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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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ThesisItem Open Access Development of Gas Fired Portable Maize Roaster-cum-Boiler(Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2021) SINHA, RUPAM; Amitabh, AnupamIn India, the street vendors practiced the traditional method for roasting or boiling the sweet corn. As these roasted or boiled corns are among the most popular snacks enjoyed by the people. The unavailability of an integrated corn roasting cum boiling unit is mainly due to the huge gap between the affordability of Indian street vendors and the high cost of the machines for roasting and boiling. Apart from this, the Indian vendors also experience another drawback in the form of drudgery involved during roasting and boiling where they are constantly exposed to heat. In the traditional practices, the uneven roasting of corns effects its outer beauty or attractiveness, which are disliked by the people. The use of power driven and automated equipments are impossible for Indian street vendors due to their economic conditions. Therefore, developing of a corn roasting device with increased efficiency, productivity and with affordable price is very much needed in order to face the stress and limitations during roasting. In the view of this, a gas fired portable maize roaster-cum-boiler was designed and developed and its performance evaluation was evaluated. The developed roaster-cum-boiler can roast around 30 maize and can boil around 28 maize in an hour. The average heat utilization factor in full load condition was 0.254. An average thermal efficiency of 61.88% was obtained for the unit. The mean roasting efficiency of the developed corn cob roaster cum boiler was determined to be 95.07 per cent. Total cost of the functional prototype is Rs 20,735. The net present worth calculated for next 5 years was Rs 2,10,881, internal rate of return 294.30%, benefit cost ratio 1.37 and payback period 0.33 years inferring that the developed unit is economically viable.ThesisItem Open Access Development of extruded snacks from rice broken-soybean meal-moringa leaves(DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) VERMA, KARISHMA; Sharma, P.D.High temperature short time process in which mixture of moist flour is cater into the extrusion machine at a particular temperature, pressure and resident time is known as extrusion cooking. Food industry produced by-product was used to prepare ready to eat extruded snacks through extrusion cooking. Broken rice powder, defatted soybean meal and Moringa leaves powder were used in varying proportion to prepare composite flour. Laboratory twin screw extruder is used to prepare extruded food product. Central composite rotatable design was used to conduct the experiment having five level of four independent variable each (feed proportion- 85:10:5, 80:13.75:6.25, 75:17.5:7.5, 70:21.25:8.75, 65:25:10 ; feed rate - 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 kg/h, screw speed - 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 rpm, Barrel temperature- 100, 115, 130, 145, 160°C). Thirty treatments were prepared to investigate the effect of independent variables on different dependent variables like moisture content, expansion ratio, bulk density, true density, water activity and overall acceptability. During experiment RSM was used for optimization to obtain the best combination of independent variable and to generate the second order multiple regression equation for all the dependent variables. The best optimized product was prepared at optimum solution in which feed proportion (A) 75:17.5:7.5( 25% broken rice powder, 17.5% defatted soybean meal, 7.5% moringa leaves powder) feed rate(B) 11 kg/ h, screw speed(C) 250 rpm, barrel temperature (D) 145°C produced the most acceptable extruded productin terms of optimum values of Moisture content (MC)-5.6%, expansion ratio (ER)-2.99, bulk density (BD)-124.31 kg/m3, True density (TD)-128.34kg/m3, water activity(Aw)-0.4559, overall acceptability (OA)-7.68.The optimized extruded products have well-balanced acceptable range of the nutrition (moisture content 5.6%, total carbohydrate 69.70%, protein 18.99%, fat 1.98%, fibre 2.224%,ash content 1.49%).ThesisItem Open Access Development of osmo-dehydrated value-added products from Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)(DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) KUMAR, AMAN; Shrivastava, MukeshFresh 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.ThesisItem Open Access Use of biopolymer-based coating material for enhancing the shelf life of sugarcane jaggery(DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) Pandey, Vivek; Amitabh, AnupamIndia is the world‟s second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil which is used for producing jaggery, but due to its hygroscopic nature, the storage of jaggery becomes one of the major problems in India. The present study was carried out to use biopolymer material coating to enhance shelf life of jaggery. The coating solution was prepared using zein (0.1-8%) as base material with polyethylene glycol (0.1-5%) as plasticizer and sodium tripolyphosphate (0.1-1%) as crosslinker. RSM based three factor three level Box-Behnken experimental design was used to optimize the response variables in terms of Moisture absorption, Puncture strength, Opacity, Total colour difference, Whiteness index and Antimicrobial activity. The optimum solution was obtained at 4.968% zein, 0.1% PEG and 0.655% STPP. Furthermore, storage study of coated and uncoated jaggery was performed for a period of 150 days. The moisture content, water activity, reducing sugar, total colour difference and total plate count increased throughout the storage period in both the jaggery samples (coated and uncoated) but the increment was more significant in uncoated jaggery compared to coated jaggery. Hardness reduced during the storage period with the greater reduction in uncoated jaggery sample compared to coated one. The sensory results of coated and uncoated jaggery were insignificantly different at the start of storage, showing no masking effect of coating on sensorial attributes. The overall study showed better stability of jaggery with biopolymer coating, which gives a scope of commercialization of the technology.ThesisItem Open Access Development of process technology for preparation of watermelon jaggery(2022) HANMANT, PURANIK PRATIKSHA; Kumar, VishalWatermelon is a nutritious alternative to energy drinks as it is a natural source of phenolic antioxidants; amino acid, carotenoid lycopene, vitamin A, potassium and magnesium. Watermelon biomass composed of four main components - flesh, peel, rind and seed. About one-third of the watermelon weight is comprised by its rind. Due to the rind's lack of sweetness, it is discarded as waste. Large quantities of watermelons are lost due to poor post-harvest techniques a huge volume of watermelons get damaged, spoilt, discarded and left on field itself by cultivars due to its low in brix value which fetches a very low price in market. The fruit can be used at this point of time for preparing the value added products from the watermelon which will fetch higher income to the farmers. Watermelon juice possesses similar chemical properties to that of sugarcane juice and possibility of preparation of jaggery from watermelon need was explored. The process of preparation of watermelon jaggery was studied by the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box-Behnken Design. In this design, the low and high levels of the process variables were 10.00 and 15.00 % for rind content; 5 to 10 % (w/w) for binding agent; 7.5 -12.5 %w/w for sweetening agent, respectively. Responses studied comprised jaggery processing time, jaggery yield, moisture content, TSS pH, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, colour index, hardness and overall acceptability. The optimum conditions (desirability of 0.738) obtained by numerical optimization were of rind content 14.33 % (w/w), binding agent 9.86 % (w/w) and sweetening agent 12.50 %( w/w) to achieve minimum jaggery processing time, moisture content, reducing sugar and colour index and maximum jaggery yield TSS, pH, non-reducing sugar, hardness and overall acceptability. Corresponding to the optimum conditions, optimized yield as jaggery yield- 6.13 %, jaggery processing time- 236.54 minutes, moisture content- 25.11 (%, w.b.), TSS (ºBrix)-75.55, pH- 6.01, reducing sugar- 2.07%, non-reducing sugar- 1.71 %, colour- 42.42, hardness- 35.32 N, overall acceptability- 8.16. The optimised watermelon jaggery was acceptable for consumption during 60 days storage period w.r.t. coliform and total plate count.ThesisItem Open Access Study of Osmo-Dehydration of Mahua Flowers (Madhuca Indica)(DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) Kavya, Pendram; Shrivastava, MukeshMahua flowers are underutilized forest produce which has a very high potential for nutritional and economic benefit for the people. There is a wide scope of its utilization in effective way using engineering interventions. Hence, the present research was executed to study an important processing aspect of Mahua flowers i.e. osmotic dehydration. The process of osmosis was carried out by employing BBD experimental design with four independent variables having three levels each which included sugar concentration (SG) – 45, 55 and 65%; solution temperature (ST) – 40, 45, 50°C; immersion time (IT) - 60, 120 and 180 min and solution to product ratio (SPR) - 3:1, 4:1 and 5:1. The impact of these independent variables on three dependent variables - weight reduction (WR%), solute gain (SG%) and water loss (WL%) of osmo-dehydrated commodities was studied with 29 experimental design variations. The results were analysed using ANOVA and a second order polynomial model was fitted to the data. The optimization was done using RSM, which gave an optimal solution as sugar concentration (SC)-59.31%, solution temperature (ST)- 49.39°C, immersion time (IT)-153.85 min and solution to product ratio (SPR)-3.32 :1 in order to obtain optimized yield of water loss (WL)-18.32%, solute gain (SG)-2.99%, and weight reduction (WR)- 15.97% with desirability value 1.0. Furthermore, three distinct drying air temperatures (50, 60 and 70°C) were employed in a laboratory model tray dryer to conduct drying investigations on raw fresh, blanched and osmosed Mahua flowers. On the basis of recorded data of weight loss with elapsed drying time, drying rate and moisture content reduction were evaluated. Drying of Osmosed Mahua flowers samples at 70°C drying air temperature resulted in shorter drying time as compared to raw fresh and blanched samples. The minimum time for drying was achieved by osmosed Mahua flowers at 70°C and it attained a final moisture content of 8.30%. The overall variation in bulk density was 0.414 – 0.467(g/cm3), in true density was 1.060 -1.435(g/cm3) and porosity was 0.582 -0.689 for different Mahua samples after drying. Osmo-dehydrated mahua flowers at 60°C showed the greatest hardness/peak force of 12.60 N with 0.580 second fracture time. the osmosed Mahua flowers dehydrated at 60°C resulted as the best acceptable product with overall acceptability of 6.93 with best rehydration characteristics. Good quality raisin like product could be obtained from drying of Mahua flowers by using osmotic dehydration technique followed by hot air tray drying at 60oC.ThesisItem Open Access Development of Value Added Product (Juice) from Pomelo (Citrus grandis Linn.)(DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) Verma, Anshul Kumar; Kumar, DevendraIndia is the second largest producer of fruits still lacks behind in processing and post-harvest management. Pomelo is one of the majorly grown fruits in North Bihar but its bitter taste creates a problematic condition in processing. The present investigation was carried out for the development of value-added products from pomelo by blending it with sweet orange. Pomelo juice was extracted and the study of biochemical properties was conducted. Ready to serve blended drinks were prepared by mixing it with sweet orange in 3 different proportions which was compared with RTS of pomelo and orange. The juice and prepared RTS product were analysed for changes in biochemical properties at 30 days intervals for a duration of 90 days. The RTS drinks were also analysed for microbial count. The prepared juice was also subjected to organoleptic evaluation after product preparation. It was observed that the TSS, pH, total and reducing sugar were found to be increasing whereas vitamin C, titrable acidity, and non-reducing sugar were found to be decreasing throughout the storage period. Microbial load of the juice was also found to be within limits for the juice to be consumed after 90 days. Sensory evaluation by fuzzy logic method of RTS blended drinks revealed that the best product was pure orange juice followed by blended juice in the ratio of 60:40 of pomelo and sweet orange respectively.ThesisItem Open Access Development of low cost portable Corn Roaster-cum-Boiler(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Thokchom, Dinesh; Kumar, VishalIn India, roasted or boiled sweet corns are sold by the street vendors very highly and also the roasted and boiled corns are popular snacks enjoyed by many people. Many have tried and various technologies have been created for the process of quicker and easy, low cost, stress-free roasting to be obtained. The limitation of unavailability of an integrated corn roasting cum boiling unit is mainly due to the huge gap between the affordability of Indian street vendors and the high cost of the machines for roasting and boiling corns. Beside from this, the Indian vendors also experience another drawback in the form of drudgery involved during roasting and boiling where they are constantly exposed to heat. At times when the corn is over or under roasted, the traditional roasting process affects the outer beauty or attractiveness of the corn. The use of power driven and automated equipments are impossible for Indian street vendors due to their economic conditions. Therefore, developing of a corn roasting device with increased efficiency, productivity and with affordable price is very much needed in order to face the stress and limitations during roasting. A low cost portable corn roaster-cum-boiler was designed and developed and its performance evaluation was evaluated. It was designed and fabricated which can roast around 20 corns and can boil 24 corns in an hour. The average heat utilization factor in no load condition was found to be 0.14 while at full load condition it was 0.26. An average thermal efficiency of 51.05 per cent was obtained for the unit. The mean roasting efficiency of the developed corn cob roaster cum boiler was determined to be 95.09%.Total cost of the functional prototype is Rs 20,000.The net present worth calculated for next 5 years was Rs 1, 64,990, internal rate of return 243 per cent, benefit cost ratio 1.44 and payback period 0.40 years inferring that the developed unit is economically viable.ThesisItem Open Access Development of ready to use powder from plant based clarificants for production of quality jaggery(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Tekam, Amit; Kumar, VishalSugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is commercial cash crops used for the Jaggery production. The process involves extraction of juice, clarification and concentration. The raw juice contains impurities and non-soluble solids which affect the quality of the jaggery. Hence clarification process is done. Plant based clarificant are effective clarificants and produces good quality jaggery. Due to non-availability of any plant based clarificants during jaggery manufacturing period, an attempt was made to develop ready-to-use clarificant powder prepared from different plant based clarificants which can be available throughout the year. The selected clarificant materials - fenugreek seeds, flax seeds, soybean seeds, semal bark and okra stem were dried and milled into powder using grinder. The mucilage was prepared from seeds and plant sources powder by soaking in water at ratio of 1:5 (w/v) for 6 h, then boiling in water bath for 5 h and then cooling below 20 oC. The mixtures were then filtered with muslin cloth and the filtered was used for jaggery production at three different concentrations namely 0.1%, 0.3% & 0.5% (w/w) to sugarcane juice. The effect of the clarificants and their levels on each quality parameters such as moisture content, jaggery yield, processing time, scum removal, TSS, pH, colour, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar and sensory score were found using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5 per cent level of significance. It was observed that jaggery yield, processing time, scum removed, colour and sensory were affected significantly by the type of clarificants used while reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, pH, TSS and moisture content had non-significant effect. Okra stem clarificants had maximum effect on quality parameters in order to yield-12.2%, processing time-72.33 min, colour-74.56%, non-reducing sugar-83.14%, reducing sugar- 8.02%, TSS-81.3% and moisture content-5.34%. Soybean seeds had maximum effect on scum removed and pH. Sensory attributes were maximum for fenugreek seeds. Okra stem, soybean seed and fenugreek seeds were selected for the preparation of mixture clarificants which will bear all the quality parameters for the production of quality jaggery. The mixture clarificants were optimized using Response surface methodology to determine the mixtures proportion based on quality parameters. A total 16 combinations were formed with three levels of each clarificants [okra stem-0.1, 0.3 and 0.5%, soybean seeds-0.1, 0.3& 0.5%, Fenugreek seeds-0.1, 0.3& 0.5%] and the effect of mixtures were determined on different dependent variables like yield, processing time, scum removal, colour, and sensory score of these independent variables. Second order multiple regression equations were also developed for all the dependent variables. The optimize mixture clarificant of okra stem- 0.5 per cent, soybean seeds- 0.1 per cent and fenugreek seeds - 0.4 per cent emerged out as better than other mixture in order to obtain optimized yield - 12.16 per cent, scum remove - 6.58 percent, colour-74.31 per cent, sensory score-8.72, and minimum processing time-75.42 min.
