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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: NANDI, ASIT × Start date: 2013 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    DEVELOPMENT OF SEED ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR ENHANCING PLANTING VALUE OF SEEDS IN MAIZE (Zea mays L.)
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) NANDI, ASIT; Singh, Sumeet Kumar
    Maize belongs to grass family having highest yield potential among cereals. It records third highest in production after rice and wheat among cereals in India and first in world. The continuously rising global population along with the shrinking cultivable land and climate change scenario is creating pressure for increased food production. Moreover, various abiotic stresses like heat, drought and low temperature stress affect the crop production drastically. Low temperature stress during sowing of Maize causes serious compromise with yield and seed quality traits. Hence, present investigation was carried out to develop seed enhancement technique for minimizing the yield losses due to poor emergence, stand establishment and yield and quality parameters. The experiment was conducted at Dholi Kothi Farm, TCA, Dholi in split- split plot design with 3 replications, during rabi 2021- 22. Fresh and old seed lots of two varieties viz. Shaktiman-1(SM-1) and Shaktiman-5(SM-5) were subjected to 14 treatments along with control. The treated seeds were analyzed for seed quality attributes in laboratory and were also sown in the field. The effect of variety, seed lots and treatments on field emergence, plant stand establishment, yield-attributing traits were studied in maize raised under low temperature conditions. The results revealed that SM-1 was significantly superior for field emergence, plant stand establishment, plant height, first count, germination percentage, radicle emergence time, seed vigour indices over SM-5. Fresh lot of seeds performed significantly superior to the aged one. All the treatments were significantly superior over control except thermal treatment and chilling followed by thermal treatment. Treatment with melatonin (50μM), CaCl2 (2.2%) and DAB + Biophos affects many yield and quality traits positively. Seed treatment with gibberellic acid (100mg/litre) followed by shade drying showed significant superiority over the control for plant stand establishment after 5 weeks (79%), plant height (188.2 cm), seed set percentage (99.3%),1000 seed weight (242.1 g),plot yield (3.10kg), first count (82%), germination (96.5%), vigour index I (2479) & vigour index II (4.2). Even the aged seed lot treated with gibberellic acid also recorded higher germination (78.7%), vigour index I (1797), vigour index II (3.51), 1000- seed weight (226.0 g), and plot yield (2.65 kg) than other treatments on fresh as well as aged lots. Hydro priming (at 20˚C for 18 hrs) was at par with the gibberellic acid treated seeds for most of the emergence, yield and quality attributing traits. Therefore, either of the above treatments may be effective in mitigating the adverse effect of low temperature stress on emergence, stand establishment, yield and quality attributes in Maize.Among all the treatments, gibberellic acid (100mg/ litre) was observed to be the best treatment for improved seed yield and quality.