfer of technology to farmers would be highly beneficial to reduce cost of production, improve food grain quality and mitigate the escape of reactive N from soil-plant system to atmosphere.

• 17:45 Rakesh K Srivastava: Pearl Millet Genomics: Applying Innovations for improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)
  Pearl millet is an important climate resilient and nutritious crop globally. In the CINTRIN project ICRISAT builds on the advances that have taken place in the development of genomic resources for pearl millet, including that of whole genome re-sequencing. Initial results of GWAS, bi-parental mapping, and transcriptomic studies from the field and controlled environment experiments are encouraging.

19:00 CONFERENCE DINNER (sponsored by INMS) 

Wednesday, 4 Ocotber, 2017

• 09:00-10:30 Offered presentations from NEWS (Chair: Tina Barsby)    

• 09:00 Adam Price: The Bengal and Assam Aus Population for genetic mapping in rice 
  We have developed an association mapping panel of sequenced rice cultivars which includes 266 accessions from the aus subpopulation that originates in NE India and Bangladesh and has 2 million SNPs.  The population has been obtained by NEWS project partners in India. We will demonstrate the utility of the population for mapping and include some traits relevant to Nitrogen Use in rice.

• 09:15 N. Raghuram: Investigating the phenotype and genotype for N-response and NUE in rice 
  We ranked 21 Indica rice varieties for the effect of N on germination, growth, yield etc., and identified some contrasting patterns: Early germinating varieties are short duration varieties least impacted by N and yield less; late germinating varieties are long duration varieties most impacted by N and yield more. Activation tagged lines have been identified for some N-responsive genes.

• 09:30 Altaf Ahmad: Proteome analysis of rice genotypes at varied levels of nitrogen treatments
  Our study on proteome analysis of leaves of rice varieties revealed that the proteins involved in the energy production regulation and metabolism in plants are differentially expressed under N treatments. Some disease-resistant and stress-induced proteins were overexpressed at high levels of N. The present study may open new avenues for a better understanding of N use efficiency in cereal crops.    

• 09:45 Dinesh Kumar: Field screening of rice genotypes for enhanced nitrogen use efficiency
  A field experiment was conducted at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi to screen the N-use efficient rice genotypes. Variety Taipe 309, Nagina 22, Himdhan, Swarna, BPT 5204, MTU 1010 and Jaya produced similar grain yield. All these varieties, except Jaya and BPT 5204, gave significantly higher grain yield over Pusa 44, Kala Dhan, and TKM6.

• 10:00 C.N. Neeraja: Is the yield only selection criterion for NUE in rice?     
  - Wide genotypic variation in NUE studies comprising 472 rice genotypes.
  - Leaf traits and panicles m-2 can be validated as selection trait for NUE under low N.
  - The translocation of N to the panicles and its conversion into the yield is the key decisive factor under low N, thus yield appears to be the only selection criterion for NUE.

10:15-11:00 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER VIEWING

• 11:00-12:30 Offered presentations from NEWS (Chair: Mark Sutton)

• 11:00 Arti Bhatia: Assessment of Nitrogen use efficiency and N fluxes as affected by sources, timing and N management in rice​
  An experiment was carried out for assessing nitrogen use efficiency and fluxes as affected by sources, timing and N management practices in rice-wheat cropping system.  The measurements were carried out for quantifying N fluxes of NH₃ volatilization, N₂O emission, NO₃-leaching, Soil Available N,   N uptake besides CH₄ emission, crop growth and yield parameters.

• 11:15 Jo Smith: Modelling use of organic resources at whole farm level, and impacts on carbon and nitrogen available from soils
  The “Operational Research Assessment Tool for Organic Resources” (ORATOR) is designed to account for the impact of different uses of farm resources on soil organic matter and soil nitrogen supply, crop production, animal production, water use, fuel availability, on- and off-farm labour, and farm income and expenditure.    

• 11:30 Dali Nayak: Simulating impact of nutrient supply on production of crops
  We describe a simple model to estimate production of crops under nutrient limiting conditions.  It uses a concept of scaling of both nutrient supply and crop yield relative to a maximum yield. This allows the impact of nutrients on crop production to be estimated using just two easily derived parameters, allowing the model to quickly be extended to a range of crops and different nutrients.

• 11:45 Sanjoy Bandyopadhyay: Nitrogen movement and balances at the small farm level in NW India
  The N requirement for farm produce by the small and marginal farmers of NW India, is met through fertilizer N and partly through farmyard manures. However, process of making FYM at farm level is very basic. Research indicates while preparing FYM losses of N from manure is significant; but if either this N loss can be minimized or N could be captured somehow, would essentially be enough N to reduce on-farm fertilizer N use. The current research work would examine the nitrogen flow and management to agricultural production comparing farmer’s practice and improved one at farm level.

• 12:00 Saran Sohi: Nitrogen interactions with biochar - a workable approach to address problems of farming and the environment 
  N interfaces with mineral surfaces and soil biology. Charcoal for use in soil (biochar) has low N content and minor effects on soil N demand. It is resistant, has defined pore structure and surfaces with increasing capacity for cation storage. Is the design of biochar for farming and environmental benefits effective and practical? Laboratory and field data reveal opportunities and challenges.

• 12:15 Edward Carnell: National scale nitrogen strategies for India 
  The work aims to improve emission inventories for ammonia and nitrous oxide, and produce an N budget for India. The work builds on current data and knowledge from the UK and Indian partners to estimate emissions at increasing levels of detail. Current work is on producing emission factors specifically for Indian conditions. We also use land use and agricultural management data for mapping.

12:30-13:30 LUNCH AND POSTER VIEWING

• 13:30-14:15 Offered presentations from INEW (Chair: Peter Shewry)

• 13:30 P. K. Mandal: Understanding Biochemical and Molecular Basis of Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Wheat
   We focus on understanding Nitrogen (nitrate) Uptake and Utilization efficiency in contrasting wheat genotypes at biochemical and molecular level. Our results showed considerable genotypic variation for both the component traits at transcript, metabolism (C & N) and RSA level under N-stress. We also observed genotype specific transcript data-set apart from the common transcripts in our microarray study. 

• 13:45 Till K Pellny: The Watkins collection as a source for genetically versatile pre-breeding lines
  The Watkins collection comprises of phenotypically diverse landraces collected in the 1920s and 1930s from 32 countries, including India. A nested association mapping panel using 85 founders with Paragon (UK spring) as the common parent has been established at the JIC within the BBSRC WISP project. We are utilizing adapted subgroups from some of these families for field trails in India and the UK.

• 14:00 John Foulkes: Exploiting phenology and adaptation to improve N use efficiency in wheat
  A NAM population of Paragon x Watkins landrace RILs and a panel of MAGIC lines selected for phenology are being phenotyped at UK sites. RILs from the same NAM population are being phenotyped by Indian partners. Phenotyping is focused on N uptake and utilization and root and canopy photosynthesis traits Preliminary results at UK sites and strategies for developing rapid NUE screens are presented.

• 14:15 M.L. Jat: Precision nutrition platform at BISA
  Improving NUE is critical to achieve continued food security & income enhancement & sustaining the soil, plant, and environment, human and animal health. Considering the importance of integrating genetics and precision agronomic management; as a part of INEW, the ‘Precision Nutrition Platform” has been established at BISA, Ludhiana, for integrating genotypes and precision agronomic management practices to capture the interactions for attaining higher NUE.

• 14:30-15:20 Offered presentations from partner institutes (Chair: Andrea Móring)        

• 14:30 Pooja Pawar: Atmospheric ammonia detection over India and China using MOZART model
  Ammonia emission and concentration over India and China focusing the results of MOZART outputs which is more dominant over IGP region, India. It will show ammonia variation over India and China finally comparing with ammonia tropospheric column.

• 14:45 Sahaj Kaur: Lichen biomonitoring Of Nitrogen And Heavy Metal Deposition In Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, Western Himalayas, India
  The concentration of the crucial elements – nitrogen and heavy metal – in Phaeophyscia hispidula (Ach.) Moberg was investigated. Concentrations of N, and heavy metals were enhanced in lichen samples near and were negatively correlated with distance from the road. The results emanate the potential role of lichen in a large-scale assessment of N and metal deposition and source identification.

• 14:50 Tapan Adhya: Report on INMS South Asia Workshop held at Male, Maldives 
  Global N cycle is the most perturbed biogeochemical cycle. An important overall goal of INMS is to establish a framework for a global integrated N modelling that enables assessment of the benefits versus costs related to feasible improvements in the N management. A workshop was held at Male, Maldives from 12-14 September to discuss the issues related to the fate of reactive N in south Asia.

• 15:05 Aimable Uwizeye: Towards the global framework for nitrogen use analysis and associated environmental impacts assessment 
  There is a challenge to measure nitrogen (N) flows because of the difficulty of measuring N dynamics, leading to contrasting methodologies. LEAP Partnership developed comprehensive guidelines to harmonise methods and indicators for N use in agriculture. While LEAP guidelines cover livestock sector, they also guide in the assessment of  N use in crop and pasture production, the main source of feed.

• 15:20-15:30 Introduction to the Parallel Group Discussions​

15:30-16:00 COFFEE BREAK AND POSTER VIEWING

• 16:00-18:00 Parallel Group Discussions​

• G1: Challenges for Biological Nitrogen Fixation (Chairs: Phil Poole and D.L.N. Rao)

• G2: Challenges for Biological Nitrogen Use Efficiency  (Chairs: N. Raghuram and John Foulkes)

• G3: Challenges for Agronomic NUE (including environmental impacts) (Chairs: Himanshu Pathak and Jo Smith)

18:00 END OF DAY 2

Thursday, 5 Ocotber, 2017

• 09:00-10:30 Plenary discussion with feed-back from working groups (Chairs: Mark Sutton and Tina Barsby) 

• 09:00 Report from G1 and Discussion

• 09:30 Report from G2 and Discussion

• 10:00 Report from G3 and Discussion

10:30-11:00 COFFEE BREAK

• 11:00-13:00 General discussion towards synthesis and future challenges

• 11:00 Science challenges (Chair: J.K. Ladha)

• 11:30 Operational challenges -  Lessons in getting cooperation working (Chair: Peter Shewry)

• 12:00 Science to policy goals (Chair: Tapan Adhya)

• 12:30 Conclusions and next steps for workshop products (Chairs: Mark Sutton, Tina Barsby and N. Raghuram).

13:00 LUNCH AND DEPART

*The conference agenda is subject to change.

POSTERS

• Ambreen Asif: Genome wide Association Studies (GWAS) in rice to map genetic markers to genes involved in biochemical pathway of nitrogen-use efficiency
  The presentation is about GWAS in rice to map genetic markers to genes involved in biochemical pathways related to nitrogen-use efficiency. For this analysis we obtained data from experiments conducted on 242 genotypes. Using the “PIQUE” pipeline we explored the GWAS results to identify potential candidate genes that are likely to be related to nitrogen use-efficiency.

• Andrea Móring: Atmospheric ammonia concentration in India: Why is it the highest over the Indo-Gangetic Plain?
  Both satellite measurements and model experiments suggest that in India, ammonia (NH₃) concentration is highest over the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Preliminary model runs implied that this can be only partly explained by the pattern of NH₃ emission. I investigated the possible role of nitrogen oxide emission, the circulation during the monsoon season and the spatial distribution of surface temperature. 

• Anirban Basu and Danteswari Chalasani: Identification of elite combinations of  pigeon pea and rhizobia isolated from Alfisols of South India
  Extensive soil sampling from pigeon pea fields was done across Telengana and Andhra Pradesh. MPN count of rhizobial load was estimated. Rhizobia isolated from pigeon pea nodules were characterized based on their nodulation efficiency and molecular features. Parallel, pigeon pea genotypes were screened for identifying optimal plant lines. Metagenomic analysis of nodule microbiota is underway. 

• Anita Kumawat: Effect of irrigation scheduling and nitrogen application on productivity, profitability and nitrogen use efficiency in direct-se
  A field experiment was conducted in split plot design to study the effect of irrigation scheduling and split application of nitrogen on NUE in DSR at IARI, New Delhi. Based on the results, it is concluded that alternative of 0 kPa could be 10 kPa without any reduction in grain yield. Likewise, four split application of RDN gave the highest grain yield, net returns and NUE in DSR. 

• Mahender Kumar Rapolu: Evaluation of rice cultivars for enhancing Nitrogen use efficiency in irrigated rice (Oryza Sativa. L)
  IET entries compared with standard checks across locations at graded N management indicated better performance of cultures (16.9 kg grain/ kg N) over standard checks (15.2 kg grain/kg N) for nitrogen response and more significant with Irrigated Mid Early group. Genotypes that are plastic to external nutrient availability can produce better yields under nutrient stress variable soil conditions.

• Narendra  Sharma: Phenotyping for NUE in Rice
  Attributes like germination and days to flowering could be considered as phenotyping tool for Nitrogen Use Efficiency(NUE) in rice, These attributes give remarkable response to form and dose of nitrogen. Generally, It is the lower dose of urea(N form out of nitrate and urea) which delays germination most leads to more time to flowering and give better yield.

• Shanti Devi Bamboriya: Effect of nitrogen scheduling and planting density on productivity, profitability and nitrogen-use efficiency in pearlmillet un
  Experimental results concludes that for getting higher yield with more profit under conservation agriculture especially during initial 2-3 years, pearlmillet should be fertilized with 75 kg N ha^-1 (125% RDN) as basal. 

• Soma Marla: Indo-UK Project (INEW) Project Wiki Page
  The newly designed web page of Indo-UK centre for Nitrogen use efficiency (INEW) details information about various Project activities being carried out by Indian partners.

• Surekha Kuchi: Improving  Nitrogen  Use  Efficiency  in  Rice through Nutrient management
  To improve  N  use efficiency in rice, urea, neem coated urea (NCU), polymer coated urea, vermi-compost (VC) and GA3 were evaluated in a field experiment. Among them, NCU was superior with its slow N release and high N recovery efficiency under transplanted rice. In direct seeded rice, GA3 spray along with  recommended fertiliser dose  and VC increased the plant growth parameters and yield.

• Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay: Analyzing Nitrogen Use Efficiency For Identification Of Nitrogen Insensitive Genotypes In Foxtail Millet
  The presentation provides a glimpse on the progress made so far towards analyzing  the genotypic variation of nitrogen use in diverse natural population of foxtail millet. It shares observations of the ongoing phenotypic screening of more than 184 foxtail genotypes as part of the Work Plan 1 ( Interdisciplinary research to prime the translation of biological N use) of the CINTRIN project.