RAU owes its origin to British agri research institute

Patna: The 46 year old Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU), which has recently been accorded the status of a central university, owes its origin to the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute set up by the British government in 1903 in a remote village of Samastipur district. It is said that when the then government proposed to set up an institute of agricultural research in the country, a detailed survey was carried out by the agricultural experts across the country.The present site was selected for the purpose owing to its most fertile soil, suitable climate and the multiplicity of crops grown in the region.
As recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1878, this region had earlier been acquired by the East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. But, due to frequent incidence of a disease affecting the animals, the farm was abandoned. Then it was acquired by a British tobacco firm “Beg Sutherland & Co”, but it also left the place in 1897. This vacant space was utilized for the agricultural research institute.
Credit for the establishment of agricultural research institute goes solely to philanthropist Henry Phipps of USA, a family friend of then Viceroy Lord Curzon. During one of his visits to India, Phipps offered a sum of 30,000 dollars to Curzon for some noble cause. The money was spent on the setting up of the institute. A full-fledged research laboratory in the name of Phipps was set up here to promote agricultural research. It is said that the name of the place Pusa is the abbreviated form of Phipps of U.S.A. (Pusa). Earlier, the village was known by some other name.
Laying down the foundation stone of the Agricultural Research Institute on April 1, 1905 Lord Curzon had expressed his vision that the seed he was planting would soon blossom out, making Pusa the nucleus of agricultural activities, research and education which would not only benefit Bihar and Bengal, but the whole of the country and would attract the best of talents from India and abroad.
However, the 1934 Bihar earthquake caused massive devastations in the region and the worst victim was the massive Phipp’s laboratory. The central government decided to shift the institute to Delhi which was vehemently opposed by then provincial chief minister S K Sinha. However, despite people’s protests, it was shifted to New Delhi in 1935. However, the road where the headquarters of this agricultural research institute was located, was named “Pusa Road.”
Pusa estate, since its purchase by the government of Bihar, has undergone a series of changes with the dawn of independence and one finds today a number of institutions located here along with the sugarcane research institute which is the major scientific organization at Pusa and one of the biggest centres of sugarcane research in the country. In 1970, the state government started the present Rajendra Agricultural University with its headquarters at Pusa.
Today, besides being the RAU headquarters, Pusa hosts a number of research institutions, including regional research station of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, tobacco research station of Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajamundri, crop research programme of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Kisan Vidyapeeth.