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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 Economics × Author: Bhushan, Vidya × End date: 2014 × Start date: 2014 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Migration of Labour in North Bihar - Socio-economic factors and Impact.
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Bhushan, Vidya; Sinha, D. K.
    Migration from rural to urban areas has increased in recent years, especially from North-Bihar. This indicates that most of the developed regions of India have been utilising labour force of backward areas. An effort has been made to examine the labour migration with details of socio-economic factors and its impact. The study was based on primary data, carried out in three villages namely, Rasiari, Kathal, Bhagras of Kiratpur block of Darbhanga district. A sample of 60 respondents,constituting 30 migrants and 30 non-migrants. The analysis of socio-economic variables revealed that the most of migrants belonged to 30-40 years age group (40%), scheduled caste being 53.3%, medium size family accounting for 63.33% of migrants, 40% of sample migrants acquiring matric level education and 76.6% them owned less than 0.5 acre farm size. It was found that companies’ (private business organisation) labour work was considered as the main occupation for almost 50% of migrants, while non-migrants (83.4%) had farming as their main occupation. Remittances contribution was higher than 90% of total annual income of migrant households. Per household Overall annual income of migrant household was enumerated as Rs.103091.59, comparatively high than that of nonmigrant households (Rs.77492.0). Migrant household’s annual expense (Rs.56826.2) per household was comparatively low than that of non-migrant household (Rs.56976.3), It may probably be due to more expenses on agriculture and allied by non-migrant household, though infrastructure was same for both households. Larger proportion of migrants (60%) rushed to north-India viz. Haryana & Punjab, Delhi, and Rajasthan. Both types of migration occurs viz. Seasonal (short term) and long term. Inter-state male migration has been on rise over the years. The analysis of factors of migration showed that income and education exerted positive impact i.e one unit increase in income and education separately, increased the probability of migration by 99.9% and 23.1%, respectively. The negative impact was observed on migration of labour in the study area on account of several factors such as age, cultivable land, loan avail, number of dependent under study. Furthermore, it is revealed in one unit increase in age, reduced the probability of migration by 30.6%, whereas the probability of migration stepped up to 99.1% with one unit decrease in cultivable land. Impact of migration is supposed to have some influence on economic condition of migrant households. It was pointed out that that remittances received from the migrants led to higher standard of living of migrant family. It has been reported in the study that received remittances have increased the consumption of high valued food. It has encouraged the migrant family towards better education of their children. Housing conditions as well as non-farm assets of migrant households were found to improved than that of corresponding non-migrant households. Migration had also impacted positively on health care.