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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: Extension Education × Author: Gogoi, Bidyut Pritom × End date: 2021 × Start date: 2021 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A STUDY OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR AGRICULTURE AMONG DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS IN DHEMAJI DISTRICT OF ASSAM
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) Gogoi, Bidyut Pritom; ANSARI, M.N.
    Developing countries like India are having latest method of communication, but their effective utilization by people who are less exposed is doubtful. In those rural areas indigenous means of communication still play a vital role in social functioning, maintenance and social change.Many research have been performed on modern media in the past, but very little has been done to study indigenous media in depth. Keeping aforesaid facts in mind, the present study was planned with the following objectives; 1. To identify different traditional folk media in selected ethnic groups. 2. To document various indigenous media related to agriculture in the local community. 3. To analyze the extent of use, popularity and suitability of indigenous media for agriculture. 4. To assess the effectiveness of different traditional folk media. 5. To suggest strategies for use of Indigenous media for agriculture development. In this type of study, the researcher must be familiar with the local language, history, values, and attitudes. Therefore, Dhemaji district of Assam was purposively selected, as the researcher was familiar with the area, local language, history, values, and attitudes. Out of the 5 blocks two blocks viz. “Machkhowa” and “Bordoloni” block was selected based on cultural diversities. The two selected blocks comprises 51 and 201 in habitat villages respectively and only two villages were chosen from each of the two blocks resulting in 4 villages total. The selected villages are viz. “Gohain Bilotia”, “Begenegora”, “Borbam Deori ½” and “Borbam Gaon”. A list of farmers was compiled from each village based on farming and usage of folk media. . Every list had 25 respondents including both male and female, resulting in a total sample size of 100 for the study. Since, some traditional folk media are done solely by women so both male and female respondents were chosen for the study. The research was descriptive in nature, so the information was collected using a standardized interview schedule and a camera to capture and evaluate content, style, and form in relation to the study's goals. The quantitative data was analysed by using statistical technique like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient. The findings of the study reveals that majority of the respondents were middle age group (36-55), ST categories, engaged in farming, education up to secondary level, small sized land holding, having medium annual income, mixed type house and farming as the sources of income. It was found that the different traditional folk media prevalent among the selected ethnic groups were Folk songs (Bihu, Oi:nitom), Folk dances (Log, Gumrag), Festivals (Bihu, Ali-Aye-Ligang), Folk theatres like Bhaona and different proverbs, idioms and riddles related to agriculture. It was found that majority of the respondents used folk songs, folk dances, proverbs, festivals, fair regularly and it was found popular and effective for agricultural communication. In correlation analysis, it was found that age, education and mass media exposure was found to be positively correlated with use and effectiveness of traditional folk media and highly significant at 5% and 1%. The findings of the present study hold a great potential in the field of communication research as well as for planning and dissemination of need based information among rural families for agricultural development.