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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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20181
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Author: Chandra, Khusboo ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Stability study on basal and non-basal branching genotypes of Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern & Coss) under different moisture regimes
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2018) Chandra, Khusboo; Pandey, Anil
    Keeping in view large acreage of Indian mustard under conserved residual moisture – rainfed condition on farmers‟ fields, the present study entitled “Stability study on basal and non-basal branching genotypes of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern & Coss) under different moisture regimes” was undertaken. Two field experiments: Divergence study under rainfed condition (Rabi 2015-16) with 50 genotypes from 10 AICRP-R&M centres located in major crop Brassicas growing areas; Stability study (Rabi 2016-17) with 20 genotypes, under four environments viz, no irrigation under Rainout Shelter (E1), rainfed (E2 ), one irrigation : 45 DAS (E3 ) and two irrigations: 45 and 65 DAS (E4 ), conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design in three replications and evaluated for twenty – five and thirty – three morpho-physio-biochemical traits, respectively along with laboratory experiment for drought related thirteen physiological traits. 50 genotypes for investigated characters revealed significant amount of variability, categorized as 13 BB and 37 Nbb (27 M-Nbb and 10 H-Nbb) plant types. Rajendra Suphlam and NDRE7 (BB), Pusa Mahak and NRCDR-2 (M-Nbb) and Rohini (H-Nbb) reflected superiority for many traits as compared to best national check basal – branching variety Varuna. High level of variation with more number of PBB, SB-PBB, less IL-PBB, bold seeds – PBB on basal branches observed as compared to Nbb on all 13 BB genotypes. PCV higher than GCV revealed environmental influence, PBP-1, SBP-1, NS, SG, IL, HFPB, HFS, AS, AB, RL, RV and RG exhibited high h2bs and Genetic advance as percent of mean revealing preponderance of additive effects of gene. Early DFF, DPM and less IL showed negative whereas, RV, RG and SS-1 exhibited positive association of traits with GYP1. Multivariate analyses, Tocher‟s, Euclidean and PCA methods reflected maximum contribution (85.39%) of root length, HFPB and RV towards total divergence. The suggested crosses with the most divergent parents involved all branching patterns (BB, M-Nbb and H-Nbb) in 13 crosses combining 9 (Tocher‟s and Euclidean method) and more reliable in six divergent crosses between six most divergent genotypes: Rajendra Suphlam/ Divya, Rajendra Suphlam/ RH0406 and Rajendra Suphlam/ TM-2 (BB/BB); Pusa Mahak/ Divya (M-Nbb/BB); Rajendra Suphlam/ Kranti(BB/M-Nbb) and Pusa Mahak/ Kanti (M-Nbb/H-Nbb) common from Tocher‟s, Euclidean and PCA methods, were suggested for future Brassica improvement. High amount of variability individual (E1, E2, E3, E4) and pooled over environments reflected worth of studied genotypes for most of the characters. Significant G-E interaction including environment (linear), linear component of G-E interaction and pooled deviation (non-linear) were significant indicating considerable genetic variability for most of the studied traits. Role of the environmental variation was observed for most of the attributes except no influence on SD, LS, SS-1, LAI, CC, PRO, TSW and OC. Out of eleven stable genotypes, seven (NRCDR-2, TM-151, Kranti, PKRS-28, TM-128, PM-28 and RAURD-78) in poor, two (Rajendra Suphlam and KMR 10-2) in average and two (Rohini and RH8814) in rich environments. NRCDR-2 and Rajendra Suphlam, both stable genotypes for yield in poor and average environments, respectively, exhibited stability for RGR, LAI,SLW, HI and DME( in poor) and for RV, DPM, CC, PRO and BY (in rich) environments. But for HFPB and TSW, Rajendra Suphlam reflected stability in poor whereas for HFPB, NRCDR-2 expressed in rich environment. For none of the 11 stable genotypes DFFO reflected stability and needs attention for ideotype development except RH-8814 in rich environments. NRCDR-2 (M-Nbb, Variety 2007) is the most stable genotype in poor whereas popular variety Rajendra Suphlam (BB) stable in average environments can be suggested to farmers for residual moisture – rainfed condition. Suggested plant ideotype based on findings of present investigation for moisture stressed – rainfed condition would be basal – branching, semi – compact growth habit (AB) and semi – appressed (less AS) siliqua bearing one; with more than 50% PBBs accommodating SBs, less IL, lower positioning of HFS, deep tap root with more volume (RL and RV), earliness in DFF and DPM, high RGR, LAI and SLW up to early DFFO stage, bold seeds and other yield components like LS, SS-1 and DME. Yield determinants RV, RL and HFPB are most important for residual moisture – rainfed environments as reflected by their contribution towards total divergence, high significantly positive (RL, RV) and negative ( HFPB) association, regression direct effect towards yield along with high h2bs and Genetic advance as percent of mean. Overall, RV as best yield contributor also reflected stability in rich environment among stable genotypes for yield (poor and rich environments) and could be utilized for mustard varietal improvement in moisture stress.