Thumbnail Image

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.

Browse

20191
Reset filters
Author: Kumar, Subodh × Start date: 2019 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
Reset filters

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Economics of Lentil cultivation in Gaya district of Bihar
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2019) Kumar, Subodh; Singh, K.M.
    The present study aimed for analyzing the lentil production in Gaya district of Bihar. Four villages, namely Balna and Bataspur from Chandauti block, Haspura and Koshdihra from Paraiya block were selected for the purpose of the study. The sample size comprised of marginal (29), small (45), medium (20) and large (6) farmers thus, respondent altogether were 100. The compound growth rates of area, production and productivity of major pulses in the state were analyzed for 18 years, divided into 4 periods namely period I (2000-01 to 2005-06), period II ( 2006-07 to 2011-12), period III (2012-13 to 2017-18) and overall period( 2000-01 to 2017-18). It was found that growth rates of area and production of pulses declined in overall period and the same trend followed in area during period I and in period III. But, the growth rates of productivity were found positive for all the periods under consideration. In respect of state, Gaya district also showed mostly negative growth rate of area during overall period (2000-01 to 2017-18). During period I (2000-01to 2005-06), area under pulse crops decelerated and a similar trend was also observed in period III (2012-13 to 2017-18). As regards to production of pulses, compound growth rate was negative for all the pulse crops in all periods except in period II (2006-07 to 2011-12) for lentil and gram. In period I it showed a negative growth trend while it was positive for most of the pulse crops in period II. The compound growth rate of productivity was positive for overall period and period II while it was negative for some of the pulse crops such as in Period I and period III. The instability analysis revealed that, co-efficient of variation on area under lentil for state as whole varied from 3.65 to 8.19 percent, while in Gaya district it was 27.91 percent during overall period, indicating that there was a lot of variation in area utilization. In case of productivity for the state as whole, it revealed moderate instability during the overall period, while it indicated high instability in Gaya district. The cost of cultivation of lentil was estimated to be Rs. 38619.11 per hectare, out of this Rs. 19778.32 (52.21 percent) was operational and Rs. 18840.79 (48.78 percent) as overhead cost. In case of various farm size-groups, the per hectare total cost was found to be Rs. 34965.30, Rs. 37352.94, Rs. 38838.11 and Rs. 40981.91 for marginal, small, medium and large farms, respectively. Production efficiency of different factors of production of lentil crop was estimated by using Cobb- Douglas production function. The regression analysis revealed that farmers in the study area could be well advised to increase expenditure on machine labour and human labour, since the overall marginal value productivities for these variables were observed to be 4.15 and 1.77, respectively. It was observed that unavailability of seeds of high yielding varieties, pest and disease attack and lack of modern technologies were indentified as common problems faced by most of the lentil growing farmers in the study area. Lack of awareness about the new ongoing developmental schemes and upcoming schemes and poor extension services were some other problems that led to less production of lentil.