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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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2023 - 20242
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Subject: Soil and Water Conservation × Start date: 2021 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of soil-water dynamics through HYDRUS 2D model under different planting and irrigation methods for wheat crop
    (RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) KUMAR, NIRAJ; Jain, S K.
    The studies on soil-water dynamics under different irrigation and planting methods for wheat crop were analyzed using the Hydrus 2D model during 45-75 DAS the crop growth period . The treatments were: furrow irrigation in raised bed (T1), sprinkler irrigation in conventional tillage (T2), flood irrigation in conventional tillage (T3), sprinkler irrigation in zero tillage with residue (T4), flood irrigation in zero tillage with residue (T5), sprinkler irrigation in zero tillage (T6) and flood irrigation in zero tillage (T7). Results on these practices showed that raised bed and zero tillage with residue reduced surface and sub-surface bulk density (BD), increased field saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and improved soil water retention significantly over CT and ZT without residue. For simulating water flow and RWU, hydraulic input parameters along with measured field saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS), Soil water content measured on the first day of simulation period as initial condition along with the atmospheric boundary conditions: potential evaporation (Ep), potential transpiration(TP) and amount of rain/ irrigation applied and root parameters : vertical & horizontal root spread along with the diameter of primary roots were specified before running the model. Validation of the model was done by comparing the predicted SMC with experimentally measured MC. In comparison to flood irrigation system, the simulated cumulative RWU in RB with furrow irrigation system and sprinkler system were higher. The maximum root growth in sprinkler irrigation vertically up to 30 cm and horizontally up to 13 cm; where as in flood irrigation vertically up to 35 cm and horizontally up to 10 cm. In comparison to flood irrigation, wheat crops are grown with sprinkler irrigation had more roots or roots with greater density at soil depths between 0 and 30 cm. The water movement at the depth of 0-45 cm varies from 17.4 -35.9 %. Maximum moisture content at depth of 0-15 cm, 15-30 cm and 30-45 cm were 34.8 % in treatment T4, 35.9 % in treatment T1 and 35.2 % in treatment T2 respectively. In flood irrigation maximum cumulative drainage was recorded which were 8.00, 7.64 and 4.31 cm in T7, T3 and T5 treatments respectively. Results of validation of Hydrus 2D model for prediction of SWC showed satisfactory performance (RMSE = 0.016 cm3cm-3 and R2 = 0.86). Data showed that raised bed with furrow irrigation followed by sprinkler irrigation method had a good impact on wheat root development metrics and yield. Sprinkler irrigation has been effective at suppling irrigation water to plant roots while preserving optimal production. Hence it was concluded that furrow irrigation in raised bed (T1) practice should be adopted for wheat cultivation, as these practices modified soil water regime in root zone, enhanced root growth and improved radiation interception, LAI and RWU. The Hydrus 2D can satisfactorily simulate the temporal changes in water balance components in the root zone during the crop period; hence it may be adopted for evaluating different management practices in terms of improvement in water use.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Sustainable Water Resource Planning for Burhi Gandak River Basin using Soft-Computing Techniques
    (RPCAU, Pusa, 2024) PRAJAPATI, RAJAT; Chandra, Ravish
    The present research work was conducted in the Burhi Gandak river Basin which is anintegral part of major basins in north Bihar. The assessment ofavailable groundwater resource was accomplished by the latest data provided by the CGWB and methods of surface water assessment was done using the discharge data of the gauge stations lying within the basin. The demand side of the basin that considered major water demanding sectors like crop water demand , domestic, livestock and industrial water demand. The CWR of major crops was estimated using FAO’s CROPWAT 8.0 model. The domestic and livestock water demand was estimated using the estimated and projected population from the latest census reports available. The industrial water demand was assessed by the data provided by CGWB, 2022 ArcGIS software and Google Earth Engine, a cloud-basedplatform, were primarily used toassess thedynamics of land use and cover change.Three sets oftime periods, 2013, 2017, and 2022, were examined using LANDSAT pictures to assess theclassificationoflanduseandlandcoverwithchangingdynamics.Totalsixclasses- forest, vegetation, waterbodies, built-up area, agricultural area and barren land wereusedinthe LULCclassificationscheme. Thesupervisedclassificationscheme,RandomForest algorithm was used by the Google Earth Engine to analyze this LULC categorizationThe overallaccuracy and Kappa statistic for LULC classification were found to be 66.67 % and 66.67 %,72.22 % and 0.53, 0.53 and 0.72 for year 2013, 2017 and 2022 respectively.The average surface water available in the BG basin was 4.51 BCM and the total ground water available was 2.85 BCM making the total water resource available in the basin to be 7.36 BCM. Total water demand of all the sectors including crop water requirements, domestic water demand , livestock water demand and industrial water demand for year was estimated to be 3.85 BCM and total water demand for the projected year 2027 was 4.21 BCM. Total water balance of the basin for year 2022 was estimated to be 3.50 BCM and 3.15 BCM for the projected year 2027. The LULC change dynamics were observed between the years of 2013 and 2022, and it wasfoundthat,asaresultofindustrializationandpopulationgrowth,theareaextentofvegetation, agriculturalland,andbarren landdecreasedby -8.18 percent,-25.40 percent and -56.28 percent, respectively, while forest and waterbodies increased by 11.26 and 65.95 percent. Finally, a sustainable water resource management plan was compiled that suggested conjunctive use of water available water, resources resource conservation techniques with utilization of MIS technology incorporating with promotion of IFS (integrated farming system).