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Calcium deficiency in high yielding bovines during calving causes milk fever which leads to economic losses of around INR 1000 crores (USD 137 million) per annum in Haryana, India. With increasing milk production, the risk of milk fever is continuously rising. In the context, we aim to address the most fundamental research question: What is the effect of a preventive health product (anionic mineral mixture (AMM)) on milk fever incidence, milk productivity and farmers income? In an effort to contribute to the scanty economic literature on effect of preventive measures on nutritional deficiency disorders in dairy animals, specifically, on AMM effects in India, this study uses a randomized controlled design to estimate internally valid estimates. Using data from 200 dairy farms, results indicate that milk fever incidence decreases from 21 per cent at baseline to 2 per cent in treated animals at follow-up. Further, AMM leads to a 12 per cent and 38 per cent increase in milk yield and farmers net income, respectively. Profits earned due to the prevention of milk fever [INR 16000 (USD 218.7)] overweighs the losses from milk fever [INR 4000 (USD 54.7)]; thus, prevention using AMM is better than cure.

Intestinal epithelial tight junction disruption is a primary contributing factor in alcohol-associated endotoxemia, systemic inflammation, and multiple organ damage. Ethanol and acetaldehyde disrupt tight junctions by elevating intracellular Ca2+. Here we identify TRPV6, a Ca2+-permeable channel, as a target to improve alcohol-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction and systemic inflammation. Ethanol and acetaldehyde elicit TRPV6 ionic currents in Caco-2 cells. Studies in Caco-2 cell monolayers and mouse intestinal organoids show that TRPV6 deficiency or inhibition attenuates ethanol and acetaldehyde-induced Ca2+ influx, tight junction disruption, and barrier dysfunction. Moreover, Trpv6-/- mice are resistant to alcohol-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction. Photoaffinity labeling of 3-Azibutanol identifies a conserved histidine as a potential alcohol-binding site in TRPV6, and its substitution for alanine in rat TRPV6 reduces ethanol-activated TRPV6 currents. Our findings reveal that TRPV6 is required for alcohol-induced gut barrier dysfunction and inflammation. Thus, molecules that decrease TRPV6 function have the potential to attenuate alcohol-associated endotoxemia and systemic inflammation.

Presently, Indian agricultural extension has wide mandates and despite the pluralistic extension approaches, its coverage and use of services is limited; particularly in rain-fed regions that are represented by marginal and smallholder farmers’. Hence, there is need to develop “need-based” capacity building of small-scale men and women farmers, as well as gaining access to reliable information in increasing their productivity and profitability for livelihoods improvements. There are five major agricultural public sector extension systems devoted to extension work in India: (i) the Ministry of Agriculture at central level, including the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Directorate of Extension (DoE); (ii) State Departments of Agriculture (DoA), as well as the State Agricultural Universities (SAUs); (iii) the Departments of Agriculture (DoA), Animal Husbandry (DAH), Horticulture (DoH) and Fisheries (DoF), as well as the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) and, more recently, the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) at the District level; (iv) also, there are a wide variety of producers groups, including cooperatives and federations of milk, fruits, cotton, oilseeds, coconut, spices etc.; as well as (v) civil society organizations, such as the Non-governmental Organization (NGOs). In agricultural innovation systems, there are still large gaps between research and extension approaches. Hence, there is need to evaluate the performance and socio-economic impacts of research and extension programs. Also, a greater understanding of Public Private Partnership is also required; including the mechanisms that help encourage partnerships. There is a want for a thorough evaluation of extension approaches in order to identify best practices and to understand their impact on farming communities in reaching small-scale and marginal farmers. The present study tries to analyze the role played by public sector institutions in India.

Agriculture occupies a key position in the Indian economy providing a source of livelihood for a majority of the population. Successes in agricultural front with high production levels, especially in food grains have indeed been achieved. But more energy in the form of mineral fertilizers, chemical pesticides and farm machinery are required every year to produce the same quantity of farm products. Historically, women have been the managers of natural resources as they are dependent on them for their livelihood and their family’s needs. The consequences of over exploitation of these resources have rendered them scarce. The rural women collect over 28% of all energy consumed in India in the form of firewood. Most of the 140 million tonnes of firewood burnt annually come from forests. Poverty and unemployment in rural areas have resulted in large-scale migration to urban areas. Women are being forced to take up more drudgerous jobs as a source of livelihood as most of the migrants are absorbed into the construction sector. Women form the largest work force in agricultural sector. Caring for livestock comes naturally to women. The most drudgerous jobs in livestock production like cleaning of the cattle sheds, feeding the cattle, collection of fodder etc. always fall on the woman. Care for young animals and backyard livestock is also largely done by women. In caring for sick young animals women have evolved several ethno veterinary practices. Despite recent agricultural innovations there is no respite for rural women. While agricultural innovations leads to the reallocation of family labour and the assignment to men of complete control over output and income, without associated changes in the allocation of obligations, welfare and nutritional status of the family may actually decline.

While water remains one of the most abundant resources on earth but less than 1 percent of the total supply is reliably available for human consumption. Drinking-water is certainly essential for human survival but water-related illnesses are the most common health threat in the developing world. An estimated 25 000 people die every day as a result of water-related diseases Human existence depends on water. Water interacts with solar energy to determine climate and it transforms and transports the physical and chemical substances necessary for all life on earth. Competition among agriculture, industry and cities for limited water supplies is already constraining development efforts in many countries including India. As populations expand and economies grow, the competition for limited supplies is most likely to intensify, resulting in potential conflict situation among water users in days to come. Despite shortages of water, its misuse is widespread, be it in small communities or large cities, farmers or industries, developing countries or industrialized economies every where the mismanagement of water resources is evident. Surface water quality is deteriorating in key basins from urban and industrial wastes. Agriculture is often unable to compete with cities and industries for water, as it is unable to pay more for water it needs. Further, irrigated agriculture is expected to produce much more in the future while using less water than it uses today. At present, 2.4 billion people depend on irrigated agriculture for jobs, food and income (some 55 percent of all wheat and rice output is irrigated). Over the next 30 years, an estimated 80 percent of the additional food supplies required to feed the world will depend on irrigation. Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, in January 2012, released a draft National Water Policy for the consideration and opinion of state governments and other stakeholders. The need for a holistic national policy has its genesis in the changing patterns of water use across India – both personal and industrial use. This includes the imperatives of providing both clean drinking water and adequate resources for irrigation; the move to look at renewable sources of energy like hydro power; and natural disaster management and rehabilitation following devastating floods and drought. The policy also seeks to offer economic incentives and penalties to reduce pollution and wastage. For reversing the usual approach of projecting a future demand and bringing about a supply-side response to meet that demand, we must start from the fact that the availability of fresh water in nature is finite, and learn to manage our water needs within that availability. This means a restraint on the growth of 'demand' for water (other than basic needs) which will be difficult and will involve painful adjustments; but this has become inevitable. So, to have a more equitable and inclusive water resources management, the primacy has to shift from large, centralized, capital-intensive 'water resource development' (WRD) projects with big dams and reservoirs and canal systems, to small, decentralized, local, community-led, water-harvesting and watershed-development programmes, with the big projects being regarded as projects of the last resort; and the exploitation of groundwater will have to be severely restrained in the interest of resource-conservation as well as equity.

In India, poverty reduction is one of the major objectives of economic development programmes. India was the first country in the world to define poverty as the total per capita expenditure of the lowest expenditure class, which is required to ascertain a minimum intake of 2400 kcal/day in rural and 2100 kcal/day in urban areas. There exists a substantial interstate and urban rural differential in the cost of goods and services. The present study envisages analyzing the nature, extent and severity of rural poverty across different household classes at selected villages in the state of Jharkhand. It also attempts to find out the determinants of poverty in the villages under study with the help of data obtained from four village’s viz. Dubaliya, Hesapiri, Dumariya and Durgapur under the project entitled "Tracking change in rural poverty in household and village economies in Eastern India." For this study, we used a method known as FGT index to measure the incidence of poverty (headcount ratio), intensity of poverty (poverty gap ratio) and severity of poverty (squared poverty gap ratio). To find out the determinants of poverty, affecting the probability of an individual being poor, we estimated a Probit model using poverty as a dependent factor-a binary (poor-1 and non-poor-0) and a set of agricultural and socio-economic variables as explanatory variables. The severity of poverty was least (0.9%) in Dubaliya village, whereas it was highest in Durgapur village (15.4%) of Jharkhand where incidence and depth of poverty were also comparatively high. Even in case of poverty severity, labour class households and large farm households appears to be comparatively less affected than that of small and medium classes. However, in general, the pattern of severity is apparently mixed here. Among various determinants of poverty, obtained by estimating a probit model, considering poor as 1 and non-poor 0, it was found that length of education and number of earning members in family had significant poverty reducing effect, implying that for taking a poor household out of poverty promotion of education and creation of more employment opportunities to provide employment to a large number of household members are essential. It also emanates that big family size and increased dependency on agriculture would induce poverty and it is therefore imperative that family planning policies and alternative non-farm employment programme should receive due priority in any poverty alleviation programme in the state.

In India, poverty reduction is one of the major objectives of economic development programmes. Though, India was the first country in the world to define poverty as the total per capita expenditure of the lowest expenditure class, which is required to ascertain a minimum intake of 2400 kcal/day in rural and 2100 kcal/day in urban areas. The same is converted into financial terms and the poverty line is defined as a minimum level of income or expenditure, which is periodically updated. The latest updated poverty line is Rs.356.30 in rural areas and Rs.538.60 in urban areas in 2004-05 (Planning Commission, 2007). There exists a substantial interstate and urban rural differential in the cost of goods and services. One in three Indians lives below the poverty line according to the Tendulkar Committee report which used a measurement of goods and services, rather than calorie intake, to calculate poverty. The World Bank estimates that 80% of India's population lives on less than $2 a day which means a higher proportion of its population lives on less than $2 per day as compared with sub-Saharan Africa. Income based approaches to poverty can not tell more about other forms of deprivations poor go through. Poverty is basically a denial of a range of material needs such as nutritious food, safe drinking water, shelter, healthcare, education, etc. Therefore, multidimensional poverty measures provide better understanding of the nature of poverty-at local, regional, national, and world level. The present study attempts to track and explore some of the important causes of rural poverty in the state of Jharkhand. Socio-economic indicators provide a background to understanding the poverty scenario in a country. These indicators provide data on education, gender, poverty, housing, amenities, employment and other economic indicators. These indicators for the country as well as states will help in identifying the linkages between socio-economic indicators and achievement of health goals. It was found that the rate of decline in poverty is more in agricultural labour class households (27%) than that of farming households (1.9%). Analysis of household data of the sample villages also highlights a high incidence of rural poverty ranging from more than 20 percent in Dubaliya to about 76 percent in Durgapur. Incidence of poverty for four groups of households viz. labour, small, medium and large shows mixed pattern of incidence of poverty. Labour class households and large households were comparatively less poor in most of the villages than that of the other classes i.e., small and medium households. Among various determinants of poverty, obtained by estimating a probit model, considering poor as 1 and non-poor 0, it was found that length of education and number of earning members in family had significant poverty reducing effect, implying that for taking a poor household out of poverty promotion of education and creation of more employment opportunities to provide employment to a large number of household members are essential. It also emanates that big family size and increased dependency on agriculture would induce poverty and it is therefore imperative that family planning policies and alternative non-farm employment programme should receive due priority in any poverty alleviation programme in the state.

Conservation agriculture innovations offer a new paradigm for agricultural research and development. While examining the total innovation-decision process, one can see how the farmers observe innovations (knowledge), relate to images and message within technological innovations (persuasion), formulate a want for item (decision), actively pursue the desire for item (implementation), and ultimately decide whether future uses of technologies / are desirable (confirmation). The adoption of Conservation Agriculture innovations can be facilitated by locally identified and specially trained group leaders or by promoters. For the success, farmers will need to be in forefront for helping in identification, development and deployment of Conservation Agriculture innovations. Developing and promoting RCT systems is highly demanding in terms of knowledge base. This will call for greatly enhanced capacity of scientists to address the prevailing problems / constraints from a systems perspective and be able to work in close partnerships with farmers and other stakeholders. There is also need to strengthen the knowledge and information-sharing mechanisms. Improvement in coordination amongst various stakeholders like research, extension service, farmers, service providers, agricultural machinery, and manufacturers for transfer of technologies will play a pivotal role in accelerating the Conservation Agriculture.

The mixed crop–livestock systems of India are underpinned by the crop residues which contribute on an average 40–60% of the total dry matter intake per livestock unit. There is however considerable regional variation in the dominant type of crop residue: rice and wheat straws in irrigated regions compared to coarse cereal straws and hay from leguminous crops in the drier, semi-arid regions. This paper synthesizes a series of recent studies on the role and importance of crop residues and farmers’ perceptions of fodder quantity and quality in coarse cereal and groundnut based feeding systems. Crop improvement programs for sorghum, pearl millet and groundnut have traditionally focused on grain/pod yield improvement, pest and water stress tolerance. Livestock rearing plays a significant role in the economy of the Indian people. Crop residues and pastures/grasslands are the major feed resource for this activity. Forages can be a simple answer to soil erosion and decline in organic matter and fertility, a problem caused by modern cultivation and fallowing practices on much of the farmland the world over. Keeping in view the constraints in fodder production and in order to overcome the gap between demand and supply, the emphasis need to be given on several steps for augmenting the fodder production. Existing resource utilization pattern needs to be studied in totality according to a system approach. Fodder production is a component of the farming system and efforts need to be made for increasing the forage production in a farming system approach. The holistic approach of integrated resource management will be based on maintaining the fragile balance between productivity functions and conservation practices for ecological sustainability. Forage production must be taken up as a first management goal and 25% of the forest area should be put under trees with regulated accessibility to the farmers. It is suggested to grow forage grasses and fodder trees along village roads and panchayat lands, and on terrace risers/bunds - a non competitive land use system. Conservation of native biodiversity for future improvement along with breeding biotic, abiotic, stress tolerant cultivars of forage species suitable for area not used under arable agriculture can be possible answer to chronic fodder shortages. Use of participatory techniques to identify the problems and to carry out the improvement programme along with In-depth studies on migratory graziers, forage based agroforestry systems and controlled grazing to maintain the productivity of pasture (grazing should be allowed as per carrying capacity) are some other solutions to this problem.

Rice is one of the most important crops in eastern India and it will continue to enjoy its leading position so long as it remains the staple food of almost entire of the population of this region. Under the influence of increasing population pressure the demand for rice is expected to rise persistently in coming years. As the land frontier has already been exhausted the future source of growth in this region lies in raising the productivity of rice crop. Even to sustain in food grains production, it is important to give due attention to the eastern India in general and to accord high priority to the constraints of rice production in this region in particular. This can be achieved if rice research helps to reduce production losses due to various biotic and abiotic constraints in rainfed rice ecosystems. Since elimination or partial solution of these constraints would have a major impact on rice production in eastern India because the yield gaps are very high, the major constraints to rice production in eastern India require more objectivity and concerted efforts while addressing them. The major rice production constraints and priority research problem areas of rainfed rice production in eastern India are drought and submergence, bacterial blight, leaf blast, weeds, brown plant hopper and poor soil fertility. Hence, it would be logical to prioritize rice research on the basis of prevailing constraints under rainfed areas of eastern India. Besides, low input use, inappropriate plant spacing, late sowing and selection of wrong cultivars are some of the other technical constraints, which can be effectively reduced through the diffusion of relevant technologies among ultimate users or farmers. It requires further strengthening of linkages between ‘Research & Extension’ that facilitates feed-backs and disseminates technical information.

Extension functionaries play a catalytic role in adoption of agricultural innovations where water management is no exception. Training plays a pivotal role for enhancing the competence of extension functionaries’ through diffusion of innovations at actual workplace. In this stride, training on scaling up of water productivity in agriculture was organized and evaluated at all the stages of the Knowledge, Attitude, and Skill and Aspiration (KASA) model. The model assumes that change in knowledge, attitude, skill and aspiration leads to modification in practices for creating desired changes in water management in agriculture. Significant change in acquiring knowledge, developing participatory skills, changing attitudes and fulfilling aspirations towards scaling-up of water productivity in agriculture was observed. Hence, the enhanced learning will be effectively diffused among the farmers at the actual workplace for effective water management.

Rice is one of the most important crops in eastern India and it will continue to enjoy its leading position so long as it remains the staple food of almost entire of the population of this region. Under the influence of increasing population pressure the demand for rice is expected to rise persistently in coming years. As the land frontier has already been exhausted the future source of growth in this region lies in raising the productivity of rice crop. Even to sustain in food grains production, it is important to give due attention to the eastern India in general and to accord high priority to the constraints of rice production in this region in particular. This can be achieved if rice research helps to reduce production losses due to various biotic and abiotic constraints in rainfed rice ecosystems. Since elimination or partial solution of these constraints would have a major impact on rice production in eastern India because the yield gaps are very high, the major constraints to rice production in eastern India require more objectivity and concerted efforts while addressing them. The major rice production constraints and priority research problem areas of rainfed rice production in eastern India are drought and submergence, bacterial blight, leaf blast, weeds, brown plant hopper and poor soil fertility. Hence, it would be logical to prioritize rice research on the basis of prevailing constraints under rainfed areas of eastern India. Besides, low input use, inappropriate plant spacing, late sowing and selection of wrong cultivars are some of the other technical constraints, which can be effectively reduced through the diffusion of relevant technologies among ultimate users or farmers. It requires further strengthening of linkages between ‘Research & Extension’ that facilitates feed-backs and disseminates technical information.

India has one of the largest livestock sectors in the world and the largest livestock population with 520.6 million head. Of the world’s livestock population, cattle contribute 12.7%, Buffalo 56.7%, goats, 14.5% and sheep 5.9 % (FAOSTAT, 2008). Livestock constitutes a natural asset for the poor that can be liquidated when required. Hence, it is a store of wealth and an insurance substitute during times of crisis. India’s economy has not only grown but transformed. In the agriculture‐based economy, the agriculture sector’s share in total gross domestic product (GDP) declined. In 1980, the share of agriculture sector in total GDP was at 34 percent. It came down to only 16 percent in 2007‐08 (GOI, 2008). Between 1991 and 2008, the country’s total population increased by 1.6 percent annually, but the urban population grew at a faster rate of 2.4 percent. Real per capita income also rose by 4.8 percent annually. Throughout India’s economic transformation, the livestock sector consistently contributed to about five percent of total economic output (Figure-1). Between 1981 and 2006, the livestock sector grew at the rate of 3.9 percent annually much faster than crop sector growth of 2.8 percent. Both contributed to a growth rate of about three percent annually for agricultural value added during the same period (national accounts statistics). In 2007‐08, the livestock sector contributed to 26.5 percent of agriculture GDP increasing from 14 percent in 1980‐81 (GOI, 2008). During 2009-10 the contribution of livestock sector in agricultural GDP was 29.64% (GoI, 2010). There has been uneven growth in the livestock sector in India, leading to an unequal distribution of benefits and the need to differentiate approaches to further development. For example Operation Flood-revolutionized smallholder dairy development in the country, and overtime laid the ground for private sector participation in the dairy industry. However, most of the investments, and consequently the impacts, occurred in only few states. In XIth Five Year Plan (2007-12), Govt. of India emphasized that large quantities of animal products now being produced, research on process technologies, value addition, packaging, storage, transportation, and marketing should receive high priority. Indian markets for livestock products are by and large unorganized, traditional and fragmented, except for components of organized milk, meat and by‐products sectors. About 60 percent of the milk produced is marketed with only one-fourth of the marketed milk handled by the organized sector. The rest is sold through unorganized informal chains where the compliance with safety standards is usually limited, and risks of contamination may be higher. As livestock products are highly perishable and require immediate processing, storage and preservation, to move them from production areas to demand centers. Processing and market linkages are therefore prerequisites for value creation and addition. Dairy development has followed a well-established organizational model producing a product for which local demand continues to grow. Successful adoption of the Anand model and the support from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), in training and capacity building have led to increased milk production and procurement. It has also contributed to increase outreach to the poorest sections of the population. In general dairy cooperatives have developed an integrated supply chain for liquid milk and other dairy products, provided support services, and increased income for their members. However the success was not widespread. Milk marketing through liberalizing, provide the opportunities for increased private sector participation in milk procurement and processing. This has led to improved competition which helped coops to accept challenges and address some problems that had previously contributed to their inefficiency. The private sector has not however shown the same interest in the lagging states (with the exception of few individual initiatives) for various reasons, including poor infrastructure, weak producers’ organizations, law and order issues, and other governance concerns. Contract farming has become the dominant mode of production in the broiler industry, while independent enterprises remain dominant in the layer industry. There has been significant scaling up of production units in both broiler and layer industries, including contract production units. However, the higher degree of specialization and the increased economies of scale and size in poultry production, in addition to the concentration of both the dairy and poultry industries in few states have seriously limited the opportunities for creating wider geographical impact through participation of a larger number of smallholders, especially from the lagging states in the newly developed value chains. Regional inequality in development can stifle the overall development potential of the sector. The dairy value chains can be popularizes though the SHG approaches. Improving supply chains and operations will enable stakeholders in India to enhance competitiveness and successfully deploy growth initiatives. The need is especially acute for small and resource-poor farmers as well as entrepreneurs because of their small operational bases and greater vulnerability to unforeseen shocks. Since this dairying activity is profitable and the demand for milk and milk products is growing rapidly, there is enough scope to upscale milk production activities. The up-scaling would substantially help to enhance the household income of the milk-producing households. Further, the constraints which have been preventing the expansion and intensification of dairying in spite of its profitability need to be identified and ameliorated.Meat processing in India is confined to slaughter and dressing of carcasses for fresh meat output, used for direct consumption, and slaughter and dressing are often carried out in the open air under highly unhygienic conditions. There are many slaughter houses throughout the country, owned by the local self-governments, most of them dirty and dilapidated, just for rendering fresh meat. Value addition in meat is limited and includes small quantities of meat meant for export, poultry products and to a much lesser extent, pork products. Export is still a minor activity but has good potential. Export can be an alternative route to increase off‐take rates to improve productivity and solve feed problems, but achievement of that will require investment to improve quality of output. The hides and skin industry benefited from low wage and lax environmental regulations and enforcement in the country. There are opportunities for expansion in this industry subject to addressing the environmental impacts. There is a perceived increase in the demand for quality, safety, variety and convenience along with increases in quantity demanded. But overall, quality and safety standards in all value chains – dairy, poultry, ruminant meat, hides and skins‐ are in need of improvement, though these issues have been receiving more attention in leading states and within private sector operations. The marketing of livestock products through unorganized channels tends to increase the products’ safety risks and reduces its quality. Quality and safety standards in domestic and export value chains are managed through a number regulations and implementing authorities with little coordination amongst themselves.

Self help groups emerged as an effective mechanism for empowerment of rural poor. It is an efficient mode of promoting group action. Initiatives were undertaken at ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna (Bihar) to assess the attitude of SHG members in the Bihar state. A Likert type scale consisting of 26 items developed by Meena et al. (2008) was applied for measuring the attitude construct. The survey instrument contained five section namely; socio-economic upliftment, educational and training, marketing and entrepreneurship qualities, technology adoption and participatory research, and, credit aspect. This empirical study indicates that most SHG members had favorable attitude towards SHG activities. This positive attitude of SHG members paves the way for success. Hence, for addressing the issues of rural poverty, enrichment of the system with social capital through empowerment and formation SHGs; provision of financial and credit support; creation of market-driven and decentralized extension system; use of media-mix for technology transfer, informal education at rural level; conduction of need-based training and strong political will need to be emphasized.

During the past 60 years, the Indian extension system has evolved to reflect national priorities. At the outset, extension worked to bring about broad-based rural development. However, the food crises starting in the late 1950 refocused the efforts of extension on food security and increasing food production. The combination of Green Revolution technology in the late 1960s and Training and Visit (T&V) extension in the mid-1970s enabled India to achieve food self-sufficiency during the 1980s-1990s. At the same time, malnutrition and poverty continue to be persistent problems for the rural poor. As a result, the Government of India, with the assistance of the World Bank, designed and pilot-tested a new extension approach that would decentralize extension and make it more market-oriented. This paper describes the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) model that was successfully pilot-tested from 1998-2005 and based on the experiences of pilot phase it was up-scaled to cover 252 districts under a centrally sponsored scheme, “Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms in 2005 and further extended to 591 rural districts of 29 States and 2 Union Territories of the country. The paper examines the various stages of implementation of this innovative approach towards agricultural extension and its impact on extension programmes in India.

Poverty has become a general phenomenon that is perceived to mean different things to different people at different times and places. India was the first country in the world to define poverty as the total per capita expenditure of the lowest expenditure class, which is required to ascertain a minimum intake of 2400 kcal/day in rural and 2100 kcal/day in urban areas. However, there exists a substantial interstate and urban rural differential in the cost of goods and services. One in three Indians lives below the poverty line according to the Tendulkar Committee report which used a measurement of goods and services, rather than calorie intake, to calculate poverty. The World Bank estimates that 80% of India's population lives on less than $2 a day which means a higher proportion of its population lives on less than $2 per day as compared with sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank identified Jharkhand as one of the most poverty-stricken state in the country with a sharp contrast between rural and urban poverty. Jharkhand is a tribal state which has high incidence of poverty. A majority of OBC, SC and ST population fall under BPL category due to a number of agro-climatic and socio-economic factors. BPL households often live misery and face poor quality of life as they lack the basic amenities. Poverty in the region leads to migration and both migration within the state and out-side state is common. Youth prefers to migrate out-side state but with increase in age within state migration picks up. A good proportion of rural households has connection with the commercial banks, cooperative banks and other financial institutions. The commercial banks have better reach among the rural households and they can be instrumental in poverty alleviation programmes. The important causes/determinants of rural poverty in Jharkhand can be summarized as; lack of education, poor land base with small and marginal land holdings. Lack of employment opportunities at local level and poor infrastructure compounds the problem. In addition to these factors, poor quality of natural resources like; acidic, laterite and red soils, water scarcity leading to mono-cropping in the state have also contributed towards rural poverty. With changing climatic scenario, and undulating terrain lacking capacity to retain rain water forces the farmers to take a single crop in the state, thereby reducing the opportunities to a better livelihood. Information and communication technologies can play a pivotal role as it the common means of seeking information for improved farming practices. People are using modern technologies like mobile phone for the linkage between people and institution for use of agriculture-related technology, knowledge, skills and information. Hence, the technological interventions can integrates farmers, agricultural scientists, extension workers, input dealers and the private sectors to harness the knowledge and information from various sources for better farming and improved livelihoods. There is a considerable potential for establishment of forest based processing units in state, can provide employment to local people and will reduce the migration phenomenon thereby enhancing the livelihoods of rural poor.

The removal of nation wide poverty has consistently been one of the main objectives of Indian policy. The Indian modern history contains several examples of discussion on this topic as far back as 1901. India embarked on a series of Five Year Plans, each containing some kind of poverty eradication or social justice component. The First Five Year Plan was launched in 1951, since then, there have been ten additional plans, the most recent being the Eleventh Five Year Plan launched in 2007. The consideration of economic policies vis-a-vis their impact on the poor highlights a continued emphasis by Indian policy makers on poverty elimination. However, there have been serious shortcomings of government efforts in alleviating poverty during the past few decades. Even after sixty five years of independence, one - fourth of India’s Population still lives in poverty. Bihar is amongst the poorest states in India, with poverty incidence of 42.6 per cent. Per capita net domestic product has been estimated to be $ 446 for Bihar which is about one–third of the corresponding national average ($ 1220) and less than one-fourth of Haryana ($ 2052), one of the richest states in India (Government of Bihar, 2011). The recent studies based on primary data dealing with economic and non- economic aspects of poverty are not readily available which are needed to have deeper insights of different dimensions of poverty in Bihar, India. The present study is designed to examine various socio-economic dimensions of poor households in Bihar. the sample consisted of 160 households, 40 each from each sample villages. Data on various socio-economic aspects are being collected through panel interview with the help of well structured schedules by Resident Investigators. In the present study, data collected for the period 2010-2011 have been used for detailed analysis. Data relating to social class, education level, asset, livestock, migration, employment pattern, housing, and drinking water of poor households are considered for meaningful conclusions. This study is based on the information collected from 65 Below Poverty Line (BPL) households of four villages of Bihar. Bihar agriculture was stagnant in eighties and early nineties and observed poor growth up to tenth five year plan. In eleventh five year plan, there has been growth in agriculture sector in Bihar. Bihar is the second poorest state in India. During last 20 years poverty has declined by more than 14 percent but number of poor persons increased during the period. On the basis of analysis of household level data of VDS villages, it may be inferred that the education, land and asset poverty have been prevalent in Bihar villages. Landlessness and low per capita land are also causing poverty in Bihar. The majority of poor persons are getting employment in non-farm sector and migration is main strategy for maintaining livelihood of poor households in Bihar, but majority of persons migrated out-side state and were engaged mainly in non-farm sector. Their access to electricity, improved living condition and sanitation has been very low which may be the cause of their poor health. Despite various programmes of improving access to financial institutions, the majority of poor households of Bihar, particularly of less developed area are still dependents on money lenders for credit facilities. Various poverty alleviation programmes have not been effective in reduction of poverty up to desired level in Bihar. Hence, there is an urgent need to have holistic approach for improving various social and economic dimensions of state for faster reduction in poverty in Bihar.