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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: Entomology × Author: Reddy, Gajjala Charan Kumar × End date: 2016 × Start date: 2016 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Management of thrips (Megalurothrips distalis Karny) on green gram (Vigna radiata L.) through dates of sowing and insecticides.
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2016) Reddy, Gajjala Charan Kumar; Prasad, Rabindra
    In order to study the seasonal abundance and management of mungbean thrips, Megalurothrips distalis Karny through pest monitoring, manipulation in dates of sowing and relative efficacy of synthetic insecticides and plant products, a series of filed experiments were conducted during the summer season 2015-16 at the research farm, T.C.A. Dholi, Muzaffarapur, (Bihar). Results pertaining to different aspects of the present study viz; seasonal abundance, manipulation in dates of sowing and foliar spray of synthetic as well as botanical insecticides applied against thrips on mungbean crop have been abstracted below: The activity of thrips per plant on summer mungbean commenced from 17th standard week of April, 2015 and continued to 24th standard week of June, 2015 with maximum thrips population (5.6 thrips/plant) in the 22nd standard week of June, 2015 when the corresponding maximum, minimum temperature (oC), relative humidity (%) at 07 and 14 hrs and rainfall (mm) were 40.5, 27.5, 87.7, 46.7 and nil respectively. The activity of thrips on flower has been initially observed in 18th standard week of May, 2015 and continued to 20th standard week of May, 2015, respectively with maximum thrips population of 6.6 thrips per flower during 18th standard week of May, 2015 when corresponding maximum, minimum temperature (oC), relative humidity (%) at 07 and 14 hrs and rainfall (mm) were 34.5, 21.3, 89.5, 66.1 and nil respectively. Among all the dates of sowing under test, 1st April proved as the most suitable date of sowing keeping in view to minimize the pest population on plant (2.4 thrips/plant) and flower (1.3 thrips/ flower), plant infestation (11.17%) and obtaining higher grain yield (14.6q/ha). Among the synthetic insecticides and plant products under test, significantly better control of mungbean thrips was achieved imidacloprid 17.8 SL (@0.005%), when applied twice at fortnightly intervals starting from bud formation stage with thrips population of 1.4, 1.8 and 2.4 thrips per plant as against 3.6, 4.0 and 4.4 thrips per plant in untreated control after 1st and 2nd spraying respectively which was equally effective to dimethoate 30 EC thiomethoxam 25 WG, profenophos 50 EC and triazophos 35 EC, applied at their test doses respectively. The phytotonic effect of different treatments under test, two rounds spraying of imidacloprid 17.8 SL (@ (0.005%), gave the best phytotonic effect with the maximum mean plant height (84.43 cm), number of braches per plant (9.2) and average number of pods per plant (48.2), followed by dimethoate, thiomethoxam, profenophos, triazophos, fipronil, YBSE, spinosad, neem oil respectively. The highest grain yield of summer mungbean (14.8qa/ha) was obtained with imidacloprid but did not differ significantly from dimethoate (13.1qa/ha), thiomethoxam (13.0qa/ha), profenophos (12.3qa/ha), triazophos (11.8qa/ha), fipronil (10.5qa/ha), spinosad (9.1qa/ha), applied at their test doses as against 7.2q/ha over untreated control. The investment of foliar application of imidacloprid, dimethoate, thiomethoxam, profenophos, triazophos, fipronil, spinosad, proved profitable in comparison to neem oil and yam bean seed extract at their test doses.