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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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ThesisItem Open Access Effect of Heat Stress on Tissue Culture Response in Wheat Genotypes(DRPCAU, Pusa, 2019) Raj, Anant; Kumar, HarshThe effect of heat stress on tissue culture responses like callogenesis and organogenesis including green structures formation and rhizogenesis was studied in four wheat genotypes Sonara-64, PBW-343, HD-2967 and SIDS. Media were identified for callus formation and organogenesis from cultured mature embryos, the best medium for callus formation was MS + 4mg/l 2,4-D and for organogenesis MS + 1mg/l BAP + 0.5gm/l NAA. Mature embryos from pre-heat treated seeds were induced to develop callus and on the basis of calculated heat susceptibility index (HSI) and heat tolerance index (HTI), the genotype HD-2967 was the most heat tolerant followed by PBW-343. Genotype SIDS was the most heat sensitive followed by Sonara-64. The formed calli under controlled and heat stress were further pre-heat treated and cultured on differentiating medium for organogenesis. Genotype HD-2967 showed the best response followed by PBW-343, Sonara-64 and SIDS respectively under heat stress indicating their relative heat tolerance. Thus based on tissue culture responses under heat stress genotype HD-2967 and PBW-343 were heat tolerant and Sonara-64 and SIDS were heat sensitive. Molecular characterization study of eleven genotypes resulted in successful amplification with 12 SSR primer pairs. A total of 79 allelic variants were detected with an average of 6.07 alleles per locus and total 46 unique alleles were observed with an average of 3.53 unique alleles per locusat 13 SSR loci. The highest number Name of Student : Anant Raj Admission No./Registration No. : M/AB/199/2017-18 MajorAdvisor : Dr. Harsh Kumar Degree to be awarded : M.Sc.(Ag) in Agricultural Biotechnology Major Subject : Agricultural Biotechnology Minor Subject : Plant Breeding & Genetics Year : 2019 Total pages of the Thesis : 70+i-xiv (Bibliography) Title of the research problem : “Effect of heat stress on tissue culture response in wheat genotypes” of alleles per locus was observed in the B genome (38 alleles) as compared to A (24) and D (17) genomes. Polymorphism information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.327 for the primer pairXgwm160 to 0.878 for the primer pairXgwm 577with an average of 0.764. The similarity coefficient was the maximum between HD-2967 and BWL-9022 (0.519) and the minimum (0.0) infour pair-wise combinations HD-2967 with Purulla, PBW-343 with Sonalika, BWL-9022 with Sonalika and KSG-1186 with Sonalika. It ranged from 0.0 to 0.519 indicating the presence of wide range of genetic diversity at molecular level among the genotypes. Dendrogram was constructed using Dice similarity coefficients. The entries were divided into three groups on the basis of drawing phenon line at 0.20 coefficient of similarity level.Cluster A grouped together highly heat tolerant genotypes (PBW-343, HD-2967, BWL-9022 ), cluster B grouped moderately heat tolerant genotypes (Purulla, Seri-82, SALEMBO, KSG-1186 ) except CIANO-T-79 ( moderately heat susceptible) and cluster C grouped together highly heat susceptible genotypes (Sonara-64, SIDS, Sonalika) of wheat. Thus, molecular characterization revealed that genotypes under study were having genetically different levels of heat tolerance.ThesisItem Open Access Study on cloning of Starch Synthase III gene in wheat(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Kumar, Vishnu; Kumar, RajeevBread wheat is one of the primary sources of energy and proteins for millions of people world over. Starch is the most critical food energy source in the world and constitutes 65% to 80% proportion of the wheat grain weight. Starch synthase III is directly associated with starch accumulation in wheat. Hence, the present investigation entitled “Study on cloning of Starch Synthase III gene in wheat” was conducted to clone the full length of starch synthase III genes. The work includes detailed In-silico characterization of genome-specific TaSS-III genes in wheat, covering positions of exons, introns, location of the genes in chromosomes, phylogenetic analysis, protein’s domain analysis, and expression analysis under heat stress conditions. The genomic DNA of heat susceptible PBW-343 and tolerant KSG-1186 genotypes was used for PCR amplification of TaSS-IIIa1D gene using gene specific primers, and using pJET1.2/blunt cloning vector, and then sequenced to detect the SNPs. Two homologs of the TaSS-III genes, TaSS-IIIa and TaSS-IIIb, were found on the plus strand of chromosome 1 (1A, 1B & 1D) and minus strand of chromosome 2 (2A, 2B &2D), respectively. All homeologous copies of the gene contained 16 exons. Out of which, 3rd was the largest (1698-2757 bp) and 2nd the smallest (64 bp). Besides, 15 introns were identified in the gene. Among which 1, 5, and 8 were longer (391-2906 bp, 447-910 bp, and 591-899 bp), and 6, 13, 14, and 15 were shorter (75-114 bp, 83-99 bp, 87-90 bp, and 81-118 bp) in size. Exon 1 and 3 of the homologous and homeologous copies of the genes exhibited maximum variation. Introns were found relatively more variable than the exons. The average length of the total intronic region of the genes was estimated slightly longer than that of its coding sequence. TaSS-IIIa1B, TaSS-IIIa1D, and TaSS-IIIb2A contained 3 splice variants, TaSS-IIIb2B & TaSS-IIIb2D contained 2 splice variants and TaSS-IIIa1A contained only a single transcript. Phylogenetic analysis showed that copy of the gene present on the 1st chromosome (1A, 1B & 1D) share maximum similarity with HvSS-IIIa followed by BdSS-IIIa, OsSS-IIIa, SbSS-IIIa, and ZmSS-IIIa whereas, TaSS-IIIb exhibited maximum similarity with OsSS-IIIb followed by ZmSS-IIIb and SbSS-IIIb respectively. Maximum dissimilarity for SS-III genes was found between monocots and dicots. For both TaSS-III genes, the sequences found on A and D genomes were more similar than that of the gene on the B genome. Domain analysis revealed that the glycosyltransferase (GT) domain was most conserved among all the domains. Three SBDs were found in each of the homeologous copies of TaSS-IIIa & TaSS-IIIb protein, wherein the positions of tryptophan amino acids were found conserved. Expression analysis of both copies showed that TaSS-IIIb expresses in the tissues viz. leaf, stem, root, spike, & grain and in much higher amounts than TaSS-IIIa. Whereas, TaSSIIIa expression was highly specific to endosperm in the grain. The expression of the TaSS-III genes reduces due to heat stress. Sequencing of the products of direct PCR and indirect vector cloning showed that in-vitro amplification and in vivo amplification products have no variation. A total of 49 SNPs were identified in 10,529bp of the TSS-IIIa1D gene between the PBW-343 and KSG-1186 genotypes. Twenty-nine specific SNPs were identified in heat-sensitive genotype (PBW-343), and 20 specific SNPs were identified in the heat-tolerant genotype (KSG-1186). There were 14 intronic and 15 exonic SNPs contributing to 18 transitions and 9 transversions in the PWB-343 genotype, reflecting the transition bias. While in genotype KSG-1186, 9 transitions, 9 transversions, and two deletions are contributing to 6 intronic and 14 exonic SNPs showing no such bias. Maximum SNPs were detected in 3rd and 8th exons of PBW-343, whereas in genotype KSG-1186, only 3rd exon contained maximum SNPs. Exon 3 was found to be evolutionarily highly variable among all monocots and dicots taxa. Between PBW-343 and KSG-1186, 18 SNPs consisting of 11 transitions, and 7 transversions were found, reflecting the transition bias. Seven SNPs found associated with SBD-1, SBD-2 and SS-CD domains of the TaSS-IIIa1D protein. In SBD-1, one non-synonymous and one synonymous mutation were observed in both PBW-343 and KSG-1186; in SBD-2, one non-synonymous mutation was observed in KSG-1186 whereas, one non-synonymous and one synonymous mutation were observed in SSCD of PBW-343.ThesisItem Open Access IN-SILICO AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF YSL1 GENE IN WHEAT(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Panigrahi, Sourav; Kumar, RajeevWheat is the staple food for the majority of people in the world and thus forms an important component of human nutrition and hence its bio-fortification concerning mineral nutrients is a major concern in the scientific world. In this study, the biofortification of wheat with respect to grain Fe and Zn content has been taken into consideration. Twenty-five wheat genotypes were sown under normal and late sown conditions (heat stress). Estimation of Fe and Zn content in wheat grains was done by AAS after wet digestion by Nitric acid: Perchloric acid:: 1:3. The data about Fe and Zn content in grains of wheat sown under normal and late conditions were analyzed statistically and it was found that there was a reduction of Fe and Zn content in the late sown than the normal sown conditions in most of the genotypes under study. Contrarily, 5 genotypes showed increased Fe accumulation and seven genotypes showed increased Zn accumulation in wheat grains under late sown condition, thus exhibiting negative HSI values. This distribution of Fe and Zn content over two dates of sowing was subjected to cluster analysis and were classified into three groups Fe content and 4 groups based on Zn content in seed. The YSL gene family plays an important role in Fe and Zn homeostasis into the grains. In this study, all 63 members of the YSL gene family were identified in the wheat genome. Out of all the TaYSL genes, TaYSL2, in particular, was characterized in silico and was found to be expressed in the spike and involved directly in metal-NA loading into the seeds. Three homeologous copies of the gene TaYSL2 namely TaYSL2-6A, TaYSL2-6B and TaYSL2-6D, were identified on the 6th chromosome of each of the three genomes. 6 introns and 7 exons were found in each of the homeologous copies of the gene. In-silico expression of TaYSL2-6A increased many folds under prolonged drought conditions, TaYSL2-6B increased many folds under heat stress and combined stress of heat and drought increases the expression of TaYSL2-6B to many folds and TaYSL2-6D significantly. TaYSL2 gene was taken up for molecular characterization using gene-based genome-specific primers as well as gene-based SSRs primer in 12 genotypes selected from the varied Fe and Zn content data. Amplification was obtained successfully in all the designed primers. A total of 67 alleles including 37 unique alleles, were obtained from all the primers. The PIC value of primers ranged from 0.542 to 0.904. Maximum polymorphism was observed in B genome followed by A and D genomes respectively. Dice's similarity coefficient computed from the molecular data analysis ranged from 0.821 to 0.672. Based on the similarity coefficient, the genotypes were classified into 4 clusters and were successfully correlated with the Fe and Zn content data.ThesisItem Open Access Adoption behaviour of jute growers in Kosi region of Bihar(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricutural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Kumar, Amit; Ansari, NaushadThe study entitled “Adoption Behaviour of Jute Growers in KosiRegion of Bihar” was conducted with the specific objectives to know the socio-economic conditions, their level of knowledge and extent of adoption about jute cultivation practices along with the association between selected independent variables. Attempts were also made to identify the constraints faced by the jute growers and to explore the suggestions given by them to overcome the constraints and various problems occurring in jute cultivation. The present study was carried out in Kosi region of Bihar. Three district namely Madhepura, Saharsa and Supaul were selected for the study, from these three districts one block from each district were selected on the basis of major area under jute cultivation.And from each block two villages were selected randomly, further fifteen respondents were selected from each villages constituting a total sample size of 90 jute growers for the study purposes. Face to face interaction with the help of well prepared interview schedule was used for collection of data. The collected data were analyzed with the help of frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and Pearson‟s correlation coefficient. The study revealed that majority of the jute growers of Kosi region were belonged to middle age group, having primary/middle school level of education, maximum percentage of them belonged to backward class and having marginal land holding area. It was also indicated that majority of them having medium level of their annual income from all available sources,they were medium in contact with different extension agencies, their exposure to mass media tools were medium to high. They were also medium in orientation towards scientific cultivation, economic orientation and also in risk bearing ability. The findings also indicated that, they weremedium in level of knowledge and extent of adoption of jute production technology.The study also revealed that out of ten independent variables, eight variables i.e. education, land holding, annual income, extension contact, mass media exposure, scientific orientation, economic orientation and risk orientation shows positive significant relationship with the knowledge level and extent of adoption of jute growers towards jute cultivation practices. Age shows negative correlation with knowledge level and adoption of jute growers and caste shows non-significant relationship with the level of knowledge and adoption. It is concluded that the major constraints faced by the jute growers in Kosi region of Bihar were lack of mechanization for processing of jute after harvest, lack of proper storage house, appearance of different types of insect, pest and diseases, intensity of flood and drought, lack of proper marketing channel, unaware of the practice of seed treatment, lack of technical knowledge with respect to use of pesticides, lack of assured and adequate irrigation facility and poor drainage system and lack of extension service. The important suggestion given by jute growers were develop mechanization for extraction of jute, develop water resources and timely availability of water for retting, establishment of retting tanks, release of flood tolerant varieties, providing good quality seed at cheaper rate, appropriate control measures of pest and diseases, timely technical guidance and soil testing, provision of fertilizers on subsidized rates, supply of effective plant protection chemicals,provision of credit facility, develop proper market structure to overcome the problem by middle manand providing good transport facility .ThesisItem Open Access Study on QTL analysis for heat stress response in wheat using doubled haploid population(RPCAU, PUSA, Samastipur, 2019) Pankaj, Yaswant Kumar; Kumar, RajeevThe inheritance of tolerance to high temperature stress at grain yield was investigated via a QTL analysis based on 167 doubled haploid progeny of a cross between the cultivar PBW 343 and KSG 1186. Performance data were collected from three different date of sowing in the month of 28 November, 22 December and 15 January, followed by almost one month gap period at the farm of Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar. Significant differences were observed among the genotypes for all the traits under consideration namely grain yield and canopy temperature. Exploitable extent of correlation amongst the entries between both the characters for different date of sowing was present as revealed by considerably higher estimates correlation coefficient up to the value of (R = 0.88). Using composite interval mapping, a total no. of eight QTLs were identified for both the characters viz. canopy temperature and grain yield. QTL.ct2-6B was flanked by the marker barc127-cfd135 was having largest LOD score of 4.36 with the highest phenotypic variance (R2 = 23.28%). QTL.yld2-1A was flanked by gdm33-gwm136 was having the lowest LOD score of 2.54 with the lowest phenotypic variance (R2 = 11.66%). This scenario has indicated that LOD score and phenotypic variance are proportional to each other. Two QTLs viz. QTL.ct1-2A and QTL.ct2-6B related to canopy temperature has sown negative additive effect with the value of -0.92 and -1.20. The reason behind the negative additive effect is the mostly alleles contributing from the poor parent PBW 343 which is susceptible to heat stress. These information's can be used further for fine mapping and marker assisted selection in the near future.ThesisItem Open Access Effect of grey water on soil properties and Tomato crop(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Prabhakar, Deepak Kumar; Singh, A. K.A field experiment was started on “Effect of grey water on soil properties and Tomato crop” during Rabi season of 2017 in calcareous soil at RPCAU, Pusa Farm in R.B.D. design with 7 treatment and 3 replications and tomato was taken as test crop. Sowing date of Tomato crop was 18th December and first harvesting was done on 4th April and harvesting continues up to 7 times at 4 days of interval .The data were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis as per design and salient results obtained are summarized below : Surface soil samples (0-15) were analyzed for physical and chemical properties, viz., bulk density, texture, porosity, pH, EC, organic carbon (OC), available nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, sulphur, boron and micronutrient elements (zinc, iron ,copper, manganese ) and heavy metals in soil . Grey water application significantly enhances the soil properties like bulk density, pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, boron, micronutrients element (zinc, iron, copper, manganese) and heavy metals like ( Pb and Cr) in soil . The concentration of nutrient like N, P, K and b was recorded highest viz. 389.0 kg ha-1, 182.9 kg ha-1 176.7 kg ha-1 and 0.46 mg kg-1 respectively in 100% grey water treated soil. All chemical parameters and nutrient contents were found higher in grey water than ground water. In general higher nutrient uptake and crop yield was recorded in 50% grey water along with 50% of fresh water application.ThesisItem Open Access Vermicompost from household waste and its effect on Soil properties and crop growth(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Kusum, Alpana; Jha, ShankarCatastrophic growth in population has led to massive urbanization, industrialization and agricultural advancement which has resulted in economic growth on one hand and increased municipal solid waste generation on the other. Effective waste management is necessary as unscientific disposal of waste negatively impacts the environment and public health and also wastage of untrapped nutrients in the form of waste. Thus, it is imperative to develop a proper technique for protection of environment and conversion of these potential sources of untapped nutrients into useful fertilizers for improving and sustaining soil fertility. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted during Kharif 2018 at Vermicompost Production Unit, RPCAU, Pusa with an objective to recycle the large amount of household waste generated through vermicomposting by stabilizing proper ratio of household waste and cow dung and further use of vermicompost for improving soil properties and plant growth. On the basis of nutrient content and recovery percent the household waste and cow dung in equal proportion (50:50) was considered as best quality vermicompost. Incubation study was conducted to understand the mineralization of vermicompost during rice growth period. For incubation study the best quality vermicompost was used in four levels (0, 1.25, 2.5 and 3.75 t ha-1) along with three levels of chemical fertilizers viz. 0, RDF and 50% RDF (RDF- 120:60:40 kg ha-1 N: P2O5: K2O) to examine the mineralization of vermicompost in calcareous sandy loam soil at five different stages which match with the critical growth stages of rice crop and the experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized design (3 factors) replicated thrice. In order to find out the residual effect of vermicompost on soil properties, growth, yield and uptake of nutrients in rice crop pot experiment was conducted with rice crop in a Completely Randomized design (2 factors) replicated thrice. During incubation study available N increased up to 30 DAI whereas, TOC, available P2O5, K2O and micronutrients (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) content in soil increased up to 65 DAI then decreased gradually. Application of increasing level of vermicompost and fertilizer alone or in combination resulted in corresponding increase in the available nutrient content of soil. Significant build-up of available N, P2O5, K2O and micronutrients (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) was recorded in post-harvest soil of rice crop. Gradual increased doses of vermicompost alone or in combination with different doses of fertilizer yielded greater nutrient build up in post-harvest soil, N, P, K content and uptake in grain and straw. The magnitude of soil nutrient build-up in post-harvest soil was in accordance with doses of vermicompost and fertilizer. Combined application of vermicompost at higher dose (3.75 t ha-1) and full dose of fertilizer (RDF) recorded 25.55%, 14.79% and 41.27% increase over control in available N, P2O5 and K2O respectively in post-harvest soil. Combined application of vermicompost and chemical fertilizer recorded greater nutrient use efficiency than their alone application. Application of vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) along with RDF gave highest grain and straw yield which were statistically at par with application of vermicompost (2.5 t ha-1) along with RDF and their magnitudes were 54.66 g pot-1 and53.55 g pot-1 for grain, 60.40 g pot-1 and 58.05 g pot-1 for straw, respectively. However, application of vermicompost at 1.25 t ha-1 and 50% RDF yielded equally as full dose of chemical fertilizer (RDF) alone. This indicates that 50% of chemical fertilizer could be saved on application vermicompost even at lower dose combined with 50% RDF without reduction in grain yield.ThesisItem Open Access Effect of household-waste-based vermicompost on carbon pool, functional-indicator microbes and plant growth(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Kumar, Chiranjeeb; Prasad, S. S.The destructive increment in population has led to generation of vast amount of solid and organic wastes, thus initiating the problems regarding soil and environmental pollution, soil health deterioration, disturbing soil -physical-chemical-biological equilibrium continuum. An advanced, scientific technique must be developed to mitigate the waste generation problems, providing proper nutrients for overall soil health improvement, creating adoptable micro environment for growth of microbes and enhancing soil nutrient conversion cycles leading to proper nutrient supply for plant growth. The mitigation of wastes generated will vastly affect the whole environment, creating a pollution free environment. Keeping the above aspects in view, a study was conducted during the Kharif season in 2018 at Vermicompost production unit, RPCAU, Pusa with an objective of proper mitigation of waste and scientifically converting it into some useful manure. Vermicomposting of household generated wastes with cow dung at different proportion was made and finally quality analysis of vermicompost was done. On the basis of nutrients contents, microbial growth, enzymatic activities, carbon pool variations and recovery percent, the vermicompost prepared from equal proportions of household waste and cow dung (50 :50) on weight basis was considered the best one and it was further utilized in an incubation experiment which was synchronized with pot culture rice experiment. In the incubation experiment four levels of vermicompost (0 t ha-1, 1.25 t ha-1, 2.5 t ha-1, 3.7 t ha-1) and three levels of fertilizer ( 0 %, 100 %, 50 % RDF) were taken for analyzing the effect on the carbon pools, functional indicator microbes growth, enzymatic activities in calcareous sandy loam soil at four stages of incubation (3 factors of variations) which matched with the critical rice crop growth stages, replicated thrice using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). In pot-culture experiment, the effect of vermicompost and fertilizer on carbon pools, functional indicator microbes growth, nutrient contents, uptakes, efficiencies and yields were conducted with rice crop (2 factors of variations) using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) statistical procedure. During incubation experiment, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen, microbial biomass phosphorus, dehydrogenase activities, water soluble carbon, hot-water soluble carbon, available-N increased from 0th DAI to 115th DAI. The TOC, Organic carbon, available-P2O5 increased from 0th DAI to 65th DAI and then decreased up to 115th DAI. Increasing levels of vermicompost and fertilizer increased the functional-indicator microbes from 0th DAI to 65th DAI and then declined the rate of increase from 65th DAI to 115th DAI. The microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass phosphorus and microbial biomass nitrogen increased 101.84 %, 40.63 %, 42.52 % over control at 115th DAI, respectively. The pot-culture experiment marked the increase in available-N, P, S nutrients content in post-harvest soil as well as increase in carbon pools, functional-indicator microbes growth from tillering stage of rice cropped soil up to post-harvest period soil in response to the increased dose of vermicompost and fertilizer. The increased dose of vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and full dose of fertilizer (100 % RDF) significantly increased available-N, MBC, azotobacter population count 25.55 % ,125.69 % and 62.71 % increase over control in post-harvest soil, respectively. In pot-culture experiment at tillering stage the carbon pools, nutrient contents as well as functional indicator microbes increased significantly over control. The increase in the microbial biomass carbon and microbial nitrogen significantly increased 116.85 % and 113.26 % over control. The bacillus count increased significantly by 89.09 % over control in soil at tillering stage. All other functional indicator microbes increased significantly over control but lower than post-harvest soil. The grain and straw yields were significantly superior in response to vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and RDF which was statistically at par with application of vermicompost level (2.5 t ha-1) and fertilizer (100 % RDF) and their values were 54.66 g pot-1 and 53.55 g pot-1 for grain , 60.40 g pot-1 and 58.05 g pot-1 for straw, respectively. The yield was equal in case of vermicompost (1.25 t ha-1) with RDF without affecting yield loss. Thus, it can be concluded that 50 % save over the cost of chemical fertilizer is achieved in the whole experiment and can be suggested to the farmers. The nutrients content in grain and straw and their uptakes, nutrient use efficiencies was found significantly superior in the combined application of high dose vermicompost ( 3.75 t ha-1) and fertilizer(100 % RDF) than their sole applications. The pot-culture experiment marked the increase in available-N, P, S nutrients content in post-harvest soil as well as increase in carbon pools, functional-indicator microbes growth in soil in response to the increased dose of vermicompost and fertilizer. The increased dose of vermicompost (3.75 t ha-1) and full dose of fertilizer (100 % RDF) significantly increased available-N, microbial biomass carbon, azotobacter population count 25.55 % ,125.69 % and 62.71 % increase over control in post-harvest soil, respectively.ThesisItem Open Access Effect of nutrient management and rice establishment methods on soil fertility & crop productivity(Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, 2019) Pal, Rajesh Kumar; Singh, PankajThe area under rice crop in our country is about 43.19 Mha with a production of 110.15 MT and productivity of 2550 kg ha-1(Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 2017).In India, rice is cultivated by different methods, but majority of farmers grow rice by adopting age-old practice, i.e. transplanting rice seedling in puddled field. This practice reduces weed problems, increases the iron and zinc (Fe& Zn) availability and makes soil favorable for transplanting and at the same time it requires large quantity of water up to grain filling. Further transplanting requires huge manpower. Direct seeding of rice is a potential alternative, which, is also a successful method of growing rice in many countries of the world. With this back ground the present investigation entitled ―Effect of nutrient management and rice establishment methods on soil fertility & crop productivity‖was carried out at Research Farm, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University Pusa, Bihar during kharif2018 on calcareous sandy loam soil. The experiment was laid-out in a split-plot design (SPD). The main-plot treatments included three crop establishment methods, viz. dry direct-seeded rice (M3-DSR-dry), wet direct-seeded rice (M2-DSR-wet) and puddled transplanted rice (M1-TPR). In sub-plots, five different nutrient management methods were T1 (100% STCR Based Dose of Fertilizer + ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1), T2 (75% DF + 25% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost), T3 (100% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost), T4 (100% DF + 50% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) and T5 (50% DF + 25% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) were replicated thrice under each method. The plant height and yield attributing characters- number of tillers per meter square, number of panicles per meter square, filled grains per panicles and test weightrecorded significantly higher values under transplanted rice with T4 (100% DF + 50% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) recording significantly higher values among different nutrient management systems. The transplanted method recorded significantly higher grain and straw yield as well as nutrient (N, P, K, Fe & Zn) uptake and T4 (100% DF + 50% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) performing significantly better than other treatments. The bulk density was recorded lowest under DSR-dry treatment which recorded significantly higher water holding capacity (WHC). Among treatments T3 (100% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) recorded minimum bulk density and maximum WHC. The availability of macro and micro nutrients was significantly higher under transplanted rice and was positively influenced byT4 (100% DF + 50% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost). The fungal and bacterial count was found to be higher in transplanted rice while actinomycetes population was higher under DSR-dry. The microbial population was significantly influenced by T3 (100% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost). The dehydrogenase activity, MBC and MBN were significantly higher in transplanted rice T3 (100% STCR based Recommended Dose of Nitrogen through Vermicompost) treatment recording significantly higher values. The economics of all the cultivation practices recorded higher B:C ratio (0.73) and net returns (₹ 34684 ha-1) under DSR-wet with T1 (100% STCR Based Dose of Fertilizer + ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1) giving farmers an alternative method for rice production.