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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: Sharma, Amit Kumar × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2022 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Influence of epibrassinolide on physiobiochemical traits of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under water deficit at vegetative stage
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2022) Sharma, Amit Kumar; Pradhan, Jyostnarani
    Water deficit have been observed frequently, especially in rain-fed wheat, causing severe yield losses in most wheat grown regions of the world. Its impact on crop productivity on growth differentiation development, dry matter accumulation, and productivity might vary substantially depending on the genetic composition of the plant. A class of phytohormones known as brassinolide is crucial for plant development and adoptability to environmental stresses. This study sough to identified changes in physio-biochemical processes due to exogenous application of brassinolide regarded the alleviation of negative impact of low moisture stress in wheat crop. This experiment was conducted with three objectives (1) To screen out the genotypes for water deficit stress and to identify contrasting sets on the basis of physiological traits. (2) To compare the morpho-physiological traits under water deficit during the vegetative stage of wheat. (3) To investigate the influence of epibrassinolide in relation to water deficit during vegetative stage of wheat. For the first objective, 10 cultivars were taken under four concentrations of PEG 6000 (5%, 7.5%, 10%, 15%) along with control (distilled water) in petri plates. For identification of contrasting genotypes, seedling parameters viz. emergence percentage, biomass of seedling, seedling length, seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II were recorded in 10 days old wheat seedlings. On the basis of growth performances one set of contrasting wheat genotypes were identified (HD-2733, relatively tolerant for stress and DBW-187 relatively stress sensitive). Similarly, BRs concentration was chosen by taking EBL in 4 concentrations along with control and 0.01mM EBL stood best among all. Taking all these results in to consideration, second experiment was performed, where two genotypes along with four treatments (well-watered, water deficit, EBL treated and EBL + water deficit) were maintained for other two objectives. Different physio-biochemical parameters were compared across the treatments and genotypes. The results are indicating that the tolerant genotype (HD-2733) showed better tolerance across all most all morphophysiological and biochemical parameters as of sensitive genotypes (DBW-187). It was clear that low moisture stress had a detrimental impact on the growth, development, physiology, and yield of wheat plant, and that a lower dose of EBL was effective against water deficit condition. Under conditions of water scarcity, EBL increase the relative water content, membrane stability index, root length, chlorophyll content, and carbohydrate and protein content. Furthermore, the application of EBL positively balanced the osmolyte such as proline, controlled the amount of phenol and malondialdehyde (MDA) content under stress condition. The growth response of HD- 2733 was higher than that of DBW-187 when exposed to EBL under low moisture, over all the EBL play a major role in enhancement of growth biomass, yield and decrease membrane damage in wheat under water deficit. However further investigations with EBL are needed to understand the mechanism of its action.