Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (Earlier, Rajendra Agricultural University) was originally established as India's first-ever Imperial Agriculture Research Institute.

The foundation stone of the Agricultural Research Institute and college was laid by Lord Curzon on 1 April 1905 with the financial assistance of Henry Phipps, Jr., an American philanthropist. Phipps was a family friend of Lady Curzon, the daughter of an American millionaire, and the wife of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India. In his speech, the viceroy 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. In a separate meeting with the Bihar Planters Association, he fervently hoped that the institute would be of immense service to them in their grave hour of the crisis caused by the German Indigo scientist.