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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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20211
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Subject: Plant Pathology × Author: KUMARI, MINA × Start date: 2020 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Ecofriendly Approach for the Management of Black spots of Aloe vera caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc.
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2021) KUMARI, MINA; Jha, P.K.
    Aloe vera is an important medicinal plant and widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical region. Like other crops it is also attacked by a number of pests and diseases. Among these, black leaf spot is most serious problem in Aloe vera throughout the country resulting in reduction in yield and market value. Its causal organism was isolated and identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. During survey in five districts of North Bihar, highest PDI (32.50%) was recorded in Samastipur while the lowest in Madhepura (22.00%). Five isolates of pathogen obtained from five districts varied in their cultural and morphological features. Pathogenicity test was confirmed by employing Koch‟s postulates. In inoculum density test, the least incubation period (12-14 days) was required at 1.9 x 107 spores/ml followed by 15 days at 2.5 x 106 spores/ml. With increase in concentration of inoculum density, the incubation period was decreased. In course of study, 15 fungal species was recorded with phylloplane and rhizosphere of Aloe vera. The isolates of Rhizopus stolonifer and Penicillium chrysogenum showed their presence in rhizosphere only whereas Curvularia lunata and C. gloeosporioides were recorded only from phylloplane and 11 mycoflora were common in both phylloplane and rhizosphere. When these mycoflora were evaluated for their effect on plant growth promotion in pot experiment, most of them showed growth promoting effect and increased biomass production, whereas C. gloeosporioides, Fusarium solani, Alternaria, Curvularia and Cladosporium sp. showed pathogenic effect and hampered plant growth. The beneficial mycoflora which promoted plant growth in pot condition, were also found effective in suppressing the pathogen in dual culture test. Among them, T. harzianum showed maximum mycelium growth inhibition (76.19%) followed by T. viride (73.59%). In culture filtrate assay, culture filtrate of A. niger was most effective and exhibited 29.40% spore germination, thereby resulted in 63.25% inhibition of spore germination at 5% concentration. The next most effective culture filtrate was that of T. harzianum with 61.8% inhibition of spore germination followed by T. viride (59.49%) and T. asperellum (57.99%). However, culture filtrate of T. harzianum was most effective and inhibited colony growth by 86.90% followed by T. viride (85.76%) at 15% concentration. Out of nine botanicals, the Neem leaf extract was found superior in checking the pathogen growth by 74.82% followed by Tulsi (59.78%) at 10% concentration. Among two molecules tested, carbendazim was most effective and inhibited the pathogen growth by 93.52% followed by azoxystrobin (93.07%) at 250 ppm. In compatibility test, both bioagents (T. harzianum and T. viride) were highly compatible with leaf water extracts of Neem and Tulsi at all the four concentrations. When tested for compatibility with two effective molecules, it was highly compatible with only one molecule i.e., azoxystrobin, and not compatible with other effective molecule carbendazim. During field trial on integrated disease management, the most effective treatment was foliar spray with azoxystrobin @ 250 ppm accompanied with soil drenching of T. harzianum @ 5% which caused 82.63% reduction in PDI. Likewise the foliar spray of azoxystrobin @ 250 ppm accompanied with soil drenching of T. harzianum @ 5% and further foliar spray with Neem extract @ 10% also showed promising disease control (81.40% reduction). The treatment combination having Trichoderma harzianum as a component showed prominent growth promoting effect on plants as evident from the observation in the present study that foliar spray with azoxystrobin @ 250 ppm accompanied with soil drenching of T. harzianum @ 5% and further foliar spray with Neem extract @ 10% recorded maximum plant height (33.12 cm) with maximum number of leaves (10/plant). Likewise soil drenching of T. harzianum @ 5% accompanied by foliar spray with Neem @ 10% also recorded the plant height of 32.02 cm and number of leaves (9.61/plant).