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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: Microbiology × Author: VISHWAS, PAWALE AMOL × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2022 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    PRODUCTION OF THE BIOETHANOL FROM THE LIGNOCELLULOSIC AGRICULTURAL WASTES
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) VISHWAS, PAWALE AMOL; Meena, Khem Raj
    Since the production of biofuels from renewable feedstocks and utilised as alternative fuels and sources of energy, recently they have attracted a lot of attention. Due to its favourable effects on the environment, bioethanol is one of the most intriguing fuels. Currently, it is mostly made from raw materials that comprise sugar and starch. The collected substrate delignified by the effective pre-treatment including the physical method (size reduction and the thermal treatment under the vapour pressure in the autoclave) and chemical treatment as 2% NaOH under the vapour pressure. The alkaline treatment combined with thermal treatment delignified the collected lignocellulosic substrates and released the reducing sugar by depolymerizing the cellulose and hemicellulose. The corn cobs were getting more hydrolyzed by the NaOH based pre-treatment by making maximum reducing sugar (38.908±0.27 mg gds-1) for fermentation among the four collected substrates. The pre-treated biomass saccharified by the bacterial and fungal consortium procured from the Department of Microbiology. The consortium of the 7 bacterial isolates (Bacillus sonorensis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus inaquosorum, Bacillus cabrialesii, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus paramycoides and Bacillus stercoris) hydrolyzed the four substrates within 7-8 days of incubation. The maximum reducing sugar due to the hydrolysis by bacterial consortium resulted from the wheat straw (27.58±0.31 mg gds-1). The hydrolysis of the pre-treated four substrates hydrolyzed by the fungal consortium of the three fungal isolates as Fusarium falciforme, Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Fusarium falicorme within 5-6 days of the incubation. The maximum reducing released from the corn cobs (35.43±0.16 mg gds-1) followed by the cane bagasse (35.174±0.44 mg gds-1). Biomass hydrolysis as fungal consortium followed by bacterial consortium hydrolysis of the pre-treated biomass, yielded maximum reducing sugar (45.602±0.43 mg gds-1) from the corn cobs among the other treatment of hydrolysis. The maximum hydrolysis of the corn cobs resulted maximum reducing sugar followed by paddy straw and cane bagasse. But considering the period required for getting maximum reducing sugars, hydrolysis by fungal and bacterial consortium combinedly was not efficient. The fermentation of the isolated hydrolysate containing reducing sugars done by yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipitis. The yield estimation of the bioethanol from the distillate extracted by the distillation of fermented hydrolysate at 78.3ºC were ranging between the 1.762 to 3.763%. As the maximum reducing sugar released from the corn cobs during pre-treatment resulted maximum bioethanol yield (37.63±0.11 mg gds-1) with fungal followed by bacterial consortium saccharification among the four collected substrates. The least bioethanol yield was found from the paddy straw (17.623±0.118 mg gds-1).