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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: Processing and Food Engineering × Author: KUMAR, AMAN × Start date: 2012 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of osmo-dehydrated value-added products from Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) KUMAR, AMAN; Shrivastava, Mukesh
    Fresh and good quality corms of Elephant Foot Yam (EFY) (Gajendra variety) were procured from the TCA, Dholi campus, DrRPCAU, Pusa, and were washed thoroughly under running water followed by cutting into flakes of approx. 42 mm (L) x 26 mm (W) x 1.8 mm (T) using knife and kitchen grater. CCRD design was applied to carry out osmotic dehydration experiments for four independent variables with five levels each [Salt Concentration (SC) - 5,10, 15, 20, 25%; Solution Temperature (ST) - 30, 35, 40, 45, 50oC; Immersion Time (IT) - 60, 90, 120, 150, 180 min; Solution to Product Ratio (SPR) – 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1]. The effect of these independent variables on different dependent variables like Water Loss (WL, %), Solute Gain (SG, %), Weight Reduction (WR %) and Water Loss/Solute Gain ratio (WL/SG) of osmo-dehydrated product was seen through different experimental combinations (30). The optimization technique by response surface methodology was applied to select the best combination out of these 30 experiments. Second order multiple regression equations were developed for all the dependent variables to know the effect of independent variables. Osmotic dehydration treatment facilitates better results with optimum solution of SC-10 %, ST- 45℃, IT - 90 minutes and SPR – 6:1 with an optimized yield as WL - 20.65%, SG - 3.6%, WR – 16.05 and WL/SG – 5.74 of with desirability 0.914. A laboratory model tray dryer was used for conducting drying experiments at three different drying air temperatures (50, 60 and 70oC) of raw fresh, blanched and optimized osmosed EFY flakes. On the basis of observed data of weight loss with elapsed drying time, the drying rate and moisture reduction were calculated. Drying of osmosed EFY flakes at 50oC drying air temperature resulted in shorter drying time to produce best quality dried product as compared to blanched and raw fresh EFY flake samples. The drying time of osmosed sample was reduced to 240 minutes as compared to 300 and 390 minutes taken by blanched and raw fresh EFY flake samples. The dehydrated EFY flake samples were taken for Quality evaluation by sensory method, textural properties and rehydration of final product was also carried out. The osmotically dehydrated EFY flake samples dried at 50oC, scored maximum overall acceptability of 7.93 with best rehydration characteristics like rehydration ratio of 3.042 to yield good quality rehydrated sample which can be preserved and used during off- season.