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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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2014 - 20172
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Author: Kumar, Raju × End date: 2017 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Training need of Papaya Growers in Begusarai district of Bihar
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2017) Kumar, Raju; Ansari, M. N.
    Cultivation of fruits played a pivotal role in diversification of agriculture along with food and nutritional security of ever growing population. The agro-climatic conditions of Bihar are eminently suitable for fruit crops. The state ranks fourth in fruit production and third in vegetable production in the country. Among the fruits, Papaya (Carica papaya) occupies a special place. Like banana it is available throughout the year and it is easy to cultivate. It produces more income per unit area only next to banana and has high nutritive and medicinal value. It is also used in pharmaceutical industries, textiles, garment, cleaning paper and adhesive manufacturing, sewage disposal and so on. The average yield of papaya in Bihar is lower than national average. The present productivity of papaya could be increased considerably if the available technology is effectively transferred to the farmers. Our training programmes need to focus more on transferring of new technology from the confines of laboratories and research institute to the farmers and make then result oriented. Its profitability needs to be enhanced further, but still profitability of papaya growing is based with many constraints faced by papaya growers due to production and marketing. Therefore, the papaya growers need to be properly trained in the latest improved cultivation practices for realizing more productivity and production of papaya. Keeping all these aspects in view, the proposed study has been undertaken with following specific objectives:  To know the socio-economic and demographical characteristics of papaya growers.  To measure the level of knowledge of farmers about recommended papaya production technology.  To ascertain the training needs of papaya growers with respect to different components of improved papaya cultivation.  To identify the constraints as perceived by the papaya growers Begusarai district of Bihar state has been identified as a locale of present research enterprise in view of its importance in terms of area and total production of papaya crop in the state. There are 18 block in Begusarai district. Out of 18 blocks of Begusarai district, five blocks which had maximum area under papaya cultivation, was selected. Out of these five blocks, two villages from each block, having maximum area under papaya was selected. So in all ten villages was selected as sample villages for this study. Thus, a total number of 60 papaya growers were constituted as the sample for the present study. The researcher collected data by using a pretested structured schedule employing personal interview technique. Thereafter, the data were classified, tabulated, statistically analyzed and interpreted in light of the objective of the study, which led to the conclusion. This study concluded that maximum per cent of papaya growers were belonged to middle age group, medium level of education, large land holding and had 0.5 to 1 acre area under papaya cultivation. Likewise majority of the papaya growers had medium extension level of contact, medium level of economic motivation and had high risk preference. The result also showed that majority of the respondents belongs to medium knowledge level about the improved papaya production technology. The zero order correlation value indicated that out of eight variables studied, as many as six variables viz., education, land holding, annual income, contact with extension agency, economic motivation and risk preference were found statistically correlated with the knowledge of papaya production technology. It is also concluded that a majority of the respondents had came under medium needed training category. The major areas in which papaya growers needed more consideration were plant protection measures, high yielding varieties and manures & fertilizer management. It can be observed that the plant protection measures has got the first rank and top most required need for the training while marketing & storage has got the 13th rank in training need. Further it observed that the “appearance of different types of diseases’’ and "do not know fertilizer calculation" has got the first & second rank respectively while “Papaya fruits are harvested by other people’’ has got last rank in constraints perceived by papaya growers.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of Bio-methanated Distillery effluent on soil fertility, yield and quality of sugarcane in Calciorthent
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2014) Kumar, Raju; Alam, M.
    Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the most important cash crops grown in all tropical and subtropical countries of the world and most efficient living collector of solar energy in the form of fibre and fermentable sugars. It provides employment not only to agricultural but also to industrial labourers in the sugar factories. Productivity of sugarcane in Bihar is 56.8 tonnes per hectare. Sugar factories generate many by-products viz. bagasse, molasses, press mud and waste materials. Molasses is used in distillery industry as a raw material for the production of alcohol and distilleries discharge waste water called as spent wash. Its direct use in agricultural fields is generally not considered safe because of its high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) i.e. 40,000-50,000 mg l-1 and 90,000 -100,000 mg l-1, respectively. The spent wash contains 30-35% C; 2.31% N; 0.82% P and 9.25% K. There was a remarkable reduction in BOD, COD and salinity after bio-methanization process using methane gas and utilizing methogenic bacteria. The manurial value of the effluents can profitably be used as supplement to fertilizer and organic matter. Keeping this in view present investigation was carried at the experiment was conducted at pusa farm on calcarious sandy loam soil having pH 8.15, low in organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphrous and medium in potassium in Randomiged Block Design, replicated four times to evaluate the effect of bio-methanated distillery effluent (BMDE) on soil fertility, yield and quality of sugarcane in Calciorthent. The experiment involved seven treatments integrating BMDE and levels of NPK (T1: 100% NPK, T2: 150 m3 ha-1, T3: T2 +100% NPK, T4: T2 +75% NPK, T5: T2 +50% NPK, T6: T2 +25% NPK, T7: Control). The cane yield of sugarcane was significantly increased by 53.4% over control with the application of BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1 along with 100% RDF. However, Juice quality viz. Brix, Sucrose, Purity and CCS was not influenced with BMDE and nutrient application but BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1 along with 100% RDF had greatly enhanced the NPK uptake by 52.22%, 67.46% and 58.23%, respectively over control. Application of BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1 along with 100% NPK greatly reduced the bulk density and increased the porosity and infiltration rate. Maximum availability of NPK was recorded with the application of recommended dose of NPK and BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1. Whereas, higher availability of Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu was obtained with the application of BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1. Because BMDE is a rich source of micro nutrients and their interactions with chemical fertilizer decrease the availability of micronutrients. Similarly, soil microbial population as well as enzymatic activities were also increased under treatment T3 (150 m3ha-1 BMDE+ 100% NPK). Initial application of BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1 along with 100% RDF was statically at par with 75% NPK dose along with 150 m3 ha-1 BMDE performed best in improving cane yield, juice quality and soil health of sugarcane. Thus initial applications BMDE @ 150 m3 ha-1 could save 25% NPK.