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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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20151
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Subject: Genetics and Plant Breeding × Author: Kumar, Dhiraj × End date: 2015 × Start date: 2015 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of combining ability and heterosis in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)
    (Rajendra Agriculrural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2015) Kumar, Dhiraj; Singh, U. K.
    The present investigation entitled “Study of combing ability and heterosis in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was undertaken with the objective of identifying good general combiner and to assess the magnitude of heterosis for yield and yield component traits. Altogether 32 hybrids were made from crosses of four cytoplasmic male sterile lines and eight diverse testers in a line×tester matting design. These were evaluated during rabi 2014-2015 at TCA, Dholi, Farm of Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar, Pusa Samastipur in randomised block design with three replication. The parents and their hybrids were evaluated for 11 characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, Plant height, days to maturity, biological yield, head diameter, harvest index, 100 seed weight, volume weight, seed yield per plant, seed filling per cent and oil content. The grand mean of hybrids were significantly superior in the desirable direction compared to parental mean for each character under study. The highest mean performance was recorded in hybrid DSFH-4 for seed yield, DSFH-30 for head diameter and volume weight, DSFH-19 for 100 seed weight, DSFH-14 for seed filling per cent, and DSFH-31 for oil content. Both gca and sca variance differ significantly for all the characters. The magnitude of non-additive gene action was higher than the corresponding additive gene action for all the characters in hybrid. In female parent CMS-SS-502B, CMS-17B came out to be good general combiner for most of the yield and yield contributing traits. CMS-SS-502B was found to be good general combiner for head diameter, 100 seed weight, volume weight, seed yield per plant and seed filling per cent. Likewise CMS-17B was also found to good general combiner for early flowering and maturity, short plant height, 100 seed weight, volume weight and seed filling per cent. Among male parents SS-502-1-1 was good general combiner for biological yield per plant, head diameter, volume weight, seed yield per plant and oil content. Similarly GAUSUF-15 was also good general combiner for early flowering and maturity, short plant height, and 100 seed weight. Significantly favourable specific combining ability effects were observed for number of characters. The hybrid DSFH-4 for biological yield per plant, harvest index, volume weight, seed yield per plant, and seed filling per cent. DSFH-10 for early maturity, biological yield per plant and seed yield per plant. DSFH-6 for biological yield per plant, head diameter and seed yield per plant. DSFH-30 for biological yield per plant, head diameter, volume weight and seed yield per plant. Similarly DSFH-26 for dwarf plant height and volume weight recorded high hybrid performance, high sca and standard heterosis for different characters. The above hybrids were most ideal cross combination displaying consistant high sca effect with high per se performance. The hybrid DSFH-4 showed significant standard heterosis for seed yield per plant, harvest index and seed filling per cent over checks and better parent. DSFH-10 exhibited significant standard heterosis for seed yield per plant and seed filling per cent. Similarly DSFH-6 recorded significant heterosis for seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, head diameter and seed filling per cent over check and better parents. DSFH-26 showed significant highest standard heterosis for seed yield per plant. It also showed significant heterosis for seed filling per cent and dwarf plant height over checks and better parent. This hybrid had proved to be best for yield over checks and better parent followed by DSFH-4 and DSFH-6.