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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, Nitish × End date: 2015 × Start date: 2015 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Optimising nutrient management strategy and assessing the contribution of different nutrients to yield of hybrid rice in calcareous soil
    (Rajendra Agriculrural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2015) Kumar, Nitish; Chaudhary, S. K.
    A field experiment on “Optimising nutrient management strategy and assessing the contribution of different nutrients to yield of hybrid rice in calcareous soil” was carried out during kharif - 2014 at Research Farm, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar (India) to evaluate the effect of different nutrients on yield and economics of hybrid rice (“Arize 6444”) and inbred rice (“Rajshree”). The soil was calcareous (pH 8.28) in nature with low organic carbon (0.33%), available nitrogen (212 kg N ha-1), potassium (103.48 kg K2O ha-1) and zinc (0.72 mg Zn kg-1); medium phosphorus (38.93 kg P2O5 ha-1) and high sulphur (52.80 mg S kg-1) status. The factors under study comprised of 10 treatments viz.T1-ample dose of N+ P+ K+ S+ Zn, T2-P+K+S+Zn (-N), T3-N+K+S+Zn (-P), T4-N+P+S+Zn (-K), T5-N+P+K+Zn (-S), T6-N+P+K+S (-Zn), T7-Inbred variety under unfertilized check, T8- Inbred variety under ample fertilizer (N+ P+ K+ S+ Zn), T9-Control (hybrid rice without any fertilizer), T10- nutrient dose based on Nutrient Expert in inbred rice. The experiment was conducted in RBD with three replications. The nutrient dose for hybrid rice (at yield target of 7 t ha-1) was 175 kg N ha-1, 70 kg P2O5 ha-1 and 80 kg K2O ha-1 and for inbred rice (at yield target of 5 t ha-1), 125 kg N ha-1, 50 kg P2O5 ha-1 and 60 kg K2O ha-1. In treatment T10 nutrient dose was applied according to Nutrient Expert (N-P2O5-K2O:109-28-54 kg ha-1). The common dose of S (30 kg ha-1) and Zn (3 kg ha-1) was applied in all the treatments. Treatment T1 for hybrid rice was superior over all the other treatments in grain yield, harvest index, nutrient uptake, net return and benefit: cost ratio. Among different treatments with inbred rice, treatment T8 was at par with T10 and significantly superior over T7 for grain and straw yield. Most detrimental effect of omission of nutrient was observed in treatment T2 having 48.6 and 37.6 % less grain and straw yield respectively over T1. Maximum nutrient uptake by rice was recorded under treatment T1, while omission of nutrients decreased the nutrient uptake and maximum decrease was recorded for N and it was followed by K, P, S and Zn. Build-up in available nutrient was recorded maximum under treatment T1, while there was a decrease in availability of nutrients in accordance to the omitted nutrient. Maximum net return (₹ 48,837 ha-1) and benefit: cost ratio (1.22) was in treatment T1 and it was at par with treatments T5 and T6 having omission of sulphur and zinc respectively.