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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: Microbiology × Author: Pathak, Devashish × End date: 2020 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of Tal Rhizobium strain for its efficacy under different soil system in Mono and consortium mode
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Pathak, Devashish; Jha, M. N.
    Chemical fertilizer has to be supplemented with bio-fertilizer to prevent the deterioration of the soil quality, surface water, ground water pollution, reduction of biodiversity, imbalance microbial load and disturbance in the ecosystem functioning. Thus there is an immediate need to amalgate chemical fertilizer with bio-fertilizer to sustain the agricultural productivity. A major demand for bio-fertilizer industry is to supply of such microbial strain either in mono and consortia mode having wider agro-ecological application. Accordingly, this study was carried out with isolation of Rhizobium and rhizobacteria from lentil plant root and rhizosphere of Mokama Tal land (pulse basket of Bihar), having negligible chemical fertilizer application to formulate a microbial consortia for various plant promoting and nutrient solubilisation characteristics. Among 28 isolates, 12, 15, 26 and 9 isolates were tested positive for acetylene reduction assay, ammonia production, IAA production and HCN production respectively. Also 20, 21, 17 and 9 isolates were positive for phosphorus solubilisation, siderophore production, Zn solubilisation and potassium solubilisation respectively. The best isolates were screened for carbon source utilization and found DPR2, DPB4, DPP4 and DPA1 had diverse nature for C-source utilization, thus were selected for consortia preparation. Morphological and molecular identification of selected isolates DPR2, DPB4, DPP4 and DPA1 were done, and identified as Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae, Bacillus teliquencis, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Azotobacter salinestris respectively. A pot experiment was carried out to evaluate the prepared consortia with respect to the chemical fertilizer in lentil plant in different soil conditions like Tal soil of Mokama, Diara soil of Begusarai, Chaur soil of Darbhanga and calcareous soil of Pusa. In plant growth and yield attributing characteristics, result of consortia for root length, 100 seed weight and yield per pot were higher in Tal soil among three other soil but for no. of branches, days of germination, no. of pods/plant and no. of seeds per pod were found insignificantly differ for Tal soil, Chaur soil and Diara soil followed by calcareous soil. In shoot length and no. of nodules/plant result of consortia were similar for Tal and Chaur soil followed by Diara soil and least for calcareous soil. In nutrient acquisition, result of consortia for nitrogen and Fe content in seed were highest in Tal soil followed by Chaur soil. In phosphorus and Zn content in seed, result of consortia was higher in Tal soil followed by Diara soil. Whereas for potassium content in seed, result of consortia were similar for Tal and Chaur soil followed by Diara soil. Among all 13 treatments, best result was found in T13 consortia (Rhizobium + Bacillus + Pseudomonas + Azotobacter + 50% RDF) compared with the 100%RDF and mono mode application of Rhizobium + 50% RDF, across the soil type. Thus, the consortia of Rhizobium + Bacillus + Pseudomonas + Azotobacter can be used as a universal strain under different soil system of Bihar for lentil crop production.