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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: Farm, Machinery and Power × Author: Kumar, Vasu × Start date: 2020 × Thesis Type: M.Tech. ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of battery operated push type cabbage (Brassica oleracea. L.) harvester
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Kumar, Vasu; Patel, S. K.
    Vegetables production is one of the enumerative as well as job creative farming. Cabbage production is one of the most important vegetable crops in abroad as well as India. It has high nutritive values, high productivity and wider adaptability. India is second largest producer of cabbage in the world. Harvesting of cabbage crop is one of the most difficult tasks for cabbage growers because cabbage crop is harvest at proper maturity stage for higher production and more income. Traditionally, the well matured cabbages are harvested manually by sickle which is time consuming and inefficient. More over manual harvesting is done in a bending position which is arduous to the farmer and causes backache. Therefore, a project on development of battery-operated push type cabbage (Brassica oleracea. L.) harvester was undertaken. The biometric parameters of the cabbage relevant to the cabbage harvester were determined. The average row to row and plant to plant spacing was 520 and 505 mm. The average plant height and head height was 281.1 and 106.85 mm. The average values for plant diameter, head diameter, plant weight and head weight were 389.05 mm, 128.05 mm, 1.75 kg and 1.41 kg, respectively. Whereas, the average values for stem diameter, length of leaf stem and length of stem were 27.5 mm, 58.35 mm and 44.7 mm, respectively. Based on above measured parameters, a battery operated push type cabbage harvester was developed which consisted of main frame, battery, DC motor, circular saw blade, belt conveyor, storage unit, handle and supporting wheel. The major components of cabbage harvester were cabbage cutting and conveying unit. Cabbage cutting unit consist of circular saw blade of 20 cm diameter. Cabbage conveying unit consisted of belt conveyor with lugs which convey the cabbages to storage unit. Cabbage cutting and conveying was done mechanically by means of electric motor which is powered by battery. The push force required for transportation and field condition were 44 N and 88 N, respectively. Whereas, the power required for cutting and conveying were 108 W and 84 W, respectively. The performance of the developed cabbage harvester was evaluated in the field at three forward speed. It was observed that the average cutting efficiency, conveying efficiency and head damage were 94.24%, 90.16% and 9.84 % respectively. The effective field capacity and field efficiency of developed cabbage harvester was of 0.0058 ha/h and 82.85%, respectively at forward speed of 0.14 km/h. The field capacity by traditional method i.e. by sickle was 0.0041 ha/h. The labour required per hectare was 172.4 man-h and 241.54 man-h by developed cabbage harvester and traditional method, respectively. The total cost of developed cabbage harvester was Rs. 15072/-. The estimated cost of harvesting per hectare was Rs 7768.79/ha and Rs. 9057.97/ha by developed cabbage harvester and traditional method, respectively. Hence, net saving in harvesting cost was Rs. 1289.18/ha as compared to manual harvesting of cabbage. The cabbages cut per hour was 253 and 180 by cabbage harvester and traditional method, respectively. The developed cabbage harvester was able to cut 73 more cabbage per hour as compared to traditional method.