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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: Lakshmi, Pepakayala Vara × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2019 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Aggregate associated zinc and zinc fractionation after six years of rice wheat cropping system with different doses and frequency of zinc application
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Lakshmi, Pepakayala Vara; Singh, Santosh Kumar
    A six-year long-term field experiment was initiated during Kharif 2012-13 with rice-wheat cropping system under AICRP on micronutrients at nursery jhilli area of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar. The experiment was planned in RBD with 13 treatments and 3 replications consisting of four doses of zinc i.e., 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10.0 kg ha-1 applied as zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) in Kharif with three different combinations of frequencies i.e., in the first year, alternate year and every year of zinc application along with control. Soil samples were collected and analyzed after 6 years i.e. after the harvest of wheat crop in 2018. Increasing doses and frequency of zinc application increased DTPA extractable zinc in all aggregate fractions and initial adsorption was more in small aggregate fractions than larger sized fractions. The order of DTPA extractable zinc was: 8 - 5 mm (1.01mg/kg) < 5 – 2 mm (2.37 mg kg-1) < 2 – 1 mm (3.81 mg kg-1) < 1 - 0.5mm (5.34 mg kg-1) < 0.5 - 0.25 mm (5.42 mg kg-1) < 0.25 - 0.1mm (6.13 mg kg-1). Most of the total zinc remained in residual form (80.03%) followed by crystalline form (9.19%) and the quantity of plant available form like water soluble + exchangeable (0.6%), complexed (3.16%), organically bound (1.19%), amorphous oxide bound zinc (6.6%) were very low. The order of dominance of different zinc fractions in soil was: Total-Zn (31.43 mg kg-1) > RES-Zn (25.13 mg kg-1) > CRY-Zn (2.89 mg kg-1) > ORG-Zn (2.09 mg kg-1) > COM-Zn (1.00 mg kg-1) > AMO-Zn (0.38 mg kg-1) > WS + EX-Zn (0.19 mg kg-1). All the fractions of zinc except crystalline and residual zinc had positive correlation with wheat grain yield and zinc uptake. Among all fractions Water soluble + Exchangeable and complexed fractions were the predominant forms that contributed most of the available zinc for wheat grain uptake and yield. Improvement in soil physical properties viz. bulk density and aggregate stability coupled with increase in organic carbon content and nutrient availability viz. nitrogen, phosphorous, Sulphur with application of 7.5 kg Zn ha-1 in alternate year resulted in optimum wheat grain and straw yield (45.6, 76.5 q ha-1) in the sixth year of experiment and also for rice-wheat cropping system (982.9 q ha-1). DTPA extractable zinc decreased with increasing depth of soil. The order of DTPA extractable zinc was 0-15 cm (0.99 mg kg-1) > 15-30 cm (0.81 mg kg-1) > 30-45 cm (0.31 mg kg-1) > 45-60 cm (0.21 mg kg-1)> 60-90 cm (0.19 mg kg-1). Most of the applied zinc was distributed in the upper layers of the soil (0-30 cm) than the lower layers (>30 cm).