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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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20201
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Subject: Agricultural Engineering × Author: Kumari, Babita × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of process technology for preparation of maize-soybean-pomegranate Pomace extrudates
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Kumari, Babita; Sharma, P.D.
    Ready-to-eat expanded snacks are part of the human diet, which are produced by extrusion cooking process. Maize is a major raw material for the production of extruded snack, which gives good expansion characteristic to the extrudates. In this study, Soybean and pomegranate pomace powder were added to maize in different proportions to improve the nutritional quality of the prepared extrudates. Extrusion cooking was carried out using a Twin Screw Extruder. Extrusion cooking experiments were conducted employing CCRD for four independent variables with five level each (Feed proportion -75:23:2, 75:21:4, 75:19:6, 75:17:8, 75:15:10; Feed rate - 10,11,12,13,14 kg/h; Screw speed - 150, 175, 200, 225, 250 rpm; Barrel temperature - 95, 105, 115, 125, 135oC). A total of 30 combinations of these independent variables were formed to see the effect on different dependent variables like Expansion ratio, Bulk density, Water activity, Water absorption index, Colour score, and Overall acceptability. Optimization was carried out to select the best combination for maximizing Expansion ratio, Water absorption index, Colour score, and Overall acceptability and minimizing Water activity and Bulk density. During experiments, the best combination was generated on the basis of optimization by response surface methodology. Second order multiple regression equations were developed for all the dependent variables which were optimized using response surface methodology. The composite flour comprising of maize, soybean and pomegranate pomace powder in the ratio of 75:21:04 produced the most acceptable extrudates in terms of optimum values of Expansion ratio - 3.7, Water absorption index – 5.86, Color score – 7.78, Overall acceptability – 7.57, Bulk density -57.5 kg/m3, Water activity – 0.31. The experimental data for response were in close agreement with the optimized solution obtained from RSM as Feed proportion – 75:21:4, Feed rate -11 kg/h, Screw speed - 225 rpm, Barrel Temperature -125ºC. The prepared optimized extrudates also had well balanced acceptable range of the nutrition (total carbohydrate-78.50%, Protein- 10.40%, fat- 4.65%, fibre- 1.80%, moisture – 3.20% and ash- 1.50%).