A team of researchers led by Dr. Santosh K Misra and Piyush Kumar from the Department of Biological Sciences & Bioengineering has developed a Novel Nanoparticle-based Bio-Degradable-Carbonoid-Metabolite (BioDCM) that can protect agricultural crops from fungal and bacterial infections, in collaboration with researchers Dr. C. Kannan and Divya Mishra from ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research and Dr. R Balamurugan along with Mou Mandal from the School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad. This comes as the second such innovation in the agriculture sector since last year from IIT Kanpur. Last year, out of the 107 patents filed by the institute, one path-breaking invention was the Bhu-Parikshak soil-testing device that has proven to significantly reduce the time and hassle required for testing soil in the lab. Adding to that relentless saga of bringing effective innovations to the farmers, the invention of these Novel Nanoparticles would prove to act as shields to protect the crops, especially rice crops from infection and diseases.
Highlighting the development, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur said, “Our institute has undertaken many innovative high-tech projects to help farmers. As the problems faced by the farmers are multifold, our efforts also have been relentless to enrich the whole ecosystem of farming, in general. In that regard, the invention of these Novel Nanoparticles would lessen the worries of crop infection and give a boost to crop yield.