Thumbnail Image

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.

Browse

20181
Reset filters
Subject: Soil and Water Engineering × Author: Kumar, Vicky × Start date: 2018 × Type: Thesis ×
Reset filters

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Performance Evaluation of FAO-AquaCrop Model for Maize crop in Eastern Part of Indo-Gangetic Plain
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2018) Kumar, Vicky; Chandra, Ravish
    he present study was undertaken to study the response of different level of irrigation on crop growth, yield, biomass and water use efficiency of Rabi maize under North Bihar condition. A further field investigation was also undertaken to evaluate of FAO-AquaCrop model for Rabi maize under different level of furrow irrigation at experimental field of AICRP on Irrigation Water Management, Dr. RPCAU, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar. Crop growth, yield, biomass and water use were measured under different treatments. The AquaCrop model was used to simulate Rabi maize yield and biomass under full deficit irrigation and rainfed treatments. Evaluation of AquaCrop model was accomplished using the observed values from field experiment during 4th Nov. 2016 to 13th April 2017 for Rabi maize. The biometric parameters like plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and canopy spread were significantly superior in treatment T1(control/full irrigation) compared to other deficit irrigation and rainfed treatments. The biometric parameters like plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and canopy spread for treatment T1(control/full irrigation) was 179.80 cm, 29.90 mm, 12 and 87.70 cm respectively. Rabi maize yield was highest for treatment T1 with a value of 11.12 t/ha, followed by treatment T2 (75% of CI) with a value of 10.98 t/ha and lowest for treatment T4 (Rainfed) with a value of 3.35 t/ha. Biomass was highest for treatment T1 (CI) with a value of 24.92 t/ha, followed by treatment T2 (75% of CI) with a value of 24.65 t/ha and lowest treatment T4 (Rainfed) with the value of 7.931 t/ha. The crop yield and biomass were significantly higher for treatment T1 (control/full irrigation) compared to other treatments. The water use efficiency of Rabi maize yield decreased with increase in irrigation level for all treatments of furrow irrigation. Water use efficiency was highest for treatment T3 with a value of 310 kg/ha-cm followed by treatment T2 with a value of 303 kg/ha-cm. The water use efficiency was significantly higher treatment T3 (50% of CI) compared to other treatments. The adapted values of canopy growth coefficient and canopy decline coefficient were 15.4% day-1 and 9.5% day-1 respectively for Rabi maize. The days of emergence, sowing to flowering, senescence and maturity were 6, 60, 142 and 161 days respectively. The adopted values of water productivity (WP) were obtained as 30.7 g m-2. The harvest index was obtained as 48%. The AquaCrop model evaluated for grain yield and biomass under different irrigation levels resulted in prediction error ranging from 2.25% to 9.59% and 2.44% to 11.84% respectively. The AquaCrop model was evaluated for simulation of grain yield and biomass of Rabi maize for all treatment with the prediction statistics 0.971 < E < 0.988, 0.221 < RMSE < 0.731, 0.987 < R2 < 0.997 and 0.421 < MAE < 0.806 t ha-1. The AquaCrop model predictions for grain yield and biomass of Rabi maize were in line with the observed data corroborated with E and R2 values approaching one. The AquaCrop model was more accurate in predicting the maize yield under full and 75% of CI as compared to the rainfed and 50% of CI.