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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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20211
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Subject: Vegetable Science × Author: SHAHNAWAZ, AHMED × End date: 2021 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND CAUSE EFFECT RELATIONSHIP STUDIES IN TOMATO “(Solanum lycopersicum L.)’’ FOR YIELD AND YIELD ATTRIBUTING TRAITS UNDER LOW TEMPERATURE
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) SHAHNAWAZ, AHMED; Yadav, L. M.
    The current research was conducted at the “Vegetable Research farm of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar”, during the rabi season (2020-21) having Twenty-five tomato genotypes, including a control, Kashi Vishesh to evaluate the twenty-five genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in a Randomized Block Design with three replications for yield and yield attributing traits. Studies were carried out on “variability, character association, path analysis, and genetic divergence” for characters like “Plant height (cm), number of primary branches/plants, number of days to first flower initiation, number of flowers/clusters, number of fruits/clusters, number of clusters/plants, number of days to first picking, polar diameter of fruit (cm), equatorial diameter of fruit (cm), average fruit weight (g), TSS content of the fruit (obrix), acidity of the fruit (%), number of fruits/plant and fruit yield/plant (kg)”. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed highly significant differences among the genotypes for every trait. Estimations of genetic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for the characters like: “fruit yield per plant (kg), average fruit weight (g), equatorial diameter of fruit (cm), number of primary branches/plants, plant height (cm), polar diameter of fruit (cm), number of fruits/plant and acidity of the fruit (%)”. A high heritability value was detected, as well as a high genetic advance as percent of the mean for all the fourteen characters. These characters indicated that the presence of additive gene effects that may be exploited through phenotypic selection to improve yield. Based on correlation and path analysis, “Plant height, Average fruit weight and number of fruits per plant” exhibited positive and significant correlation with yield per plant having their positive direct effect suggesting that during selection these traits may be considered as prime traits to improve the yield of tomato. The twenty-five genotypes were divided into nine clusters using Tocher’s method, however, the genotype distribution within each cluster varied in number. Cluster I had the highest number of genotypes (eleven) followed by (four) genotypes in cluster III, (three) in cluster VI, (two) in cluster V and cluster II, IV, VII, VIII, and IX had only (one) genotype each. Cluster I and Cluster V had the highest and lowest intra-cluster distances, respectively. The inter-cluster distance was lowest between clusters II and V and highest between clusters VIII and IX, indicating these genotypes might be used in an inter-varietal hybridization program to achieve superior recombinants. Average fruit weight (24.00 %) contributed the most to divergence, followed by acidity of the fruit (16.33 %), TSS content of the fruit (15.67 %), and number of primary branches per plant (15.00 %). They have collectively contributed 71 %. So, based on this study, genotypes EC 320574 (Cluster V) and PDT-3-1 (Cluster VIII) were selected as superior lines based on high inter-cluster distance alongside mean performance for most of the yield attributing traits suggesting that these genotypes may be used in crossing programme to obtain heterotic recombinants as well as transgressive segregants.