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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: Plant Breeding × Author: Bharti, Lal Ji × Start date: 2000 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Character association and genetic divergence in mung bean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Bharti, Lal Ji; Singh, Umesh Kumar
    The investigation entitled “Character Association and Genetic Divergence in mung bean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]” was conducted at Research Farm of Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar during summer of 2019. The 24 mungbean genotypes including a check namely HUM-16 were sown on 13th March, 2019 in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. Investigation was carried out on genetic variability, character association, path analysis and genetic divergence for quantitative characters viz Days to First flowering, Days to 50% flowering, Days to maturity, Plant height (cm), Main shoot length (cm), Number of primary branches per plant, Number of secondary branches per plant, Number of cluster per plant, Number of pods per cluster, Number of pods per plant, Pod length (cm), Biological yield per plant (g), Number of grains per pod, 100 -seed weight (g), Harvest- index (%), and Grain yield per plant(g). Analysis of variance revealed highly significant variation among the genotypes for all the characters. The characters number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, biological yield per plant (g), grain yield per plant (g), number of pods per plant, harvest index, number of clusters per plant, main shoot length, 100- seed weight (g), number of grains per pod, number of pods per cluster, plant height (cm) and pod length (cm) observed high to moderate phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation for accompanied by high heritability and high to moderate genetic advance as per cent of mean. The indicating lesser influence of environment in expression of the character hence selection for these traits may be effective. Correlation analysis studies indicated that grain yield per plant (g) exhibited significant and positive phenotypic association with biological yield per plant (g), number of pods per plant, number of cluster per plant, number of grains per pod, and plant height (cm) as well as among themselves at phenotypic and genotypic level. However, the grain yield per plant (g) non-significant and negative phenotypic correlation with harvest index (%). Path analysis observed highest positive direct effect was exhibited biological yield per plant (g), harvest index (%), and number of pods per plant on grain yield per plant. Thus, these characters may be used as selection criteria for respective environments. The highest negative direct effect was showed by days to 50% flowering fallowed by number of secondary branches per plant, and days to maturity (-0.047) on grain yield per plant. The twenty-four genotypes were studies 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 and Cluster II had fifteen and six genotypes, respectively. Cluster III, cluster IV and cluster V were mono-genotypic comprises only one genotype. The maximum character contribution towards divergence exhibited in 100-seed weight (g) followed by Harvest- index (%), Number of primary branches per plant. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III and IV, followed by cluster III and V, cluster I and V, cluster II and V, cluster I and IV, cluster II and IV is the indication of wider genetic diversity among the genotypes of those clusters. Such highly divergent, high performing genotypes will be used in recombination breeding programme in order to get high heterotic recombinants.