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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: Maurya, Shivam × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2019 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Novel approach for the management of Tomato fusarium wilt
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Maurya, Shivam; Rai, Dinesh
    Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon Mill.) is one of the most popular and important commercial vegetable crop grown all over the world. India ranks second in the area as well as in production of Tomato. In Bihar, tomato is cultivated throughout the year. In Bihar, the area under tomato is 46,000 ha with total production of 7.36 lakh tonnes, with a productivity 16 tonnes/ha. The low productivity is due to use of traditional varieties, diseases and pests. Tomato crop is attacked by several pathogens such as fungi, bacteria and nematodes that significantly affect its growth and yield. Among the fungal diseases, Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici is an economically important and destructive disease of tomato crop. Hence the investigation on “Novel approaches for the management of tomato Fusarium wilt” was undertaken during the course of study as the traditional fungicides had their residues on tomato fruit and harmful to human health. Tomato plants showing typical wilt symptoms were collected from farmer‟s field of Tajpur Village in Muzaffarpur district. The pathogen was isolated in pure form on potato dextrose agar and its pathogenicity was proved. Ten isolates of Trichoderma spp. were isolated from rhizospheric soils of different crops at different location of Muzaffarpur and Samastipur districts of Bihar. These isolates of Trichoderma spp. varied significantly in most of the morphological characters. In vitro evaluation all the Trichoderma isolates showed inhibitory effect on growth of the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and were effective in controlling the growth of pathogen. The Trichoderma harzianum isolates Th-8 was found to be the most effective in inhibiting the growth of pathogen 64.61%). Among the tested different plant extract, at 10 per cent concentration Garlic extract was found significantly superior in inhibiting the mycelial growth (86.07%), followed by Neem (53.32%), Bramhi (38.8%) and Yam bean seed extract (33.94%). As the concentration of plant extracts increased, the inhibition of test fungus decreases except in Garlic. In vitro compatibility of four fungicides used against F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici were tested with effective antagonist Trichoderma harzianum (Th-8 isolate) at the same concentrations by using poisoned food technique. Metalaxyl was found to be best compatible with Trichoderma harzianum (Th-8 isolate), since the per cent inhibition of Trichoderma (Th-8 isolate) was only 6.68 per cent at 1000 ppm concentration. In growth promotion study, Seed bio primed with Trichoderma harzianum (Th8) obtained higher seedling height (12.10cm), fresh shoot weight (10.38g), dry shoot weight (1.20 g), fresh root weight (1.43g) and dry root weight (0.31 g) and was at par with University strain. The efficacy of effective antagonist, chitosan and plant extracts alone or with combination tested in pot against tomato. Among 11 treatments imposed in pot experiment, treatment T10 (Seedling treatment with Carbendazim @ 0.1%) was found to be superior as it recorded least per cent disease index 32.39 per cent. Among the eco-friendly treatments, treatment T4 (Seedling treatment with Trichoderma asperellum @ 5g/lit + Chitosan @ 0.1% followed by its foliar spray) in which 44.66 per cent PDI recorded and was at par with T5 (Seedling treatment with Th-8 @ 5g/lit + Chitosan @0.1% followed by its foliar spray) in which 49.37 per cent PDI observed.