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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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20211
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Subject: Entomology × Author: GHOSH, SAIKAT × End date: 2021 × Start date: 2021 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    STUDIES ON BROOD SURVIVAL RATE AND FORAGING BEHAVIOUR OF APIS MELLIFERA L. ON MUSTARD
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) GHOSH, SAIKAT; Kumar, Nagendra
    The experiment on “Studies on brood survival rate and foraging behaviour of Apis mellifera L. on mustard” were carried out at University Apiary, RPCAU, Pusa during the rabi 2020-21. Objectives of this experiment were to determine the brood survival rate in the existing A. mellifera population, study the impact of brood survival rate on behavioural, economic and resistant traits of A. mellifera and to study the foraging behaviour of A. mellifera L. on mustard. The obtained results showed that out of 10 colonies used for research 1 colony showed low brood survival rate, 3 colonies witnessed medium brood survival rate and 6 colonies showed high brood survival rate. Excellent, medium and poor brood pattern was found in 7, 2 and 1 colonies respectively in the experiment on scattered brood pattern. The obtained data on bee activity showed that colony no. 9 having lowest number of outgoing bees with average 9 bees / minute. Highest outgoing bees were recorded in colony no. 3 with average 12.11 bees / minute. In case of incoming bees colony no. 5 having the highest value with average 11.78 incoming bee and colony number 9 having the less value with average 8.56 of bees came back to the hive. Total honey content was maximum in colony no. 5 with 394.94 g and lowest in colony no. 9 having only 249.86 g of honey. For pollen content the same trend was followed as colony no. 5 having maximum area of pollen of 36.13 cm2 and lowest in colony no. 9 with total area of 25.16 cm2 pollen. The obtained results of hygienic behaviour showed that colony no. 3 having 100 per cent efficiency while colony no. 9 having lowest efficiency of 76%. The duration of foraging of Apis mellifera was experimented out and it was noticed that the mean time of initiation time of foraging was at 7:28 am and mean cessation time of foraging time was 16.45 pm. The mean duration of foraging was 9.17 hours for all 10 colonies. It was noticed that duration of foraging kept increasing as the blooming period progressed. The foraging rate of A. mellifera was also calculated during different day hours and the studies shows that mean rate of foraging was highest during 15:00 hours of the day which was 19 flowers/ min while the lowest foraging rate was 0.24 flowers/ min during 07:00 hours. Foraging speed of A. mellifera was maximum during 09:00 hours of the day which was 2.94 sec/ flower and on the other side the lowest value was 1.13 sec/ flower obtained during 07:00 hours of the day. Population dynamics of A. mellifera on mustard bloom was recorded during the whole flowering period and it was correlated with average minimum temperature, average maximum temperature, average temperature, average relative humidity (RH) at morning hours, average RH at evening hour, average RH and with total rainfall, the obtained results showed that average maximum temperature(ºC) and average temperature(ºC) showed positive and strong correlation with significant effect while average minimum temperature(ºC) showed positive correlation with significant effect on bee population( r = 0.93**, 0.94** and 0.76*) On the other side average morning relative humidity(%) and average relative humidity(%) showed negative correlation with significant effect while average evening humidity showed negative but nonsignificant effect on bee population on mustard bloom( r= -0.70*, . -0.64* and -0.18). There was no rainfall was recorded during the whole experiment so no correlation was found between total rainfall (mm) and bee population. However all the weather parameters influenced 86 % bee population (R2 = 0.86).