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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: Naik, Banavath Mahesh × Start date: 2019 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Impact of long term tillage and nutrient management practices on maize productivity and soil health
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Naik, Banavath Mahesh; Kumar, Mritunjay
    A study on ongoing experiment “Impact of long-term tillage and nutrient management practices on maize productivity and soil health”, was made during kharif season 2018. The study site is located at research farm of Trihut College of Agriculture, Dholi (plot no 7). The design was spilt-plot with three tillage practices viz., zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT) and permanent bed (PB) as main plot and three nutrient management practices viz., 100% RDF, SSNM and RDN 60% + GSGN (Green seeker guided N application) as subplot. The results indicated plant height of maize crop was significantly influenced by both tillage and nutrient management practices. Higher plant height was observed in PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatments as compared to other treatments. Similarly, yield attributes viz., no of cobs/ plant, length of the cob, no of grains/cob and test weight were significantly superior in PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatments. However, plant population and ear height were non-significant among the treatments but superior values were recorded with PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatments as compared to other treatments. Whereas, yield attributes viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and girth of cob were also non-significant among the treatments but days to 50% flowering and days to maturity was early in ZT and SSNM treatments. The ZT and PB increased yield to a tune of 14.1 and 22.7% in cob, 12.2 and 22.7% in grain, 14.1 and 23.2% in stover and 19.3 and 22.6% in stone yields of maize as compared to CT, respectively. However, harvest index showed non-significant difference among the tillage practices. Across the nutrient management practices, SSNM and RDN 60% + GSGN increased yield to a tune of 6.7 and 13.9% in cob, 8 and 17.5% in grain, 8.7 and 15.2% in stover and 3.6 and 5% in stone yields of maize over 100% RDF respectively. The maximum NPK content and uptake was found in PB and RDN 60% + GSGN. Similarly, the higher protein content was also observed in PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatment as compared to remaining treatments. PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatments showed maximum gross returns (99232 & 97541 ₹/ha), net returns (66763 & 65278 ₹/ha) and B: C ratio (1.73 & 1.66) respectively. The soil physical, chemical and biological properties were significantly influenced by tillage and nutrient management practices. Bulk density was found to be significant among the tillage practices, lower values were found with PB and ZT. Across the nutrient management practices, lower bulk density at crop harvest was found with 100% RDF. Water holding capacity and water stable aggregates at final soil status were significantly superior with PB (38.1 & 61.3 %) and RDN 60% + GSGN (35.5 & 56.4 %) as compared to other treatments. Lower soil penetration resistance was noticed in PB and ZT practices (168.47, 271.71, 332.84 and 190.42, 282.35, 340.51 psi) respectively. Whereas, nutrient management practices showed no significant difference among the treatments but lower values of soil penetration resistance were observed with 100% RDF at 0-15 cm depth (198.76 and 305.83 psi). ZT and SSNM (0.59% & 0.55%) showed maximum soil organic carbon at final soil status. The available N, P2O5, K2O, Fe and Zn were superior in PB (272.69 kg/ha, 39.10 kg/ha, 135.5 kg/ha, 8.80 ppm and 0.98 ppm) as compared to ZT and CT, respectively. Although, nutrient management practices showed no significant difference among the treatments but higher values of available N, P2O5, K2O and Zn were observed in 100% RDF (270.08, 37.51, 131.01 kg/ha and 0.91 ppm) as compared to other treatments. PB and 100% RDF (32.20 cfu × 10-4, 47.72 cfu × 10-5, 440.14 μg g-1 and 30.78 cfu × 10-4, 46.95 cfu × 10-5, 424.47 μg g-1) showed higher total fungi, actinomycetes count and soil biomass carbon as compared to other treatments. The higher bacterial count and active carbon was observed in PB and RDN 60% + GSGN treatments (42.80 cfu × 10-6, 155.52 mg/ kg of soil and 40.23 cfu × 10-6, 129.41 mg/ kg of soil).