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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: Nandan, Neha × Start date: 2017 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of weed management and nitrogen on weed dynamics and yield of rice under aerobic condition.
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2017) Nandan, Neha; Roy, D. K.
    A field experiment was undertaken during kharif of the year 2016 at the Research Farm of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar to study the “Effect of weed management and nitrogen on weed dynamics and yield of rice under aerobic condition”. The experiment was conducted in split plot design having three levels of nitrogen in main plots (N1-120 kg N/ha, N2-140 kg N/ha and N3-160 kg N/ha,) and six weed management practices (W1- Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (20 DAS), W2-Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha (20 DAS), W3-Pyrazosulfuron @ 25g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25g/ha (20 DAS), W4-Pendimethalin @ 1000g/ha (PE)+ W3 (20 DAS), W5-Weed free (2 Hand weeding at 20 & 40 DAS) and W6-Weedy check ) in sub plots, replicated thrice with Abhishek as the test variety. Higher level of nitrogen i.e. 160 kg/ha exhibited better expression in respect of growth and yield attributes than the other two levels and it was somehow also comparable to 140 kg N/ha in terms of yield attributes specially. The better performance in terms of growth and yield attributes were also further reflected correspondingly in grain and straw yields. The harvest index however did not show significant variation due to nitrogen treatments. All the weed management practices either herbicidal or manual weeding had profound effect on growth and yield attributes as well as the ultimate yield as reflected in their superiority over the weedy check. Amongst the three post-emergence applications of herbicides either alone or in combinations, combination of two herbicides i.e. Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha (W3) was superior to their alone applications (W1& W2), which in turn performed better than these two. However, when these two post-emergence herbicidal combination were supplemented with pre-emergence application of Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha recorded top spot in almost all the growth and yield characters and also in the yields of grain and straw except 2 hand weeding (W5). However, the pre and post-emergence herbicidal combinations (W4) and the treatment of two hand weeding did not differ significantly in these respects. The results pertaining to weed population, weed dry weight and nutrient uptake by crop separately were a close reflection of growth and yield pattern whereas nitrogen level of 160 kg/ha scored over the other two nitrogen doses in main plots and the pre and post-emergence applications of Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha established its superiority over the rest of the herbicidal treatments except in weed free condition wherein all these characters were superior in sub plots. Weed control efficiency of 2 hand weeding (70.81%) was superior to Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (66.13%), Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (59.83%), Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha (51.48%) and Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (40.40%). N, P and K content in grain and straw also followed the similar trend as above in all the treatments except the weedy check in which it was significantly lower. The most glaring part of the results rested in its economic studies, wherein treatment with 160 kg N/ha fetched higher gross return, net return and finally the B: C ratio than other two while all the herbicidal treatments either post emergence applications alone or combination of pre and post-emergence applications fetched higher net return and scored better B: C ratio than the two hand weeding. Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (₹34,338/ha) cornered the highest net return closely followed by Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (₹34,059/ha) and the later was also statistically close to Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha alone (₹32,446/ha). The B: C ratio further widened the gap between manual weeding and herbicidal applications. The highest B: C ratio of 1.28 was recorded from Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha followed in descending order by Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha alone (1.26) and Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha (1.21). Two hand weeding had a B:C ratio of only 0.59 which was next only to the weedy check (0.58). Thus it may be summed up that the nitrogen level of 160 kg/ha is superior to 140 kg N/ha and 120 kg N/ha. Secondly, high cost involved in manual weeding makes herbicidal treatments more viable proposition. Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha, Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha alone and Pendimethalin @ 1000 g/ha + Bispyribac sodium @ 25 g/ha + Pyrazosulfuron @ 25 g/ha are three most effective herbicidal combination treatments in direct seeded rice under aerobic condition.