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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: KUMAR, ANIL × End date: 2021 × Start date: 2021 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    TRAINING NEEDS OF SORGHUM PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY: A STUDY OF GROWERS IN KALABURAGI DISTRICT
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) KUMAR, ANIL; Paswan, Arun Kumar
    The study entitled “Training Needs of Sorghum Production Technology: A Study of Growers in Kalaburagi District”. The study was carried out with specific objectives to measure the training needs of sorghum farmers along with the factors associated with training need among the selected farmers. An attempt was also made to find out the constraints in attaining training need. The present study was carried out in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka. There are ten blocks in Kalaburagi district. Out of twelve blocks, two blocks, namely Sedam and Jewargi, were selected purposively. Further, two villages from each block were chosen following the random sampling technique. Sorghum farmers has been randomly selected from each of the four selected villages were selected constituting a sample of total 80 respondents for the study purposes. The interview technique was used for collection of data with the help of structured interview schedule. The collected data were analyzed with the help of frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, correlation and regression analysis. The study revealed that, majority of respondents (43.75 percent) were belonged to the middle age group, having middle school level of education (35.00 percent), small size of family (46.25 percent), small size of land holding (45.00),medium level of experience in farming (68.75 percent), medium level of annual income (75.00), medium level of innovation proneness (48.75), medium level of economic motivation (61.25) The study further revealed that most of respondents were not member of no organization(46.25) medium level of extension contact (60.00 percent), medium cropping intensity (41.25 percent) and most of the respondents (52.50 percent) had medium level of mass irrigation potential. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents expressed medium training need and had medium knowledge about recommended package of practices of sorghum cultivation. The most of farmers expressed training need in the areas were doses of pesticide and fungicide, control measures of pest and diseases, recommended doses of fertilizers, marketing, seed treatment, doses of weedicide and recommended varieties among the sub areas of sorghum production technology. The findings indicated that, variables education (0.374) and contact with extension agency (0.291) were shows positive correlation, at 1% level of significance and age (0.279), innovation proneness (0.251), farming experience (0.238), economic motivation (0.269), and knowledge level (0.242) was also showing positive correlation, at 1% level of significance with the ‘training need’ of the farmers. The regression analysis showed that, size of land holding, economic motivation, contact with extension agency and cropping intensity were the most important factors contributing, significantly, towards the ‘training need’ of farmers. The R2 value (0.416) indicated that the set of variables explain 41.64 per cent of the total variability towards dependent variable i.e., training need. Regarding opinion of training programme, findings revealed that in case of venue for training, majority of the respondents were preferred ‘farmer’s field’ as the best place for organizing training programme. The most of the respondents were preferred two days duration training programme is the best. With regards to size of training, “up to 25 farmers” were best number for organizing effective training. Majority of the respondents were opined in “demonstration” as the best method for conducting training. In case of time of training, majority of the respondents suggested to have training “before/onset of sorghum cultivation”. Suggestions for future work include similar studies with large sample size, more independent and dependent variables need to be carried out at other places for verification of the findings.