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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: gautam, Prem Prakash × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2017 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Foraging behavior of Xylocopa fenestrata Fab. and its role in pollination of ridge gourd, Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.
    (Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa (Samastipur), 2017) gautam, Prem Prakash; Kumar, Neeraj
    The present studies on “Foraging behavior of Xylocopa fenestrata Fab. and its role in pollination of ridge gourd, Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.” was carried out during the year 2016-17 at University Apiary, DRPCAU, Pusa. Objectives of this investigation were to study the relative abundance of insect pollinators, foraging behaviour of Xylocopa fenestrata, and its effect on pollination of ridge gourd. The results indicated that the total eight insect species visited ridge gourd flowers, viz. five hymenopterans, two dipterans and one from odonata. Among these Apis mellifera L., A. dorsata F., A. florea F., Xylocopa fenestrata F. and Polistes sp. were found to be most frequent pollinators. The relative abundance (no. of insect/m2/10 minutes) revealed that Apis mellifera (20.0) was most dominant species followed by Apis dorsata (16.7), Xylocopa fenestrata (15.9), Apis florea (11.3), Eristalinus sp. (6.3), Polistes sp. (5.1), Paragomphus sp. (2.9) and Musca domestica (2.0). Irrespective of species, the mean population was maximum (13.3/m2/10 minutes) at 0700-h of the day. The coefficient of correlation between mean population of pollinators species and temperature was found positive and significant while negative correlation was found with relative humidity indicating that temperature plays an important role on activity of insect pollinators. The result on foraging behaviour of X. fenestrata revealed that they started visiting ridge gourd flowers in early morning and ceased their activity later in the evening. It remained active throughout the flowering period. The foraging rate of X. fenestrata was minimum in the morning (3.9 flower/min.) and evening (3.2 flower/min.) hours and maximum during the mid day hours (7.3 flower/min.) and its foraging speed was maximum in morning (17.6 sec.) and evening (23.5sec.) whereas, minimum in mid day hours (11.1 sec.) and there was inverse relation between foraging rate and foraging speed. The heaviest pollen load was carried by the Xylocopa in the evening hour while lightest pollen load was carried in the noon hour which indicated that more pollen was collected by Xylocopa during morning and evening hours from ridge gourd flowers. The yields of fruit and seed of ridge gourd increased significantly by pollination of Xylocopa. The fruit set was highest in open pollination (78.70%) followed by Xylocopa pollination, viz. XP3 (72.20%), XP2 (63.60%) and XP1 (52.70%), whereas lowest in pollination exclusion (50.00%). The number of fruits per plant was maximum in OP (18.50) followed by XP3 (16.20), XP2 (14.00), XP1 (11.50) and was lowest in PE (10.00) treatments. Similarly, fruit weight was maximum in OP (85.60 g) followed by XP3 (80.50 g), XP2 (4.30 g), XP1 (70.10 g) and was lowest in PE (51.80 g). The fruit yield was maximum in OP (82.30 q/ha), followed by XP3, XP2 and XP1 (81.00, 75.50 and 73.60 q/ha, respectively) and the lowest in PE (60.20 q/ha). The result reflected that there was 36.80% increased in fruit yield in OP while, it was 34.50% in XP3, 25.30% in XP2 and 22.20% in XP1 treatment over pollination exclusion. The highest number of seed per fruit was found maximum in OP (27.00) followed by XP3 (25.50), XP2 (24.00), XP1 (22.20) and was lowest in PE (19.50) treatment. The weight of 100-seed was maximum in OP (15.20 g) followed by XP3 (13.10 g), XP2 (12.50 g), XP1 (11.00 g) and was lowest in PE (9.00 g). The percentage increment in seed yield was recorded highest in the OP (70.00%) followed by XP3 (50.00%), XP2 (30.00%) and XP1 (10.00%) over PE treatment. The insect pollinators play significant role in pollinating ridge gourd flowers and enhancing yield of crop. Therefore, Xylocopa fenestrata can be utilized for pollinating ridge gourd for increasing qualitative and quantitative parameters of the crop and therefore, higher monetary return.