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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: Soil Science × Author: Prabha, Sneh × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2017 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Spatial distribution of different pools of potassium in North Bihar Soils
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2017) Prabha, Sneh; Prasad, S. S.
    The present investigation entitled “Spatial distribution of different pools of potassium in North Bihar soils” was carried out at Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi an unique campus of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar in year 2016-2017. Soils of North Bihar extending between 88°17'17.04" E to 83°54'18.02" E longitude and 27°17'4.44" N to 25°29'58.17" N latitude having a vast area of 52,925 sq km. Potassium (K) is the third major nutrient after N and P, required by plants for buildup of biomass. It exists in soil in different forms and these forms are in quasi equilibrium with each other. K is essential in modern agriculture, horticulture and vegetable crops as it makes plants tolerant to drought and frost and resistant to a number of diseases and pest attack besides its impact on yield and quality. Now a day, K is recognized as an important limiting factor in crop production. In the absence of adequate K fertilization, significant depletion of soil K reserve takes place, effect of which is substantial yield loss and higher economic risk of farmers. In the year 2020, the deficit of K in Indian agriculture is projected to be around 10 million tonnes/annum while the estimates for N and P balances are positive (Srinivasarao et al., 2001). Such a deficit will create serious nutrient imbalances with major implications on factor productivity and environment. It is worthwhile to note that even the most progressive and productive states like Punjab and Haryana, have most skewed N:P2O5:K2O ratio. The focus has been on N followed by P and very little use of K resulting in a huge imbalance. Geographical Information Systems offer the flexibility to visualize the spatial information in an easier way. With the availability of open source geographic information system software and high end computing facilities at low cost, use of GIS for scientific and utilities management has increased substantially. The GIS consists of organizing the information of an attribute in systematic continuous grids popularly known as raster maps or in continuous polygon (vector maps). The soils developed by sediments deposit of Gandak, Budhi Gandak and Bagmati rivers are calcareous in nature, whereas the soils developed by sediments deposit of Kosi, Adhwara group and Kamala Balan rivers are non-calcareous in nature. The study had primary objectives to assess different fractions of K in soils, to correlate available K with different K fractions and soil characteristics and to prepare GIS-aided maps for spatial distribution pattern of different forms of K and their combination. One hundred twenty one samples were collected on grid basis with coordinates through GPS and thematic soil maps were prepared using TNTmips (2010) GIS software. Wide variation in water soluble K (3.5 ppm to 67 ppm), exchangeable K (12 ppm to 274 ppm), available K (17 ppm to 330 ppm), non-exchangeable K (65 ppm to 2101 ppm), nitric acid soluble K (126 ppm to 2431 ppm) and total K (469 ppm to 22471.20 ppm) were recorded in soils of North Bihar and are present in following order viz. total K > nitric acid soluble K > non-exchangeable K > available K > exchangeable K > water soluble K. Significant correlation and regression were found among various soil properties and pools of K. Correlation coefficient with organic carbon and pools of K (Available K, Nitric acid soluble K and Non-exchangeable K) are significantly and positively correlated (r = 0.186*, r = 0.201* and r = 0.182*, respectively ) in North Bihar. Non-exchangeable K is significantly and negatively correlated with soil pH (r = - 0.225*). Nitric acid soluble K was significantly and negatively correlated with pH (r = - 0.237**) and cation exchange capacity (r = - 0.253**); non-exchangeable Potassium was significantly and negatively correlated with cation exchange capacity (r = - 0.271**). Spatial distribution of pools of potassium generated on the basis of interpolation of point data provides spatial information for potassium management in North Bihar. Soil map generated by combination of exchangeable and non-exchangeable K of soil into nine classes among which, Class I , Class II, Class IV and Class VII cumulatively cover 45.23 % area comprising in Motihari, Bettiah, Jaynagar, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Kisanganj, Purnia and Araria districts of North Bihar, where K application must be done to realize full yield potential of different cropping systems.