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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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2011 - 20134
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Subject: Agricultural Economics × End date: 2013 × Start date: 2010 ×
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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Performance of WSHGS in Bihar with respect to the Saharsa district.
    (RAU, Pusa (Samastipur), 2013) Singh, Kumudini; Mishra, R. R.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Income and employment pattern in the rural areas of Hajipur (Vaishali district): a micro approach.
    (RAU, Pusa (Samastipur), 2013) Kumar, Jay Prakash; Mishra, R. R.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Economics of production and marketing of mushroom in Pusa block of Samastipur district
    (RAU, Pusa (Samastipur), 2013) Arjun; Sinha, D. K.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Micro level study of Economics of Production and Marketing of principal Vegetable crops in North Bihar.
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, 2011) Kumar, sandeep; Yadav, R. N.;
    Vegetable is known as the most essential item in our daily meal as it contains all the necessary nutrients of balanced diet. A good quality of vegetables also has medicinal as well as aesthetic value. Besides this, in agricultural business, it is also considered as remunerative crops which provide comparatively better return to farmers within short period. The present study is an attempt to examine the economics and marketing of principal vegetables in North Bihar. In present study detail study has been made to assess the importance of vegetables in cropping pattern, economics of its production, production efficiency of different factors, seasonal variation in arrivals and prices of vegetables and producer’s share in consumers’ rupee in vegetable marketing. For the study, multistage stratified random sampling technique was used for selection of the sample. North Bihar having large part of operational holdings under vegetable crops was selected purposively as study area and from North Bihar, two districts Vaishali and Samastipur we also selected in the same pattern. Further, from each district one block that is, Mahua from Vaishali and Dalsingsarai from Samastipur were selected randomly and from each block three villages which make total 6 villages were also selected randomly. Finally, from these six villages, 20 sample farmers from each village consisting all the three size groups that is marginal, small and medium were selected randomly for the study. Primary data was collected by survey method with the help of schedule and questionnaires. Cobb-Douglas production function technique was used to examine the efficiency of the factors of production. Similarly exponential trend equation and Shepherd’s formulae were also used to work out compound growth rate and marketing efficiency of vegetables. Findings of the study reveal that vegetables alone constituted, on an average 16 percent of the operational holding which was nearly 18 percent under marginal, 15 percent in small and 6 percent in medium farm which indicates inverse relationship between farm size groups and area under vegetables. Economics of major vegetable crops indicates that total cost per hectare of cultivation of cauliflower accounted to be Rs.36019.00 out of that operational cost was nearly Rs. 25669.00 and 10350.00 showing 71 percent and 29 percent of the total cost respectively. Under different size groups of farms more or less similar percentage of operational as well as overhead charges of total cost was seen. Input-output ratio over cost C under cauliflower cultivation was found more than one on all farms as well as on different size groups showing economic rationality of the cauliflower cultivation in the study area. It is worth mentioning that along with cauliflower all the other vegetables like cabbage, brinjal, tomato, onion and vegetables of cucurbitaece family etc recorded input-output ratio over cost C more than one showing economic viability of vegetable cultivation in the study area. Net return obtained over cost C in case of all vegetables were also accounted to be quite high which prompted farmers of the study area to go for vegetable cultivation and earning better return per hectare. While analyzing the production efficiency of different factors of vegetable production, it was observed that in case of cauliflower regression coefficients of the variables like area of the crop, bullock labour, machine labour and seed were found to be positive and significant at one percent level of probability which indicates that these variables played an important role in cauliflower cultivation. In other vegetable crops also most of the important factors were found positive and significant at one percent level of probability indicating their major role in cultivation of concerned vegetables. In the study, attempt has also been made to estimate the variation in arrivals and prices of vegetables in the market. The study reveals that generally arrivals of the vegetables were found comparatively larger during the harvest period as compared to the months when concerned vegetables were not harvested. The prices of vegetables vary inversely that is when arrival was high; prices were low and vice-versa. In marketing of vegetables, in the area four marketing channels were identified that is (i). Channel I: Producer → Consumer (ii). Channel II: Producer →Retailer → Consumer (iii). Channel III: Producer → Commission Agent → Retailer → Consumer (iv). Channel IV: Producer → Commission Agent →wholesaler→ Consumer. Further, it was observed that there was inverse relationship between the arrivals of various vegetables in the market and their prices, producer’s share in consumers’ rupee and marketing efficiency decreased with increasing length of marketing channels. On the other hand total marketing cost increased with increasing length of marketing channels.