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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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Author: Bandhavya, Mallela × Start date: 2001 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A performance appraisal of national agriculture market (e-NAM) of Guntur mandi in Andhra Pradesh
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Bandhavya, Mallela; Singh, Ashok Kumar
    The present study entitled “A performance appraisal of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) of Guntur mandi in Andhra Pradesh” was undertaken mainly to study the performance of e-NAM. This was descriptive or non-experimental research, and research design adopted for the study was ex-post facto cause to effect. The study covered Guntur mandi of Andhra Pradesh which was purposively selected. The sample size was 100, and the sampling method was disproportionate stratified random sampling method. Primary data was collected from 100 respondents out of which 30 were farmers, 30 traders, 5 FPOs, 25 commission agents, 10 e-NAM officials from the market using a specially designed interview schedule pertaining to the year 2018-19. The socio-economic and personal characteristics of the stakeholders, assessing the performance appraisal of e-NAM, perception of different stakeholders towards the e-NAM goals/objectives, and constraints in the effective performance of e-NAM perceived by different stakeholders were studied through this research efforts. The analysis of the collected data revealed that most of the farmers (70%) belonged to the middle age group between 36 to 50 years with small family sizes (less than 5 members in their family) pursued a secondary/ Intermediate level of education and were not having membership in any social organization (86.6%) in the study area and engaged in crop cultivation alone (66.6%) with large land-holding (66.7%) and had a medium level of annual family income (₹ 327450), medium level of extension contact (76.7%), medium mass media exposure (70%) with medium scientific orientation (76.6%), had availability of transportation (96.6%)and medium use of ICT tools (63.3%). Out of the total 12 variables of farmers, Social participation, occupation, annual family income, scientific orientation were found positively significant at 1% level and landholding found was significantly correlated at 5% level with performance of e-NAM given by farmers. A total of 12 explanatory variables of farmer were considered for regression analysis. Out of these, scientific orientation was positively significant at a 1% level. The variable land-holding is negatively significant at 1% level while social participation and annual family income were found significant at a 5% level. Remaining variables found non-significant. Multiple linear regression analysis portrayed that all the selected variables put together accounted for 79.60% variation in performance of e-NAM. The majority of the traders were middle-aged (53%), with small family sizes, and pursued the Secondary/ Intermediate level of education (53.3%) with medium level annual family income (₹401333.3). The majority of the commission agents was middle-aged (40%), with small family sizes, and had pursued Primary education /Middle school level of education (32%) with medium level annual family income (₹492600). The majority of the e-NAM officials was middle-aged (40%), with small family sizes, and had a graduation level of education (40%) with medium level annual family income (₹130700). The average age of traders was more than commission agents and farmers, whereas the family size of farmers is more than commission agents and traders. Commission agents were having more average annual family income than other stakeholders, traders, farmers, and e-NAM officials. The illiterate percent was more among farmers than traders, commission agents and e-NAM officials. The majority of stakeholders (74%) had given an average level of score to the performance of e-NAM. Out of all sub-indicators of e-NAM, stakeholders gave a major score (88.17) to market information and the lowest score (52.71) to the infrastructure of e-NAM. Farmers gave the lowest mean score for performance than all other stakeholders. The lowest mean score for infrastructure was given by the commission agent, followed by farmers. The lowest mean score for transparency and quality assurance was given by farmers, followed by traders. Whereas, the lowest mean score for market information was given by a commission agent, and followed by farmers. So there is a lot of scope to improve performance of e-NAM. Most of the stakeholders (i.e., Farmers, Traders, Commission agents, FPOs, and e-NAM officials) perceived use of e-NAM as normal (i.e., not difficult or easy) Infrastructure as average, quality parameters as medium level (alright), Facilities are satisfactory, and had neutral perception towards other stakeholders. Most of the farmers had a perception that they had received money within one day after trade and e-NAM as transparent and overall perception of farmers towards e-NAM is satisfactory. Traders are paying money within 15 days after the trade but not within T+1 day, and they perceived e-NAM as not transparent and not satisfactory. According to C.A s farmers are receiving money within one day after trade and C.As are not satisfied with e-NAM; a majority of officials perceived that malpractices are going on in e-NAM, and they are satisfied with e-NAM. Major constraints of e-NAM from different stakeholders were identified and it was found that lack of awareness, depending on commission agent for money, the sale process is lengthy, complicated, and time-consuming were the significant constraints for farmers, payment on the same day is difficult, not satisfying with quality assaying report given by e-NAM, lack of infrastructure were the crucial constraints for traders, lack of infrastructure for FPOs, weighing of produce only after declaring winners list, payment on the same day of the transaction, lengthy process were critical constraints for commission agents, lack of commission agents and traders co-operation to promote e-NAM, no equipment for chemical analysis, and server problem were the major constraint for e-NAM officials.