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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 Pathology × Author: Bala, Archana × Start date: 2014 ×
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    Integrated disease management of bacterial leaf blight of rice (Xanthomonas Oryzae pv. Oryzae)
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Bala, Archana; Rai, Bimla
    Bacterial leaf blight of rice incited by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is a dominant disease of rice of widespread occurrence and inflicting heavy damage to the crop in Bihar in Kharif season. The studies mainly adhered to pathogenicity, effect of RRb, botanicals and new chemicals against percentage inhibition over control, also evolution of RRb, botanical and new fungicides for effect of seed treatment for seed germination, Screening of rice varieties/entries for disease resistance against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The pathogenicity of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae was proved on rice variety (Pusa Basmati) by injection infiltration method and subsequently Koch’s postulates were established. Kresek occurs in early stage. In later stage blighting starts from the tip of leaves to the base, straw turned yellow. Yellow bacterial ooze appears on the surface which dries up into bead like incrustations. Morphological studies of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae showed that The pathogen are gram negative, short rod, with rounded ends, single or in pairs, measuring 1.1 to 2.0 X 0.5 to 0.8 µm in size, motile with single polar flagellum, capsulate and non-spore forming. RRb’s which occurred frequently in soil samples of Pusa farm under RAU, Pusa, Samastipur ,was selected for antagonism study against Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae causing bacterial leaf blight of rice. In dual culture, RRb-c, RRb-d and RRb-e completely overgrew (100 %) the pathogen colony in 144 hours and completely inhibited the formation Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The aqueous leaf extract of botanicals were effective i.e Allium sativum (87.33%), Azadirachta indica ((71.23%) and Zingiber officinale (60.83%) were found to be antagonistic towards Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae @ 15% conc. after 48 hours. Three chemicals found effective in reducing severity of BLB were Blitox-50+Streptocycline (70.25%), Ergon 44.3 SC (66.4%) and Nativo 75WG (49.91%) @50 ppm conc. by poisons food technique respectively. In respect of botanicals, all botanicals were effective against BLB. The maximum inhibition was found with botanical by Allium sativum (87.33%). However, Azadirachta indica (71.23%) and Zingiber officinale (60.83%) @15% conc. after 48 hours were also found to be other effective treatments. Seed treatment with RRb (Rice rhizobacteria), RRb-e (93%) & RRb-d (89%) isolates was effective in increasing seed germination and also enhance root and shoot length @ 15% concentration. Seed treatment with Zingiber officinale, Azadirachta indica and Allium sativum @ 15% conc. resulted in 88%, 85% and 72% germination respectively. In respect to new chemicals, for better germination was recorded seed treatment with Blitox-50 +Streptocycline (88%), Nativo 75WG (80%) and Ergon 44.3 SC (72%) @ 50 ppm concentration. In varietal screening out of 758 varieties/entries, only 125 entries were highly resistant under natural condition against the BLB in both trial i.e. NSN1 and NSN2.Rest of varieties/entries showed moderately resistant or either moderately susceptible or susceptible or highly susceptible reaction against the bacterial blight disease.