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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: Plant Breeding × Author: Debbarma, Pulak × Start date: 2020 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Combining ability and heterosis study in Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper]
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Debbarma, Pulak; Kant, Ravi
    The present investigation entitled “Combining Ability and Heterosis Study in Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper]” was conducted at TCA, Dholi Research Farm, Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during Kharif, 2019. The experimental materials comprised of 15 hybrids were generated using 5 lines (Females) and 3 testers (males) following Line x Tester mating design. Total 24 genotypes including standard check i.e. LBG 623 were grown in Randomized Block Design with three replication to estimate combining ability and heterosis for yield and yield attributing traits. The observations that were recorded for the study are days to 50 % flowering, plant height, number of clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, seed yield per plant , biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight and harvest index. The analysis of variance revealed that the difference among the parents and hybrids was highly significant for all the characters studied, indicating the existence of sufficient amount of variability in the material studied. Parent vs. hybrids comparison was found significant for plant height, number of clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, biological yield per plant and 100 seed weight. Parents namely KUP 18-346, Pant U-31 and Uttara recorded high mean performance while, crosses namely KUP 18-350 X Pant U-31, KUP 18-352 X T-9, KUP 18-349 X T-9, KUP 18-350 X Uttara, KUP 18-349 X Uttara and KUP 18-345 X Uttara recorded high mean performance for seed yield per plant. Analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that mean square of crosses was significant for all yield and yield attributing traits. In the case of lines x tester effect, mean square was significant for all yield and yield attributing traits except number of seeds per pod. The SCA variance was higher than GCA variance for plant height, number of clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight and harvest index. The ratio of SCA variance to GCA variance is higher than one in plant height, number of clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight and harvest index which indicates the magnitude of non-additive variance over the magnitude of additive variance and the degree of dominance is greater than one for number of clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight and harvest index. The estimates of general combining ability of parents revealed that parents KUP 18-350, KUP 18-346, and KUP 18-349 found good general combiners for seed yield and some of the attributing traits. The parents KUP 18-350, KUP 18-352, and KUP 18-345 found to be a good general combiner for days to 50% flowering and plant height. The crosses namely KUP 18-350 X Pant U-31, KUP 18-345 X T-9, and KUP 18-345 X Uttara were found to be the best specific combinations for seed yield per plant. The estimates of heterosis revealed that KUP 18-350 X Pant U-31, KUP 18-346 X Pant U-31, KUP 18-349 X T-9, KUP 18-345 X T-9, KUP 18-346 X Uttara and KUP 18-345 X Uttara recorded significant positive average heterosis; KUP 18-345 X T-9 recorded significant positive heterobeltiosis for seed yield per plant. None of the crosses recorded significant positive standard heterosis for seed yield per plant.