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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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Subject: Genetics and Plant Breeding × Author: Kumar, Ankit × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2018 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Diversity of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes under drought and their molecular characterization
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2018) Kumar, Ankit; Choudhary, V. K.
    A study was conducted at Wheat Breeding section, RPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during rabi 2016-17 to evaluate the genotypes of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) for drought tolerance under rainfed condition. Investigation was carried out on variability, character association, path analysis and genetic divergence for morpho-physiological characters viz, days to fifty per cent flowering, plant height, days to maturity, total number of tillers, flag leaf area, relative water content, chlorophyll content, canopy temperature, ear length, grains per ear, spikelet length, spikelet fertility, thousand grain weight, harvest index, grain yield and drought susceptibility index. Twenty four genotypes were grown under two environments viz, rainfed and irrigated. The experiment in each environment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant variation among the genotypes for all the characters under studied in both conditions. The variability study indicated high to moderate phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation accompanied by high heritability and low to moderate genetic advance as per cent of mean for traits like number of tillers per plant, grain yield per plant, 1000 grain weight, flag leaf area, chlorophyll content and harvest index indicating their importance in selection for yield improvement under both conditions. This study indicates preponderance of additive gene effect, which will help to make selection in early segregating generation. The genetic advance as per cent mean suggesting still there is scope for further improvement of genotypes for these characters. Correlation studies indicated that grain yield per plant exhibited significant positive association with harvest index, chlorophyll content, total number of tillers, grains per ear, ear length, spikelet length, relative water content as well as among themselves at phenotypic and genotypic level under both environments. However, grain yield per plant showed negative significant correlation with canopy temperature in both conditions. Path analysis revealed that under rainfed condition highest positive direct effect was exhibited by total number of tillers and harvest index. While under irrigated condition harvest index, total number of tillers and chlorophyll content had exhibited highest positive direct effect. Thus, these traits may be used as selection criteria for respective environments. The highest negative direct effect was showed by canopy temperature on grain yield under irrigated condition. While, highest negative direct effect was showed by drought susceptibility index under rainfed condition. The twenty four genotypes taken for genetic divergence analysis differed significantly with regard to the characters studied and displayed marked divergence and grouped into five clusters following Tocher’s method. Cluster I had five genotypes. Cluster II comprises three genotypes. Cluster III contains three genotypes. Cluster IV comprises maximum twelve genotype and cluster V was monogenotypic comprises only one genotype HD 2888. Out of 20 SSR markers, five markers did not produce clear scorable bands and were not used for further studies. Fifteen markers produced distinct and sharp scorable bands for all the genotypes. Among these, all microsatellites produced polymorphic bands. On the basis of molecular diversity all 24 genotypes have been categorized in eight groups. Maximum genotype found in group VI and minimum found in group V and IV. The magnitude of similarity coefficient between HD2733 and HD2888 was found to be maximum among pair wise combination of entries and minimum coefficient of similarity was found between RAUW 7 and HD2888.