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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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20191
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Author: Chhaya, Ruchika × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Characterization of rice varieties using phenotypic descriptors and genomic markers
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2019) Chhaya, Ruchika; Nilanjaya
    The present investigation was carried out at Mysore plot of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar during Kharif 2018 using twenty two rice varieties in Randomized Block Design with three replications to characterize them using phenotypic descriptors and genomic markers. The observations were recorded on thirty four qualitative traits and fifteen putative traits that included morphological traits viz., days to fifty per cent flowering, days to maturity, stem length excluding panicle, stem thickness, panicle length of main axis, panicle number per plant, length of leaf blade, width of leaf blade, 1000-grain weight, grain length, grain width, decorticated grain length, decorticated grain width, root volume and grain yield per plant. The different statistical parameters used for interpretation of data were Analysis of variance, Genotypic and Phenotypic variance, Genotypic and Phenotypic coefficient of variance, Heritability, Genetic advance, Correlation coefficient analysis, Path coefficient analysis and Genetic diversity to study nature and magnitude of variability and diversity. Characterization was also done on the molecular level using fifteen SSR markers for all the twenty two rice entries. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the accessions for all the characters. Environmental influence was meagre on expression of these characters as it was evident by narrow gap between genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation. The genotypes exhibited high variability for the characters days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, stem length, length of leaf blade, 1000 grain weight and root volume. Length of leaf blade and decorticated grain width depicted very high GCV and PCV, indicating the importance of these traits in evaluation for selecting the genotypes. In present set of materials high heritability with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, length of leaf blade, 1000 grain weight, grain length, grain width, decorticated grain length, decorticated grain width and grain yield per plant indicating preponderance of additive gene effect, which will facilitate selection in early segregating generation. Stem thickness, width of leaf blade, 1000 grain weight, grain width, decorticated grain width and root volume showed significant positive correlation with yield and have positive direct effect at phenotypic level indicating the importance of these characters for further yield improvement. Path analysis revealed traits like days to maturity and decorticated grain length had positive direct effect as well indirect effect on grain yield at genotypic level and at phenotypic level. Twenty two genotypes of Rice were grouped into 5 clusters using Tocher‟s clustering method. Cluster I had 18 genotypes, cluster II, III, IV and V each had one genotype i.e. monogenotypic. Highest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster II and cluster V. The maximum contribution in the manifestation of genetic divergence was exhibited by length of leaf blade. Based on the results of all major parameters including morphological indices under present investigation, genotypes Dular and Rajendra Saraswati appeared to be outstanding performers. Observations taken for 34 qualitative traits among twenty two varieties indicated that eighteen traits (coleoptiles color, culm attitude, anthocyanin color of keel, stem anthocyanin colouration of internodes, panicle colour of awns (late observation), distribution of awns, sterile lemma colour, panicle excertion, leaf auricles, leaf anthocyanin color of auricles, leaf collar, leaf ligule, decorticated grain color, leaf shape of ligule, decorticated grain aroma, leaf collar color, stem anthocyanin coloration of nodes, presence of secondary branching in panicles) did not show any variation. Remaining characters shows significant variations. Amplification reaction was performed with fifteen microsatellite based SSR primers targeting the chromosomes of the rice genome. Amplification was successfully achieved with all the primer pairs. A total of 92 shared and 48 unique allelic variants were generated by using the fifteen primer pairs. The number of shared alleles per locus ranged from four in case of RM 319 and MRG 2805 HAU 2805 to eleven in case of RM 5791. Similarly, the number of unique alleles per locus ranged from one in case of RM 319 and MRG 2894 IRRI 2894 to ten in the case of RM 521. The cluster analysis based on similarity index of simple matching grouped the studied rice genotypes into six clusters, and no geographical isolation was observed.