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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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20201
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Subject: Extension Education × Author: Kumari, Sonali × End date: 2020 × Start date: 2020 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Varietal preference and farmers’ perception towards Rice-Wheat cropping system: a study in Rohtas district of Bihar
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Kumari, Sonali; Singh, Ashok Kumar
    The study entitled “Varietal Preference and Farmers’ Perception towards Rice-Wheat Cropping System: A Study in Rohtas District of Bihar” was carried out with the specific objectives to assess the socio-economic and demographical characteristics, the varietal preference towards rice and wheat and farmers’ perception towards rice-wheat cropping system. An attempt was also made to find out the constraints in adoption of improved varieties of rice and wheat. There are 38 districts in Bihar. Out of 38 districts, Rohtas was selected purposively. Further, two blocks namely Nokha and Bikramganj were selected randomly from the district. Again, two villages from each block were chosen following the random sampling technique.10 marginal, 10 small, 10 medium and 10 large farmers randomly selected from each of the four selected villages constituting a sample of total 160 respondents for the study purposes. Interview technique was used for the collection of data with the help of a structured interview schedule. The collected data were analyzed with the help of frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, multinomial logit model and regression analysis. The study revealed that majority of respondents were old aged (59.37%), pursued higher secondary education (37.50%), followed by graduate and above (29.37%), having a joint family (63.75%), farm size constituted (25%) from each category i.e. marginal, small, medium and large farm size, having a medium area under rice and wheat (48.75%) and also having medium (62.50%) experience in farming, having farming alone (51.25%) as their main occupation and belonged to medium annual income (51.87%).In case of social participation majority was a member of one organization i.e. PACS while in social participation having high (42.50%) followed by medium (40%) and having medium (55%) level of economic motivation. In the study area during the field visit, it was found that type of land of the selected villages was found in midland only there was no demarcation of upland and lowland. The topography of each selected block is similar i.e. height, the direction of slope, steepness of the slope. The study shows that regarding variety preference in rice Nata Mahsuri (41.25%) was the most preferred variety, followed by Samba Mahsuri (23.75%), and followed by Rajendra Sweta (18.12%) less preferred variety and lastly Katarni (16.88%) respectively. In case of wheat variety preference HD-2967(32.50%) most preferred variety followed by Malwi (30.63%), followed by Sonalika (21.87%) and lastly HI-1563 (15%) as least preferred variety respectively. The finding indicated that in the case of rice variety preference it can be concluded that sowing time is negatively significant which indicated that farmers were preferred early sowing variety. It also showed that farmers were preferring variety having high yield and they considered it as an important criterion in the selection of variety. At the same time, it also revealed that that farmer having a large area under rice they were not more conscious about the improved variety of rice for cultivation and farmers having less area under rice they mainly focus on improving the variety of rice so that they can get maximum yield and profit. In case of wheat, it was found that time of sowing is negatively significant which shows that farmers were preferred sowing of wheat on time rather than late sowing and yield is positively significant revealed that farmers were preferred variety having high yield and they considered it as an important criterion in the selection of variety. The result revealed that regarding perception most of the respondents i.e. near to half about 49.37% had favourable level of perception followed by the rest with least favourable level of perception 31.87% and 18.75% having most favourable level of perception towards rice-wheat cropping system. The finding indicated that in case of perception farm size is positively significant whereas; occupation is negatively significant it can be comprehend as if a farmer is involved in agriculture alone then he will be more concentrated towards it and annual income is positively significant with regard to annual income, it can be inferred that farmers having more money can invest more. The main constraints faced by respondents in the adoption of improving varieties is doubt regarding variety whether it would suit their agro-climatic condition or not were important. This constraint is followed by non-availability of agricultural literature related to a variety The study suggests that there is a need to provide information about new technology provided in time, agriculture literature in a local language, training/demonstration should be organized properly and improved seeds should be provided in time and sufficient quantity.