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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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1994 - 199962010 - 20131
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Subject: Plant Physiology × End date: 2013 × Type: Thesis ×
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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Physiological studies in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at various growth stages on salt affected soils
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1998) Roy, Narendra Kumar; Srivastava, A.K.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Physiology of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes under salt stress
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1997) Singh, Ajay Kumar; Singh, R.A.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Physiological and biochemical study of Maize (Zea mays L.) grown under waterlogged situations
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1995) Sinha, Nawlesh Kumar; Srivastava, A.K.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Allelopathic interaction in Leucaena leucocephala based agroforestry system
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1995) Sinha, Ramesh Chandra; Rizvi, J.H.
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    Physiology of germinating rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes under moisture stress
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 1994) Jha, Birendra Nath; Singh, R.A.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Physiology of Germinating Aerobic Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes under Moisture Stress
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2013) Kumar, Ghanshyam; Singh, A. K.
    Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is most important staple food crop in Asia. Rice is the life of more than half of the world population. Globally, rice is grown over an area of 164.80 million hectare with an annual production of 721 million tones having productivity of 4.4 tonnes/hecatres. Over 90% of world’s rice is produced and consumed in Asia, where it provides 35-60% of total calories intake (FAO, 2011-12). In India, rice is cultivated on an area of 45.20 million hectare with an annual production of 102 million tonnes having productivity of 2.26 tonnes/hectares. In Bihar, rice is cultivated an area of 3.33 million hectares with 6.75 million tonnes having average productivity of 2.02 tonnes/hectares (Anonymous, 2012). Aerobic rice is one of the best approaches which can address the problem of drought and limited water. As we know, rice requires approximately 3000-5000 liters of water to grow one kilogram of rice traditionally and the availability of water for agriculture is declining. There is need to save water for rice cultivation in future to overcome the problem of water scarcity. Keeping this in mind present study is undertaken to identify some parameters to screen tolerant genotypes and also to study tolerance mechanism against moisture stress. For this study, different concentration of moisture stress, viz., -5.0, -8.0 and -10.0 (atm.) were prepared using polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000). Seeds of twenty five aerobic rice genotypes were disinfected with 0.1% HgCl2 solution for two minutes and then thoroughly washed with distilled water. Twenty five seeds of each genotype were put in each sterilized Petri dish lined with blotting paper. Seeds were treated with three levels of moisture stress, viz,. -5.0, -8.0 and -10.0 (atm.). In control, seeds were treated distilled water. Germination counts were recorded after twenty-four hours and experiment was terminated on 8th day. Based on the germination percentage, vigour index and mobilization efficiency against maximum stress level, tolerant/susceptible aerobic rice genotypes were screened. During the screening of genotype IR 79913- B-176-B-4 and IR 55423- 01 were identified as tolerant, whereas IR 81429- B-31 and IR 80312- 6-B-3-2-B were found susceptible genotypes at -10.0 (atm.). The physiological parameters like germination percentage, germination relative index, vigour index, mobilization efficiency, seedling length, root length, shoot length and shoot/root ratio declined with increasing moisture stress. Tolerant genotypes were significantly superior to susceptible genotypes with regard to all physiological parameters. Among the biochemical parameters reducing, non-reducing and total sugars showed a decreasing trend in all the genotypes. Tolerant genotypes had minimum reduction percentage in comparison with susceptible genotypes. At -10.0 (atm.) stress level, starch content was higher in susceptible genotypes in comparison with tolerant genotypes. Total soluble proteins content showed decreasing trend in tolerant genotypes, whereas increasing in susceptible ones. The proline content showed an increasing trend with increasing moisture stress. However, the percentage increase in proline content was relatively more in tolerant genotypes than susceptible. With regard to total phenols content it increased in tolerant and decreased in susceptible genotypes. The amylase activity showed a decreasing trend with increase in moisture stress. Though, amylase activity was found higher in tolerant genotypes. The protease activity and peroxidase activity increased in tolerant genotypes and decreased in susceptible genotypes. As regard co-relation co-efficient of with germination percentage, these parameters starch and protein were found negatively co-related and the rest of the parameters are positively co-related. Amylase was found non-significant and total sugar was significant, whereas proline, phenol, protease and peroxidase were highly significant. Some of these parameters might be useful for screening/ devolving aerobic rice genotypes against moisture stress.