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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: KUMAR, ASHUTOSH × End date: 2020 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    Generation mean analysis in relation to Zinc biofortification in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) KUMAR, ASHUTOSH; Singh, N.K.
    The present investigation was conducted at Rice Research Centre, Pusa farm of Department of PBG, RPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur with a view to study the gene action for differential micronutrient accumulation in rice using RBD design with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among all generations of four crosses for all the traits. This indicates that there is ample scope for selection of promising lines from the present gene pool for yield along with grain Fe and Zn content. As compared to MTU1010, TEVIRII was the better performer for panicle length, grain Fe content and grain Zn content while MTU1010 was superior to TEVIRII for rest of the traits in cross-I (TEVIRII × MTU1010). In cross-II (R-RIZIH-7 × MTU 1010), R-RIZIH-7 was superior to MTU 1010 for plant height, effective tillers per plant, panicle length, canopy temperature, grain iron content and grain zinc content while, for other traits, MTU 1010 was found superior to R-RIZIH-7. In cross-III (HATI BANDHA × TEINEM RUISHENG MAA), HATI BANDHA was found superior for the traits days to fifty percent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, effective tillers per plant, panicle length, flag leaf area, grains per panicle, canopy temperature, chlorophyll content, grain iron content, grain zinc content and grain yield per plant while for other traits, TEINEM RUISHENG MAA was found superior over HATI BANDHA. In cross-IV (KHUSISOI-RI-SAREKU × IR91175-27-1-3-1-3), KHUSISOI-RI-SAREKU was found superior for the traits effective tillers per plant, panicle length, flag leaf area, grains per panicle, canopy temperature, chlorophyll content, harvest index, grain iron content, grain zinc content and grain yield per plant while for other traits, IR91175-27-1-3-1-3 was found superior over KHUSISOI-RI-SAREKU. F1 average performance was found superior to both the parents for grain Fe and grain Zn content in all the crosses except cross-II. For other traits viz., effective tillers per plant, panicle length, grains per panicle, chlorophyll content, flag leaf area and harvest index also F1 average performance was found superior to both parents in all crosses. Scaling test revealed all the traits related to yield along with grain Fe and Zn content were significant in either one of the scales or in combination representing the existence of epistatic interaction between the genes involved for these traits in all four crosses, except for the traits days to maturity and chlorophyll content in cross-I and for canopy temperature in cross-II. For days to maturity and chlorophyll content in cross-I and for canopy temperature in cross-II, none of the scale (A, B, C, D) was found significant. This indicated adequacy of simple additive-dominance model for these traits. Further, Joints Scaling test was adapted to fit the data to three parameter model to estimate mean (m), additive gene effects (d) and dominant gene effects (h) and to evaluate adequacy of simple additive-dominance model. χ2 - test was conducted to evaluate the goodness of fit of this model. For all the traits studied except days to maturity and chlorophyll content in cross-I and for canopy temperature in cross-II, χ2 values were found significant indicating the presence of digenic non-allelic interaction for all these traits, indicating the data does not fit into simple additive-dominance model. The role of epistatic interactions was identified by lack of goodness of fit into three parameter model and the data was further subjected to six parameter model. Digenic non-allelic interaction model with six parameters namely m, d, h, i, j and l revealed that the epistatic interaction model was found adequate to explain the gene action for most of the traits. Gene effects were found to be cross specific and both additive and non-additive gene action were important for expression of almost all characters studied; therefore, biparental mating followed by selection of superior recombinants from segregating population is desirable for improvement of rice micronutrient content along with high yield per plant. Predominance of duplicate type of gene action as evident from opposite sign of [h] and [l] was noticed for the expression of grain Fe content in cross-I and IV and for grain Zn content in cross-IV. The same sign of [h] and [l] indicated the involvement of complementary type of gene interaction in expression of grain Fe content in cross-II and III and for grain Zn content in cross-I. Complementary type of epistasis tends to enhance the heterotic effect as the magnitude of [l] adds to the main effect [h] as opposed to the case in duplicate type of epistasis. Cross-I, III and IV showed significant and positive heterosis over both the mid parent and the better parent for grain Fe and grain Zn content. For grain yield per plant, cross-II, III and IV showed significant and positive heterosis over both the mid parent and better parent. Cross-I and cross-III was found superior in performance for yield and yield attributing traits along with grain Fe and Zn content among all four crosses. In all four crosses high broad sense heritability coupled with high genetic advance over mean was recorded for grain Fe content and yield per plant, while for grain Zn content high broad sense heritability coupled with moderate genetic advance was recorded, which indicated that the most likely the heritability is due to additive gene effect and selection may be effective mostly in early segregating generation. High broad sense heritability but poor narrow sense heritability for most of the traits studied might be due to presence of non-additive and non-allelic interaction and sampling error for these traits. Correlation studies revealed, grain Zn content had positive and significant association with grain Fe content in cross-I and IV and the grain yield per plant exhibited significant and negative correlation with grain Zn content and grain Fe content in cross-IV. No direct positive or negative effect of grain Fe and Zn content on yield was found. Considering the overall results from the present study, it is apparent that both additive as well as non-additive genetic effects has significant role in expression of most of the traits studied. The type and magnitude of gene effects differed for different traits in the same cross and for the same traits in all crosses, which necessitates specific handling of crosses in segregating generations. Under this situation biparental mating, recurrent selection and diallel selective mating system might be profitable that take care of both additive and non-additive gene action. For the traits governed by additive gene action, pedigree method of selection will be most effective .While, for traits which are governed by additive and non-additive gene effects or non-additive gene effects alone in different crosses, heterosis breeding and recombination breeding with postponement of selection at later generation will be rewarding.