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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 Physiology × Author: Reddy, Desam Abhinay × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2019 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of flooding and chemical oxygen enrichment on physiology of Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2019) Reddy, Desam Abhinay; Kumar, Shailesh
    Flooding is a serious problem which affects growth and yield in various crops and flooding events are expected to increase globally as a result of climate change. Mungbean highly sensitive to waterlogging, particularly during the early stages of growth. Waterlogging during early growth stages, cause considerable yield losses in mungbean. The main cause of damage under waterlogging is oxygen deficiency, lack of oxygen shifts the energy metabolism from aerobic mode to anaerobic mode, causes oxidative stress, interruption of nutrient and water intake. Chemical oxygen fertilization of the root zone with addition of fast release (liquid) formulations such as hydrogen peroxide, is a potential method of alleviating root hypoxia. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes in the soil releasing which is needed for aerobic metabolism in the roots. The purposes of this study is to examine and explore the possible effect of application of H2O2 (as a source of oxygen) in flooded soil in improving growth and yield of mungbean genotypes under flooding stress conditions and for better understanding of mechanism, changes in physiological attributes and biochemical traits were also studied. The present investigation entitled “EFFECT OF FLOODING AND CHEMICAL OXYGEN ENRICHMENT ON PHYSIOLOGY OF MUNGBEAN [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]” was conducted with two objectives (1) Identification of a contrasting set of mungbean genotypes for flooding stress on the basis of morpho-physiological traits. (2) To investigate the response of exogenous application of hydrogen peroxide on tolerance mechanism of mungbean genotypes under flooding stress. Complete experiment was performed in pot and morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters were studied in 21-days-old mungbean genotypes. Effect on yield and yield attributes were also studied in in all treatments. For identification of contrasting sets of mungbean genotypes to flooding stress, pot culture experiment was performed with sixteen mungbean genotypes. All genotypes were subjected to flooding stress for 7 days and morpho-physiological data was collected at the end of flooding stress. The morphological and physiological parameters were significantly decreased under flooding stress compared to control condition. Among genotypes, least percent reduction in shoot length, root length, plant height, dry weight, relative water content and SPAD value was observed in genotypes IPM-02-3 and GAM-5 and maximum percent reduction was observed in PANT M-5 and SML-1901. In objective second, two experiments were conducted. First experiment was performed with four mungbean genotypes, IPM-02-3, GAM-5 (tolerant genotypes) and PANT M-5, SML-1901 (susceptible genotypes) to identify optimum H2O2 concentration. Total three concentrations (1%, 2% & 3%) of H2O2 was used as a source of oxygen. Addition of hydrogen peroxide in flooded soil helped in maintaining the higher growth and physiological traits compared to untreated condition. Among three different concentrations, 3% hydrogen peroxide showed better results in all growth and physiological parameters than 1% & 2% concentrations of hydrogen peroxides under flooding stress. Second experiment was also performed in pot with one tolerant (IPM-02-3) and one susceptible genotype (PANT M-5), to compare the change in morphological, physiological traits, biochemical traits, yield and yield attributes of mungbean genotypes under control, flooding stress and addition of 3% hydrogen peroxide in flooded soil. Results showed that flooding stress significantly decreased the growth parameters (plant height, no of nodules and dry weight), physiological parameters (RWC, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, SPAD value, and MSI), and yield and yield attributes (yield per plant, test weight, number of pods plant-1, and number of seeds plant-1) in both mungbean genotypes compared to control. However, biochemical traits (TBARS content, alcohol dehydrogenase, catalase, peroxidase and SOD activity, and proline contents) increased significantly compared to control plant. Addition of 3% hydrogen peroxide in flooded soil facilitated to maintain higher growth (plant height, no of nodules and dry weight), physiological parameters (RWC, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, SPAD value, and MSI), and yield and yield attributes (yield per plant, test weight, number of pods plant-1, and number of seeds plant-1) in both mungbean genotypes compared to untreated flooded condition. The biochemical parameters (TBARS content, alcohol dehydrogenase, catalase, peroxidase and SOD activity, and proline contents) were decreased significantly compared to untreated flooded condition as stress level decreased which was reflected in terms of decrease in TBARS contents. Overall flooding stress at vegetative stress adversely affected the mungbean genotypes and genotypic variation in response to flooding stress was observed. The addition of 3% hydrogen peroxide in flooded soil mitigated the adverse effect on growth and yield of mungbean genotypes. Thus, the potential exists to use chemical oxygen fertilization to reduce the adverse effect of flooding stress in flood-prone areas and in flooding sensitive genotypes. However, further studies are needed for different soil types and in field conditions.