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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: Maurya, Sooraj × Start date: 2019 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on diversity for Yield and quality traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar), 2019) Maurya, Sooraj; Singh, A.K.
    An experiment was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, RPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during rabi season of 2018-19 to evaluate the thirty genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in Randomized Block Design with three replications for yield and quality. Investigation was carried out on variability, character association, path analysis and genetic divergence for morpho-physiological characters viz., plant height at maturity, number of primary branches per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, days to fifty percent flower initiation, days to fifty percent fruit initiation, days to fruit maturity at physiological stage, equilateral diameter of fruit, polar diameter of fruit, number of locules per fruit, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, total soluble solids and ascorbic acid. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits. The genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for average plant height at maturity, number of primary branches per plant, number of fruit per cluster, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, number of locules per fruit and number of fruits per cluster. All the characters had showed high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean except number of flowers per cluster. These traits were indicating the presence of additive gene effects which may be utilized for improvement through phenotypic selection for yield improvement. Character association among the yield and yield attributing traits and identify better combinations as selection criteria for developing high yielding tomato genotypes. Fruit yield per plant was high significant and positively correlated with equilateral diameter of fruit, polar diameter of fruit and average fruit weight, suggesting that selection based on these characters would result better genotypes with higher yield. Path coefficient analysis study revealed positive direct effect on fruit yield per plant by plant height at maturity, days to fifty percent fruit initiation, number of fruits per cluster, equilateral diameter of fruit, polar diameter of fruit, average fruit weight and total soluble solids, were indicating that these characters would be more reliable for yield improvement. The thirty genotypes of tomato were grouped into six clusters using Tocher‟s method. Cluster I had maximum (10) genotypes and cluster III and cluster VI had one genotype in each i.e. monogenotypic. The genotypes in cluster III and cluster VI followed by cluster V and cluster VI, cluster IV, cluster I and cluster VI and cluster II and cluster VI, exhibited high degree of genetic diversity due to maximum inter cluster distance between them. Its indicating these genotypes may be utilized under inter varietal hybridization programme (transgressive breeding) for getting high yielding recombinants. Cluster IV was suitable for number of primary branches per plant, number of days to fifty percent flower initiation, number of days to fifty percent fruit initiation, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, polar diameter of fruits, number of locules per fruits, total soluble solids and ascorbic acid. Therefore, selection of parents from this cluster for these traits would be effective. Maximum contribution towards genetic divergence was obtained by ascorbic acid (38.39 per cent), average fruit weight (23.22 per cent) and number of locules per fruit (11.49 per cent).