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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: Agronomy × Author: Kumar, Adyant × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2013 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on integrated weed management in lentil (Lens culinaris Medic)
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Kumar, Adyant; Nandan, Ravi
    A field experiment was planned and conducted during the rabi season of 2012–13 at Tirhut College of Agriculture Farm, Dholi, a campus of Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar, Pusa (Samastipur) to investigate the effect of manual, herbicidal and integrated treatments on the weed dynamics, growth, yield and economics of lentil. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with four replications. Treatments constituted viz. quizalofop ethyl @ 50 g ha-1 as POE, imazethapyr @ 37.5 g ha-1 as POE, chlorimuron ethyl @ 4 g ha-1 as PPI, pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ha-1 as PE, pendimethalin + imazethapyr (ready mix) @ 0.75, pendimethalin + imazethapyr (ready mix) @ 1.0 kg ha-1 as PE, pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ha-1 as PE + hand weeding at 40 DAS, hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS and weedy check. The crop variety KLS-218 was sown on November 14, 2012 and harvested on March 26, 2013. Observations on various growth parameters, yield attributes and yield were recorded. Studies on total and species-wise weed count, weed dry matter accumulation, weed growth rate, weed control efficiency and weed index were made and weeds were collected at 90 DAS for estimation of nutrients (N, P and K) depletion pattern by weeds. The grain and straw samples at harvest were collected for estimation of nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and protein content of grain (%) and total uptake of NPK. Finally, the economics of different treatments were worked out. Weed control treatments significantly influenced various growth parameters, yield attributes and yield of lentil. Plant height, number of branches plant-1, dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate, yield attributes and yield recorded had significantly higher values under treatment T8 (hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS) followed by T7 (integrated treatment of pendimethalin @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE + hand weeding at 40 DAS) and T6 (ready mix pendimethalin + imazethapyr @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE). Hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (T8) though recorded maximum grain yield (1826 kg ha-1) but was statistically at par with pendimethalin @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE + hand weeding at 40 DAS (1729 kg ha-1) and was significantly superior over remaining treatments. The prominent weeds found in the experimental plot were Anagallis arvensis, Cannabis sativa, Cyperus rotundus, Cynodon dactylon, Chenopodium album and Parthenium hysterophorus; and these weeds together constituted 63.4 per cent of the total weed population. All the weed control treatments reduced the weed population and dry matter of weeds significantly over weedy check. Hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 DAS (T8) reduced the total weed population and dry matter of weeds significantly over weedy check and was closely followed by pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg ha-1 as PE + hand weeding at 40 DAS (T7) and ready mixture of pendimethalin + imazethapyr @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE (T6). All the herbicides were found to reduce the total weed population and dry matter of weeds significantly over weedy check. The pre-emergence herbicides like pendimethalin + imazethapyr (ready mix) at higher dose 1.00 kg ha-1 (T6) as well as its lower dose 0.75 kg ha-1 (T5) and pendimethalin sole @ 1.00 kg ha-1 (T4) were proved more effective than post-emergence and pre-plant incorporated herbicides. Gross returns ( 88382) and net returns ( 57723) were significantly higher under hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, however, the benefit: cost ratio was highest (2.42) under pendimethalin + imazethapyr (ready mix) @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE. In most of the cases, hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 DAS was found superior to other treatments and was followed by integrated treatment of pendimethalin @ 1.00 kg ha-1 as PE + hand weeding at 40 DAS (T7) and pre-emergence treatment of pendimethalin + imazethapyr (ready mix) @ 1.00 kg ha-1 (T6).