Centre of Excellence

Centre of Excellence (COE) in sustaining Soil Health has been established during 2016-18 under NADP programme of Government of Tamil Nadu for testing soilsof farmers and offering high class analytical instrumentation and research servicesto researchersfor their project works focussed on soil health sustenance. Scientists and Scholars involved in basic and applied research addressing  complicated  issues related to soil health utilize the facilities of this centre. Sophisticated instrumentation facilities viz., GC-MS, LC-MS, MALDI-TOF, FT-IR, UV-Vis Spectrometers and other important lab equipments  are installed in this Centre. Over all support is rendered in this centre for research works covering the soil quality maintenance by balancing fertilization, improving capacity of a soil to functionwithin ecosystem boundaries, sustaining biologicalproductivity and maintaining environmental quality.  Ultimately this centre aims to promoteresearch that improves normal and salt affected soils to reach the ability to sustain crop productivity. Total cost of building and instrumentation infrastructure of this centre was Rs. 470 Lakhs.

Besides analytical services this centre offers periodical training (2 day training) to Scientists/ scholars on analytical instrumentation techniques on following titles:

• Chromatographic instrumentation techniques of HPLC and GC
• Mass spectrometric instrumentation techniques of GC-MS, LC-MS and MALDI-TOF

• Testing soil, plant, manure and irrigation water samples brought by farmers, entrepreneurs and researchers
• Quantification of extractable organic molecules/ pesticide residues using LC-MS/MS techniques.
• Quantification of volatile compounds in samples by performing GC-MS/MS analysis
• Identification of diverse microbial communities by MALDI – TOF analyzer
• Dissemination of technologies in sustaining soil health in saline/sodic soil
• Offering training to researchers on analytical instrumentation techniques

As women contribution in agriculture is immense, to enhance the knowledge of farm women in scientific technologies on key areas of agriculture and horticulture, the “Farm Women Knowledge Centre” is established at AnbilDharmalingam Agricultural College & Research Institute, Tiruchirappalli with the funding of Government of Tamil Nadu under NADP (G.O.MS.No.06 dated 04.01.2016 of Agricultural Production Commissioner and Secretary to Government, Agriculture Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai – 9). This centre brings in an amalgamation of varied technologies developed in the University for the betterment of farm women by imparting regular trainings/ demonstrations.