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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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ThesisItem Open Access Study of microbes in button mushroom compost production(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Kumar, Chandra Mohan; Meena, Khem RajMushrooms are rich source of nutrients and have exceptional medicinal properties. The most important commercially grown genus of edible mushroom is Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom) and A. bisporus (Lange) Imbach, which accounts 86% of the overall mushroom yield in India. The cultivation of mushroom requires nutritionally rich substrate i.e., compost but microbiology and biochemistry of composting is not understood properly yet. The microbial consortium can be help as a booster for bio-composting agricultural residues and fasten the rate of composting for mushroom production. Therefore, in the recent studies, the compost degrading bacteria were isolated from the button mushroom compost (degraded compost and spent mushroom substrate) which was collected from AICRP on mushroom of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa on different media viz. Nutrient Agar media, T3 Media, Kings‘s B agar media, Trypticase soya agar media and Kenknight agar media. A total of 40 isolates were obtained based on different colony characteristics and which were screened for cellulose and hemicellulose degradation activities. Out of the 40 isolates, 18 isolates showed cellulose degradation ability with the zone of clearance was in the range of 12.6 mm to 35.3 mm and isolate C-7 showed highest zone of clearance (35.3 mm). Among the cellulose degrader, 10 isolates were positive for hemicellulose degradation with the zone of clearance in the range of 12.4 mm to 33.5 mm and isolate M-18 showed highest zone of clearance (33.5 mm). Those isolates which showed both cellulose and hemicellulose degradation abilities were further characterized morphologically and biochemically by gram staining, endospore staining and IMViC test. It was observed that out of 10 cellulose and hemicellulose degrading isolates, 4 isolates viz. M-3, M-18, C-4 and C-6 were gram negative and 6 isolates viz. M-1, M-10, M-11, M-19, C-10 and C-12 were gram positive and among gram positive isolates, only two isolates viz. C-12 and M-1 showed endospore formation. Those isolates which showed positive result for cellulose and hemicellulose degradation were further assayed for IMViC test. It was observed out of 10 isolates, isolates M1, M6, M13 and C11were positive for Indole test whereas in Methyl red test, all the 10 isolates showed positive result. For Voges-Proskauers (VP) test, it was found that except 2 isolates viz. M6 and C19,all the isolates showed positive result whereas all the 10 isolates were negative for citrate utilization test. These ten isolates were also tested for antagonistic behavior for consortia formation and found that none of the isolates showed any antagonistic ability against each other. Therefore, these isolates were used for the preparation of microbial consortia by growing them in enrichment culture media which were further inoculated in developed formulations. Different formulations were prepared using different combinations of substrates i.e., lime (3%), urea (2%), glucose (10g) and distilled water at different concentration and then inoculated with microbial consortium and 3g sterilized wheat straw and stored at 280 C. These formulations were further characterized for pH, microbial growth (optical density) and cell count at different time interval i.e., 0 day, 14days, 28 days, 42 days and 56 days. A total of 18 formulations were developed with three replicates. It was reported that pH varied according to the substrates added to the formulations. The addition of lime increased the pH when compared to the other formulations. In almost all the formulations, the pH values initially (14 days) decreased then increased and became almost static at the end of incubation i.e., after 56 days. It was found that in all the formulations, where glucose was added, there was lowest pH recorded as compared to the other formulations. Formulation F18 showed highest pH (11.78) followed by F17 (11.32) when consortia was inoculated and least (2.65) in case of formulation F1. When the optical density (at 660 nm) of formulations were recorded at various time intervals, it was observed that, in all the formulations there was increase in optical density gradually and the optical density of the formulations did not show a specific pattern and varied independently. At 0 day, the optical density was highest i.e., 2.57 in formulation F18 followed by formulation F7 (2.26) and lowest was recorded in formulation F3 (0.68). Whereas at 56 days of incubation, formulation F16 showed the highest optical density (2.97) and the lowest was observed in formulation F3 (0.80). The cell count of formulations varied according to the change in the pH i.e., the cell count was higher at neutral pH as compared to the acidic and alkaline pH of the formulations. As compared to the initial cell population (6.3 X 106) added to each formulation, the cell population in most of the formulation declined initially up to 14 days and then increased and became static at 56 days of incubation. Formulation F5 showed the highest cell count (6.0 X 106) followed by formulation F7 and F8 (5.8 X 106) formulation F1 showed the lowest cell count (5.1 X 106) after 56 days of incubation. Therefore the developed microbial consortium based formulations can be used to hasten the rate of composting for button mushroom production.ThesisItem Open 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.ThesisItem Open Access Development of effective microbial consortia for secondary treatment of wastewater(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Behera, Dhrupad Kumar; Jaiswal, AmanNaturally occurring bacteria present in the wastewaters have a massive potential to solve the problem of wastewater bio-remediation. These bacteria with biodegrading capabilities can be exploited to develop a consortium and can be used for efficient biological treatment of the wastewaters. In the present study, 20 bacterial strains were isolated from the dairy industry, sugar industry and hostel sewage water of Pusa campus from the state of Bihar and were screened for starch, protein and fat degradation and reduction Biological Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand. Out of the total 20 isolates, 18 isolates exhibited starch degradation, 10 exhibited protein degradation and 11 reported positive for the fat degradation. Among all these isolates, only 7 isolates (DS-13, DS-27, DS-57, DS-58, DS-67, DS-68, and DS-72) were found positive for all three degradation activities which were further screened for BOD and COD reduction. Out of the 7 isolates, only 3 isolates (DS-58, DS-67 and DS-72) showed higher reduction in both BOD and COD parameters when inoculated into autoclaved effluents i.e. dairy, sugar industry and hostel sewage as compared to the blank i.e., un-autoclaved effluents without inoculation of bacterial isolates which were recorded BOD 835 mg/L, 1035mg/L and 620mg/L and COD 1680 mg/L, 2280 mg/L and 1470 mg/L for the dairy, sugar industry and hostel sewage effluent respectively. Therefore, these 3 isolates were combined in different combinations and 4 different consortia were prepared and their biodegradation and BOD and COD reduction abilities were analysed. The consortium C4 (DS-58, DS-67 and DS-72) showed highest results in starch (14 mm), protein (24 mm) and fat (18 mm) degradation and BOD (115 to 353 mg/L) and COD (407 to 641 mg/L) reduction which was used further in the developed formulation. A total 10 liquid formulations were developed using several combinations of emulsifier (Tween 20), thickener (Acacia gum and CMC) and protective agents (PVP and glycerol) and stored at three different temperatures (40C, 280C and 400C) and characterized for physiological stability viz. pH and suspensibility and cell count at an interval of 30 days up to 180 days. In the case of pH, it was found that most of the formulations showed a slow fall in pH with increasing time of incubation. At 4ºC, the pH varied between 4.72 and 7.0 among different formulations during 6 months of incubation and formulations F7 and F8 were found most stable in terms of pH where the pH changes were of very less magnitude over time. At 280 C, the pH range was 4.74 to 7.0 and formulations F6 and F5 were found to be most stable whereas, at 400 C, the pH range was 4.71 to 7.0 and formulations F7 and F 8 were found to be most stable. In the case of Suspensibility, the width of suspension was inconstant and fluctuated from 0 to 1.2 cm between different formulations across different temperatures. Initially, it increased with increase in incubation period till 4 months and later decreased with further increase in the incubation period and became stable irrespective of the type of formulations at all the three stored temperatures. The reduction observed was comparatively more at a higher temperature of 400C than at a lower temperature of 40C. In case of the cell population, as compared to initial cell population of 6.8 x 107 cells/ ml that was added to each formulation, all formulations maintained a cell population of 2.6 x 107 to 5 x 107 cells/ ml after 6 months of incubation across all the stored temperature. It was also observed that the decline was also observed which was less during the early incubation period and decreased on further storage. After 6 months of incubation, F7 maintained maximum cell population of 5 x 107 cells/ml followed by F5 and F8 at 40C whereas, at 280C, formulation F6 and F8 maintained maximum cell population of 4.8 x 107 cells/ml followed by F4 which was 3.7 x 107 cells/ml. At 400C, formulation F8 and F7 maintained maximum cell population of 4.0 x 107 cells/ml closely followed by formulation F6 (3.7 x 107 cells/ml) after 6 months of incubation. It was found that formulation F10 i.e. formulation in which pH was not adjusted and no protective agents were added and only mixed cultures were inoculated showed minimum cell population at the end of six months at all the stored temperatures of 40C, 280C and 400C respectively. It was also observed that those formulations where the mixture of protective agents was used showed higher cell count as compared to those formulations where protective agents used as alone. The results suggested that this liquid formulation of consortium be able to play a significant part in the biological treatment of wastewater and help in reducing water pollution.ThesisItem Open Access Prospecting of multitasking strain with potential of biofertilization, biostimulation and biocontrol of Turcicum leaf blight of maize(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Akhila, Pole; Jaiswal, AmanRhizobacteria have vital role in agriculture as they enhance the plant growth, biomass, yield, nutrient content and suppress the phytopathogens. These multitasking abilities of rhizobacteria were exploited to see their role in maize crop. A total 48 rhizobacterial isolates were isolated from soil samples collected from different regions of Bihar and were screened for various biofertilizing, biostimulating and biocontrolactivities viz., nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, potassium solubilisation, Zn solubilization, Siderophore production, HCN production, Ammonia production, IAA production, chitinase production and antagonistic ability against Turcicum leaf blight i.e., Exserohilum turcicum. Out of 48 rhizobacterial isolates,10 isolates showed nitrogen fixation, 37 were positive for P-solubulization, 22 were positive for K-solubulization, 33 were positive for Zn-solubulization, 29 showed siderophore production, 27 showed IAA production, 11 showed HCN production, 17 showed ammonia production, 19 showed chitinase production and 9 isolates showed antagonistic ability against Exserohilum turcicum. Among all these screened isolates, only two isolates i.e., AK-9 and AK-21were positive for all the activities. So, these two isolates were selected as multitasking strains and further used in pot experiments against maize crop. Two pot experiments were conducted. First pot experiment was conducted in maize variety-Shaktiman-5 to evaluate the biofertilization and biostimulation ability of these multitasking strains along with different levels of chemical fertilizers (N, P, K, Fe, Zn) on plant growth parameters (shoot length, root length, shoot fresh and dry weights, root fresh and dry weights), yield parameters (Number of grains per cob, 100 seed weight and yield per pot) and nutrient contents (N, P, K, Fe and Zn) of grain and plant. All these parameters were enhanced when multitasking strains were used in combination with different dosages of chemical fertilizer as compared to control and 100% RDF. Maximum enhancement was recorded in treatments containing 100%RDF+Fe+Zn+AK-9 followed by treatment containing 100%RDF+Fe+Zn+AK-21. Second pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the biocontrol ability of these multitasking strains along with different levels of fungicide in maize variety-Shaktiman-5 along with one susceptible variety CML-186 and plant growth and yield parameters, nutrient content and disease severity index were analysed. It was observed that there was enhancement in the crop growth, yield and nutrient contents and decrease in disease severity index in both the maize varieties when multitasking strains along with fungicide were applied as compared to control and 100 % fungicide.Disease severity index of the treatment containing Pathogen inoculation+50% Fungicide+AK-9/ AK-21was on par with the treatment containing Pathogen inoculation+100% Fungicide.Therefore, these two isolates AK-9 and AK-21, having multitasking ability, can play a significant role in biofertilization, biostimulation and biological control of maize crop against Turcicum leaf blight disease.ThesisItem Open Access Identification and evaluation of biosurfactant for antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Satyam; Meena, Khem RajBio-surfactants are microorganism originated active, extracellular, amphiphilic, secondary metabolites produced by yeast, bacteria and fungi in late log or initial stationary phase of growth. Bio-surfactants have been reported for the possible use in various industries like pharmaceutical, cosmetics, petroleum, food industries and the most important it is used to control plant pathogenic diseases. The thesis entitled, “Identification and evaluation of biosurfactant for antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens” attempted as per mentioned work in synopsis. All four (04) bacterial isolates were screened for bio-surfactant production by the foam forming activity, emulsification activity and oil spreading activity via using cell-free broth as per previously reported methods. All bacterial strains (T1, T2, T3 and T4) were further selected for research work on the basis of screening results. All 4 bacterial strains were identified on the basis of morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization on the basis of forward and reverse sequence of the bacterial isolates. All four collected bacteria found as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus velezensis and Serratia marcescens after morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization. Post Graduate Degree Programme : Master of Science in (Ag.) Microbiology Name of the Student : Satyam Admission / Reg. No. : M/MICRO/501/2018–19 Major Advisor : Dr. Khem Raj Meena Department : Microbiology Major Subject : Microbiology Minor Subject : Biotechnology Year : 2020 Title of the Research Problem : Identification and evaluation of biosurfactant for antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens Finally biosurfactant was extracted by Acid precipitation methanol extraction method and dissolved into the methanol into minimum require volume. Thereafter anti-fungal activity was performed in-vitro using crude biosurfactant. Bacteria were screened for production of bio-surfactant by foam forming activity, oil spreading tests and emulsification activity. All four bacterial isolates were screened for bio-surfactant production and Bacillus velezensis was found to be produced maximum bio-surfactant (0.349±0.004g/50mL). Bio-surfactant of all four bacterial isolates checked for fungal inhibition on PDA plate. Bacillus velezensis showed the percent inhibition 68.07%, 58.82%, 82.96%, 88.15%, 78.45%,72.68%, 83.96%, 75.47%, 68.07% and 88.44% against Fusarium solani, Colletotrichum falcatum, Fusarium udum, F. oxysporium f sp. ciceri, Helminthosporium maydis, F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Aspergillus niger, Mucor piriformis, Helminthosporium oryzae and Rhizoctonia solani respectively.
