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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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Subject: Agricultural Biotechnology × Author: Kumari, Nitu × End date: 2014 × Start date: 2014 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on doubled haploid generation in wheat
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Kumari, Nitu; Kumar, Rajeev
    Production of haploid has significant value as genetic and breeding tool for crop improvement. The prime goal of haploid production is to achieve instant homozygosity through production of double haploids by chromosome doubling. Pure breeding lines can be developed rapidly using this technique. Haploids can be formed either by anther and pollen culture through androgenesis or by wide hybridization crosses followed by chromosome elimination from one parent through hybrid embryo culture. The production of wheat haploids through androgenesis and from the intergeneric hybridization of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with maize (Zea mays L.) has been exploited to rapidly achieve homozygosity in wheat breeding programs with the later method showing better results. Culture of rescued embryos from wheat x maize cross resulted in callus formation and development of haploid plant. Anther and pollen culture of wheat parent resulted in development of callus and embryo like structures. The effects of pollination time, the type of hormone treatment of the spike and the method of hormone treatment on rescued embryo were evaluated. The effect of medium and genotype of the wheat parent on rescued embryo culture was observed. Similarly in anther culture the effect of genotype was assessed. Further, SSR marker technique was used for the identification of wheat F1 hybrids along with its parental lines and their haploid rescued through embryo culture of wheat x maize, and it was proved that this technique can be successfully applied to distinguish and identify the hybrids from their parental lines and the haploid of the hybrid.