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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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20191
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Subject: Agronomy × End date: 2020 × Start date: 2019 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of crop establishment methods, nutrient and weed management on hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.)
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Singh, Abhinandan; Pandey, I.B.
    A field experiment was carried out during two consecutive kharif seasons of 2017 and 2018 at research farm of Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi a campus of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar to study the effect of crop establishment methods and nutrient levels on hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) under different weed management practices. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design and replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of three crop establishment methods viz. puddled transplanting, unpuddled transplanting and dry direct seeded rice and three nutrient levels viz. 75% RDF (recommended dose of fertilizer), 100% RDF (120:60:40 kg NPK/ha) and 125% RDF were kept in main plot and four weed management practices viz. weedy check, hand weeding twice (20 and 40 DAS/T), bispyribac-sodium 20 g/ha + pyrozosulfuron 20 g/ha at 20 DAS/T, and brown manuring in sub plot. All the treatments received recommended dose of phosphorus and potassium as basal dressing. Nitrogen was applied in three splits i.e. 1/2nd as basal, 1/3rd at the active tillering stage and rest 1/3rd at panicle initiation stage. The crop was sown in rows 20 cm apart using the seed rate of 15 kg/ha for transplanted rice and 25 kg/ha for dry direct seeded rice. The soil of the experimentation plot was sandy loam in texture and low in OC, available Nitrogen, Potassium and medium Phosphorus. The data on various growth characters, yield attributes, nutrient uptake weed dynamics, weed control efficiency and economics were collected and analyzed. Puddled transplanting significantly enhanced plant height, dry matter production, crop growth rate, leaf area index, root volume and root dry weight were recorded when crop was sown with puddled transplanting than unpuddled transpalnting and dry direct seeded rice. However, maximum root length was recorded in dry direct seeded rice which was significantly higher over unpuddled and puddled transplanting. Similarly, puddled transplanting also produced maximum number of tillers/m2, number of panicles/m2, panicle length, number of grain/panicle, number of filled grain/panicle and test weight which was significantly higher over unpuddled transplanting and dry direct seeded rice. The result indicated that puddled transplanting produced significantly higher grain yield (56.71 and 58.47 q/ha), straw yield (80.10 and 81.24 q/ha), harvest index (41.43 and 41.80) and grain: straw ratio (0.708 and 0.719) than unpuddled transplanting and dry direct seeded rice.