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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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1993 - 199922010 - 20131
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Author: Kumar, Vinay × Start date: 1993 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Influence of crop establishment methods and different weed management practices on growth, yield and quality of direct seeded rice. (Oryza sativa L).
    (Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2013) Kumar, Vinay; Roy, D. K.
    A field experiment was undertaken during kharif season of the year 2012 at the Research Farm of Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar to study the “Influence of crop establishment methods and different weed management practices on growth, yield and quality of direct seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.)”. The experiment was conducted in strip plot design having three rice establishment methods (broadcasting sprouted seed on puddled bed, dry seeding in rows 20 cm apart and drum seeding of sprouted seeds on puddled bed) in main plots and eight weed management practices (W1- pre-emergence butachlor @ 1.5 kg/ha, W2- W1+ post-emergence bispyribac @ 25 g/ha, W3- pre-emergence pretilachlor @ 0.75 kg/ha, W4-W3 + post-emergence bispyribac @ 25g/ha, W5 pre-emergence pendimethalin @ 1.0 kg/ha, W6 - W5 + post-emergence bispyribac @ 25 g/ha ,W7 - two hand weedings at 20 and 40 DAS and ,W8 - weedy check) in sub plots, replicated thrice with Prabhat as the test variety. Wet seeding exhibited better expression in respect of growth and yield attributes than the dry seeding and between the two wet seeded treatments, the technique of drum seeding established its superiority over broadcasting. The better performance in terms of growth and yield attributes were also further reflected correspondingly in grain and straw yields. The harvest index however did not show significant variation due to establishment methods. All the weed management practices either herbicidal or manual had profound effect on growth and yield attributes as well as the ultimate yield as reflected in their superiority over the weedy check. Amongst the three pre-emergence applications of herbicides, pretilachlor was superior to pendimethalin, which in turn performed better than butachlor. However, when these three pre-emergence applications were supplemented with post-emergence application of bispyribac, pendimethalin followed by bispyribac recorded top spot in almost all the growth and yield characters and also in the yields of grain and straw. It had also an edge over two hand weedings. However, the three pre and post-emergence herbicidal combinations (W2, W4 and W6) and the treatment of two hand weedings did not differ significantly in these respects. The results pertaining to weed population, weed dry weight and nutrient uptake by weeds and crop separately were a close reflection of growth and yield pattern whereas in drum seeding of sprouted seed scored over the other two crop establishment methods and the pre and post-emergence applications of pendimethalin + bispyribac established its superiority over the rest of the treatments. Weed control efficiency of pendimethalin + bispyribac (71.67%) was superior over two hand weedings (65.67%), pretilachlor + bispyribac (65.06%) and butachlor + bispyribac (57.61%). Protein content in grain was similar in all the treatments except the weedy check in which it was significantly lower. The most glaring part of the results rested in its economic studies, where in all the herbicidal treatments either pre-emergence applications or combination of pre and post emergence applications fetched higher net return and scored better B:C ratio than the two hand weedings. Pretilachlor + bispyribac ( 29,181/ha) cornered the highest net return closely followed by pendimethalin + bispyribac ( 28,373/ha). As against these treatments, the net return realized by two hand weedings was simply 19169/ha. The B:C ratio further widened the gap between manual weeding and herbicidal applications. The highest B:C ratio of 1.29 was recorded from pre-emergence application of pretilachlor followed in descending order by pretilachlor + bispyribac (1.24) and pendimethalin + bispyribac (1.18), two hand weedings had a B:C ratio of only 0.85 which was next only to the weedy check (0.67). Thus it may be summed up that the wet seeding is superior to dry seeding and drum seeding is better than broadcasting on wet beds. Secondly, high cost involved in manual weeding makes herbicidal treatments more viable proposition. Pretilachlor + bispyribac and pendimethalin + bispyribac are the two most effective herbicidal treatments in direct seeded wet or dry rice establishment methods.