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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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20201
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Author: Sahu, Aparna × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    A study on the impact of energy dense nutritive food on health and nutrition of infants and young children
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Sahu, Aparna; Singh, Usha
    The first 1000 days of life i.e. the interval between pregnancy and first two years of life is regarded as a critical window for boosting optimum growth, behavioural development and health. It caters a window of opportunity to intervene, avert growth faltering, malnutrition and diseases in infants and young children and furnish a strong foundation for physical and mental performance in coming years and better quality of life. Infancy is a period of rapid growth and development constituting 0 to 12 months of age and young children are typically referred to as infants in the first year, but as they enter the second year of life and become more mobile, they are usually called toddlers, from about 12 months to 36 months of age. Infants grow speedily between six to twenty-four months age and require more nutrients in relation to their body size. They are vulnerable to dietary imbalances and deficiencies. Malnutrition in infants and young children typically develops during the first 6 to 18 months of life and is mainly due to poor intake of nutrient and energy dense diets, comprising principally of starch-rich staples which are provided along with breastfeeding. Hence, this study was designed and performed at thirteen Anganwadi Centres of Harpur panchayat, Pusa block of Samastipur district. After paying several visits and using a standard questionnaire, a total of 268 infants and young children of six to twenty-four months were enrolled under this study. Using WHO child growth standards and processing the obtained anthropometric parameters, it was observed that the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight rate found to be 33.21, 13.06 and 20.90 per cent respectively while the outbreak of severe stunting, severe wasting and severe underweight were 1.49, 5.97 and 1.49 per cent respectively. So, in order to combat malnutrition an energy dense nutritive food (EDNF) was prepared making use of ingredients like peanut, skim milk powder, sugar, wheat, green gram dal and ghee. This EDNF has paste like consistency, smooth texture, ready to use, easy to carry and requires no refrigeration. It provides about 500 to 550 Kcal energy and 14 to 16 gram protein per 100 gram. For acceptability of prepared EDNF, the simplest and widely used sensory evaluation test was adopted, called as 5-point Hedonic Rating test. All the malnourished infants and young children along with their mothers tasted it and the mothers assigned a score to all the attributes of EDNF. The scores obtained for colour, appearance, flavour, texture, taste and overall acceptability were found to be 4.45 ± 0.51, 4.35 ± 0.58, 4.75 ± 0.44, 4.80 ± 0.41, 5 ± 0 and 5 ± 0 respectively. So, it can be concluded that the energy dense nutritive food is well accepted and liked very much by the malnourished infants and young children and can be used for treatment of malnutrition among infants and young children. Further, it is recommended to increase energy and other nutrient in food through the inclusion of other food groups in daily diet of children in order to maintain minimum dietary diversity.