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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: Chaurasiya, Dilip Kumar × Start date: 2003 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Integrative Approaches for Fusarium Wilt Disease Management in Lentil
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) Chaurasiya, Dilip Kumar; Sahni, Sangita
    In summary, the study aimed to identify sources of host resistance against the wilt pathogen in lentil genotypes. Out of 114 genotypes tested, only 4 were found to be resistant, 33 were moderately resistant, 30 were moderately susceptible, and 30 were susceptible to the disease. The study used 12 SSR primers to analyze 10 genotypes and found that 11 of the primers were polymorphic. The SSR113 primer pair was the most polymorphic and showed the highest heterozygosity among all the genotypes tested. The study also examined the genetic similarity among varieties and found that the highest genetic similarity was 84.2% between SL 20-Q and IPL-606, and the least genetic similarity was 13.8% between VL-507 and BL-18. The study also evaluated the antagonistic activity of 30 Pseudomonas isolates against the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lentis and found that PGPR 18 exhibited the highest percent mycelial growth inhibition at 85.19%. The study further characterized the potential Pseudomonas isolates based on their biochemical characters such as P-solubilization, K-solubilization, IAA production, NH3 production, siderophore production, HCN production, amylase activity, catalase, and citrate utilization. Out of the 6 isolates tested, 5 were found to have P-solubilization ability, 3 had K-solubilization ability, 2 were positive for citrate utilization, and 5 were positive for indole production. Two isolates (PGPR-18 and PGPR-16) were found to have the highest cellulase activity. Substituting soil with vermicompost (VC) at 5%, 10%, and 15% levels improved growth parameters of lentil plants such as emergence, height, number of branches, pods, seeds, and fresh and dry weights. The highest growth was observed at 15% VC substitution (T5) followed by 10% and 5% VC substitution. Seed bacterization with PGPR18 alone also improved growth parameters, but the best results were obtained when it was combined with VC substitution. Among all eight treatments, the combination of 15% VC substitution and seed bacterization (T8) resulted in the best growth and seed yield, followed by T7 and T6. The use of Salicylic acid as a pre-inoculation foliar spray greatly reduced wilt incidence in lentil plants, resulting in a 52.71% wilt incidence compared to 72.36% with ZnSO4. The combination of Salicylic acid with seed bacterization with PGPR18 and vermicompost amendments resulted in the least wilt incidence of 3.75%. Treatment T9, a combination of 15% vermicompost amendment and seed bacterization with PGPR18 without non-conventional chemicals, also showed significant results with 21.69% wilt incidence recorded 30 days after. Overall, all treatments showed high suppression of wilt disease when applied 24 hours before pathogen inoculation and Salicylic acid was found to be more effective than ZnSO4.