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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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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    EXPLORING PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AMONG MIGRANT WORKERS OF NORTH BIHAR – A DIAGNOSTIC STUDY OF COVID-19
    (Dr.RPCAU, Pusa, 2023) KUMAR, AVINASH; Prakash, Satya
    COVID-19 induced lockdown caused the widespread movement of migrants across the globe. In India the lockdown started from 25th March 2020 and lasted after 68 days on 31st May 2020 with partial and no movement. Around 15 lakh registered migrant workers returned to Bihar keeping in view of this fact the present study was conducted in four prominent districts of northern region of Bihar state. These districts were Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur and Sitamarhi. In view of area for study, five blocks from each four districts (Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur and Sitamarhi) were again purposely selected. From each block 15 returned migrant workers were selected thus from each district 75 respondents were selected. Hence the total sample size of the study was 300. The results indicate that majority of migrant workers were from young age group, male, married and belongs to extremely backward caste. Majority of returned migrant workers were functionally literate and having medium level of working experience. The mean value of working experience was 6.8 years. These migrant workers were engaged in agricultural activities before migrating. However majority of migrant workers were having low level of agricultural experience additionally almost one third of them were having low level of experience in allied activities. The primary occupation of more than half of the migrant workers was unskilled labours. The mean value of family income before COVID was ₹ 216058.40 but after COVID it was reduced to ₹ 191989.77. Further, the mean value of self-income before COVID-19 pandemic was ₹ 142860 and it was decreased by 12.05 percent. The debt status of migrant workers was increased by 15.32 percent after COVID. Majority of migrant workers were having low level of material possession, extension contact and medium level of mass media exposure. The mental health of migrant workers was in deplorable condition and majority (37.67%) of them were having low level of mental health. Social security (0.741) was contributing most among all five indicators for livelihood security. Only two indicators viz., social security and infrastructural security was found to be crossing half of the value i.e. 0.5. More than half (55.67%) of these migrant workers were seasonal migrants, seeking employment was the key reason for migration for migration. The most favourite destination for migration was Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana etc. The nature of work ranges from construction workers (18.67%), agricultural or casual labourers (15.67%), factory workers (11.33%), labour in brick kiln (5.33%), painter (5%), plumber (3.33%), maid, self-employed, skilled workers etc. in terms of level of skill, a huge 57.00% of the migrant workers were unskilled (agricultural or casual labors, house helper etc.) followed by skilled workers (mason-II, painter-II etc.) according to Gazette of India, 2017. SPSS PLUM model shows that education, experience, training, technological familiarity, extent to manage difficult task and daily wage of migrants were having strong association with skill and were statistically significant at 1% level (P<0.01) whereas certificate of training was statistically significant at 5% level (P<0.05). More than half (51.34%) of the migrant workers were having moderately favorable attitude towards agriculture and allied activities. From mean value of Likert scale and principle component analysis respondents ranked their interest towards different components of agriculture. Respondents ranked their interest in order as Mushroom production (1st), Dairy farming (2nd), Animal Husbandry (3rd), Poultry (4th), Fisheries (5th) while Polyhouse farming (9th) and forestry (10th) were gained least interest and ranked last. Social constraints faced at native place were lack of autonomy in rural area, marriage and look after of family whereas at destination place Communication barrier and problems associated with children’s education, compromised living standard etc. Economic constraints reported at native place were Lack of employment opportunity in rural area, Instability of job and income similarly economic constraints at destination place includes survival on meagre savings after sending remittances to family, Often debt. Some ecological and infrastructural constraints at native place perceived by respondents were fragmentation of land and low agricultural productivity, lack of industrialization at native place and poor medical and educational facility respectively. Workplace and security related constraints recorded by the respondents includes prolong working hours, engaged in risky works, lack of employer and governmental accountability and fraud and cheating at destination place, harassment against women and children etc.