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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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2014 - 20152
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Subject: Food and Nutrition × End date: 2015 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A comparative study of nutritional status of adolescent school students at Pusa block in Samastipur district.
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2015) Sandhvi, Swiny; Sinha, Mukul
    Adolescents are the building resources and the future citizen of the nation. A healthy educated adolescent of today will be active and intelligent citizen of tomorrow. In India, adolescent comprises a population of 236.5 million which is 19.6 percent of total population while in Bihar, it comprises 22.5 percent of total population of the state (Census 2011). Adolescence is a period of rapid growth, up to 45% of skeletal growth and 15 to 25% of adult height is achieved during adolescence. It is a period when a diet of good quality is essential in establishing healthy dietary intake behaviours to reduce adult morbidity and mortality. For this study, two government and two private schools were selected for the present study. Sixty students from each schools of class VIIIth and IXth were selected purposively. Thus total 120 adolescent were selected for the present investigation. General information and socio-economic status of the subjects were obtained through a detailed interview scheduled. Nutritional status of subjects were evaluated by anthropometric measurement, haemoglobin level, clinical examination and dietary intake. Measurement of height, weight, haemoglobin level and dietary pattern were done. Also the life style pattern and energy expenditure in different activities were examined. Dietary intake of all the subjects were calculated through 24-hours recall method. Based on general information out of total subjects, majority of the adolescent were of 14 years and 15 years age group and were non-vegetarian. The socio-economic status of private school adolescent were found better than that of the government school adolescent. The anthropometric measurements of the subjects showed that the physical growth of Private school adolescent were better than the Government school adolescent. The hemoglobin level of Private school subjects were found better than the government school subjects. Also the nutrient intake of Private school adolescent were better than the Government school adolescent. The Private school subjects were more participating in sports while the Government school subjects were more participating in domestic work. The consumption of snacks items and non-veg, was more for Private school adolescent. The Private school adolescent were also watching T.V and searching networking sites for longer time in comparison to the Government school adolescent. The energy expenditure in different physical activities of Government school adolescents were found more than that of the Private school adolescents. The observation of deficiency sign were found more in case of government school adolescent. A positive and significant correlationship were found between income of the family with height, weight and BMI of Government School adolescent. Energy and height of Government school adolescent and weight and BMI of Private school adolescent. With protein, iron and calcium intake the weight and BMI of Private School adolescent was significant while with Government school adolescent protein was significant with weight, fat with BMI and calcium with weight and BMI. The protein and iron intake was found significant with haemoglobin level of Government school adolescent. The income of family was found significant with protein, fat and calcium in Government school subjects while in Private school subjects it was significant with protein intake. The difference between Government and Private school adolescent household activities were found significant. T-test was also computed to found the statistical difference between Government and Private school subjects nutrient intake. The energy, protein, iron and calcium intake differences between Government and Private school subjects were found statistically non-significant while the fat intake was found statistically significant and positive. The Government school adolescent were consuming less fat than the Private school adolescent. This may due to the reason that the Private school adolescent children were consuming more snacks and junk foods and oily foods and do sedentary works than the Government school children. Also their duration of watching T.V is more compared to Government school adolescent and hence consuming more snacks during this period. T-test was also computed for the energy expenditure of Government and Private school adolescents. The difference was found positive and significant. The Government school adolescent were expending more energy than the Private school adolescent. This may be due to the reason that Private school adolescent were doing more sedentary work than the Government school adolescent children. The Private school adolescent were giving more time in watching T.V. , using networking sites and in their study while Government school adolescent were giving more time in physical activities and domestic work. It can be concluded that the nutritional status of Government and Private School adolescents are more or less similar. The parents are more conscious for their child health and hence the physical and mental growths of adolescents are good.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of processing in minimizing aflatoxin risk contamination in maize (Zea mays L.) grains and flour.
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Bharti, Rupam; Singh, Usha
    Maize (Zea mays L.) a monocotyledonous diploid angiospermic plant of Poaceae family, is used as a staple food worldwide but always is at risk because of improper and storage resulting into poor quality and unsafe food. The investigation was planned to determine the proximate composition of maize grains before and after application of different processing methods like boiling, roasting and alkali treatment at varying period of storage as well as the detection and determination of aflatoxin contamination. Freshly harvested maize grains taken as ‘control’ sample was found to have 13.06 percent moisture, 3.23 percent fat, 1.14 percent ash, 3.87 percent fibre, 10.83 percent protein and 67.87 percent carbohydrate. In boiled maize grains sample the percentage of moisture, fat, ash, fibre, protein and carbohydrate were 8.21, 3.28, 1.24, 3.79, 10.35 and 73.13 respectively. Roasted maize grains sample content 3.65 percent moisture, 3.92 percent fat, 1.25 percent ash , 2.64 percent fibre, 10.77 percent protein and 77.77 percent carbohydrate. In alkali treated maize grains sample the percentage of moisture, fat, ash, fibre, protein and carbohydrate were 4.80, 3.40, 0.93, 3.30, 10.85 and 76.72 respectively. In maize grains, after processing the changes in protein content was not significant except boiling. In case of boiled maize samples, the protein content significantly reduced. On the contrary, the carbohydrate increased after processing. The ash content reduced significantly after roasting and alkali treatment whereas fibre content reduced in roasted maize samples. The fat content increased significantly after boiling and roasting. Definitely the qualitative and quantitative changes occur after processing. Since the maize grains selected were free from aflatoxin contamination, none of the samples (either control or processed) shows the presence of aflatoxin at 0 month of storage. Even till 2 months of storage, the samples were free from fungal and aflatoxin contamination. Even at 4 months of storage none of the samples either grains or flour showed in fluorescence under ultraviolet light by BGY Fluorescence test. But after soaking in Petridis by blotter method, the samples from control, boiled, roasted and alkali treated shows the presence of fungus. All the seventeen kernels (100%) from control maize samples got infested by fungi. Among the processed maize grain samples the maximum fungal contamination was found in roasted maize kernels (88.24%) followed by boiled maize kernels (70.59%) and alkali treated maize kernels (64.71%). When these soaked kernels after getting contaminated with fungus were observed for BGY fluorescence under ultraviolet light, only the samples from control and roasted kernels shows the presence of aflatoxin. In control maize grain kernels out of the total seventeen kernels only 5 (29.42%) kernels were detected for the presence of aflatoxin. In roasted maize grain kernels out of the total seventeen kernels only 3 (17.64%) kernels showed the presence of aflatoxin. None of the kernels from boiled and alkali treated samples even after getting contaminated with fungus showed the presence of aflatoxin. At 4 months of storage, the processed maize grains and flour were found prone to bacterial contamination under dilution techniques and not to the fungal one. Therefore if the processed flour are kept away from the moisture attack then it can be made free even from the bacterial contamination. The control flour was observed to be contaminated with bacteria and fungi both. In case of grains, boiling and alkali treatment are the best processing methods to make the maize grains free from fungal contamination and thereby the presence of aflatoxin. Therefore it is recommended to use the maize grains after boiling or the application of alkali treatment.