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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: H, ANJINAPPA × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2022 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DROUGHT ON RICE CULTIVATION IN KOPPAL DISTRICT OF KARNATAKA
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) H, ANJINAPPA; ROY, ANIRUDDHA
    The current study aims at the economic impact of drought on rice cultivation, the livelihood of the rice growers, and adaptation and mitigation measures adopted by the rice growing farmers to drought in the Koppal district of Karnataka. The primary data were collected from the 120 rice growers from six randomly selected villages and secondary data were collected from India-stat, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Directorate of Economic and Statistics (Bengaluru), Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) and other websites. The occurrence of drought and other extreme events has been increasing day by day. Minimum and maximum temperature increasing over the years and rainfall also decreasing over the years in the district. Tabular analysis was used to analyse the socio-economic profile of the rice growers. To estimate the impact of drought on rice yield, regression analysis was performed. The average yield of the rice has declined by 17.09 percent during drought in comparison to the normal season. In July and September minimum temperatures and the August maximum temperature has a positive and significant impact on the yield of the rice. Whereas, in July maximum temperature has a negative impact on the yield of the rice. Due to drought, the dependency of drinking water on borewell and commercial water supply units increased by 26.00 percent and 18.18 per cent respectively as compared to a normal year. In overall, 5 per cent of the farmers migrated to cities during the time of drought period. During the drought period amount of food consumption was reduced by 8.23 per cent as compared to the normal period and overall expenditure was also reduced by 7.38 per cent compared to the normal period. Maximum decline was observed in the case of small farmers compared to medium and large farmers. The cost of cultivation of rice during the drought period was high compared to the normal period. The cost of cultivation during the normal period was ₹34878.75 per acre and during the drought period it was found to be ₹36370.75 per acre. In overall, gross return in normal year was ₹45087.52 per acre and in the case of drought period ₹40012.23 per acre. Fodder production was reduced by 25.32 per cent due to drought in the study area. Maximum reduction was seen in case of medium farmers (28.01%) followed by small (26.96%) and large (23.36%). In overall level, income of the respondents reduced by 10.13 per cent during the drought period compared to normal period. The major adaptation and mitigation measures against drought adopted by the farmers in the study area were direct seeded rice followed by crop diversification, construction of farm pond and reduction in chemical usage in DSR.