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The present study is the analysis of large scale data (31949 ha area and 79873 farmers) generated through the CFLD on pulses across the major pulses growing states under the ICAR-ATARIs of Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Pune (Maharashtra), Patna (Bihar), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Kolkata (West Bengal), Guwahati (Assam), Shillong (Meghalaya), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Patna (Bihar). The pulse crops included in this analysis were from all three growing seasons: kharif (pigeonpea-5556 ha, blackgram-6067 ha, and greengram-2689 ha), rabi (chickpea-8376 ha, lentil-3747 ha and field pea-1890 ha), and summer (greengram-3624 ha). The average performance data of CFLD were obtained for the above states for all the crops representing all three growing seasons during the cropping seasons of 2016–17 and 2017–18. Thus, CFLD data were analyzed from across minimum of 21 states (greengram) and maximum of 24 states (blackgram). The major variables analyzed were average yield obtained from the check plots and demonstrations plots. These yields were computed for yield advantages and also compared with the reported district level, state level, national level yields and the potential yields of the respective crops in the given states (data procured from secondary sources for the year 2017–18). Accordingly, the yield advantages (absolute as well as per cent) at various level were analyzed and their degree of variation was computed for all the crops across the seasons. The paper brings out the results of above analyses in objective manner.

It has become mandatory for all the domestic producers of urea to produce Neem Coated Urea (NCU) since 2015 to reduce overall input cost in farming and to ensure environmental sustainability through enhanced nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). The present study was carried out during 2017–19 with the aim to find out the awareness level of farmers about NCU and its impact on crop productivity. A total of 12,604 farmers across the country were interviewed by 458 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs). The results of the study showed that 76% farmers were aware about NCU and its effectiveness in increasing crop yield. Farmers of Delhi NCR, Haryana and Rajasthan were found to have the highest awareness while those of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Jammu & Kashmir had the lowest level of awareness. Overall, 79% farmers were satisfied with its use. Use of N fertilizers decreased significantly in 2018 compared to 2017 in both the seasons (kharif and rabi), however, the existing rate of application was still significantly higher than recommended doses. The average yield enhancement due to use of NCU was 8.25%. The highest yield increase due to use of NCU was observed in Goa, Madhya Pradesh, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Results of the study implied that more emphasis is needed for dissemination of information about NCU through awareness, training and capacity building programmes for farmers and grassroots level extension functionaries.

Present study aims to find out how the technological interventions performed under the Farmer FIRST programme by assessing the peak adoption level and time taken to attain it. ADOPT tool was used to assess the impact of the technological interventions. Thirty farmers who have participated in the programme implemented at Haryana, India, were interviewed during 2021 to elicit data pertaining to the year 2016–21 and the modal value of their responses were used as input in the ADOPT model to estimate the parameters of interest. The results showed that the extent of peak adoption level is high for interventions related to cereal crops and animal components while the time taken to reach peak adoption level is also low indicating that the advisory system for these commodities have borne good results and this calls for streamlining the advisory system for horticultural crops to achieve the desired output from these enterprises as well.

In order to find out the effect of betaine supplementation on physiological (rectal temperature, skin temperature, respiration rate and pulse rate) responses, morphological (body length, heart girth and height at withers) parameters, stress markers (cortisol and NEFA levels), growth hormone, dry matter intake (DMI) and body weight of buffalo heifers during hot humid season under field conditions, 14 buffalo heifers were selected and equally divided into 2 groups, i.e. control and treatment (supplemented betaine @ 25 g/animal/day over the farmers practice). Blood samples were collected at fortnightly interval from both the groups and analyzed for stress markers. THI was calculated for measuring the stress levels on buffalo heifers, which remained 􀀡76 indicating severe stress. Physiological responses were significantly lower in treatment group than control. Morphological parameters, body weight and DMI were higher in treatment than control. Plasma cortisol and NEFA levels were significantly lower, whereas plasma growth hormone was significantly higher in treatment group compared to control. ADG was significantly higher in treatment group compared to control. Positive correlation was observed between THI and stress markers, physiological responses and negatively correlated with ADG, DMI and growth hormone. It can be concluded that betaine acted as a potent growth promoter by lowering the levels of stress markers and enhancing the ADG and DMI of buffalo heifers.

Most of the Indian soils are deficient in one or more minerals and these minerals are important in numerous biochemical reactions and deficiency may lead to metabolic diseases resulting lowering production performance in dairy animals. The study attempts to evaluate status nutrient intake in dairy animals, effect of reappropriation of available feed resources and mineral mixture supplementation on production performance in lactating cows and buffaloes in Katesara and Amarpur villages under Farmers’ FIRST project in Palwal district. The animals were in their early lactation (40±5 days in milk) and milk yield, its composition, body weight and body condition score was recorded. Among the cow, 28% deficit, 35% excess dry matter; 41% deficit and 11% excess crude protein; 33% deficit and 25% excess total digestible nutrients (TDN) was provided. In buffaloes, 36% deficit and 40% excess DM; 45% deficit and 15% excess CP; 25% deficit and 12% excess TDN was provided. Reappropriation of DM, CP and TDN was done using available feed/ fodders available to the farmers and after 15 days, mineral mixture was provided @ 50 g/d for 60 days. The production performance record reveals no change in body weight but BCS was improved. Milk yield, fat, protein in cows were improved and other composition were remain unchanged. In buffaloes, milk yield, fat and protein improved while others, viz. lactose, SNF, ash and TS were similar due to supplementation of mineral mixture. The results conclude that imbalance of nutrients existed to the tune of 10 to 45% among various nutrients. One of the best propositions could be supplementation of mineral mixture to improve milk yield (10 to 14%) and fat per cent under field condition in both cows and buffaloes.

The study attempts to compute the effect of dry period therapy on occurrence of mastitis in buffaloes with the help of control (164 buffaloes) and treatment (330 buffaloes) groups at different stages as per disease diagnostic protocol. The data pertains to the year 2018-19. The study concludes overall prevalence of SCM at dry-off was 83.81% and at 5 days postpartum was 38.87% at animal level. In treatment group, prevalence of SCM was 89.70% and 28.48% at dry-off and 5 days postpartum respectively whereas 73.17% and 62.8% in control group. The most prevalent udder pathogens isolated from composite milk samples at dry off were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, representing 41.29% of all recovered isolates followed by other gram positive, Streptococcus spp. Overall, 63.02% of buffaloes with IMI were cured during the dry period. Buffaloes receiving dry period therapy were 3.85 times more likely to cure.

Weeding activity in vegetable cultivation carried out by women is one of the drudgery prone activities. Women are regularly adopting poor and static posture while doing weeding for long hours by traditional equipment, resulting in various physical load on spine or lumbo-sacral region leads to drudgery coupled with work related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The research paper aims to assess and quantify the drudgery with weeding activity by rural women in which physiological ergonomics evaluation was done for traditional method and with improved technological support with three replications of fifteen minutes work cycle without rest pause. Ergonomic parameters namely Heart Rate, Energy Expenditure Rate, Total Cardiac Cost of Work, Physiological Cost of Work, VO2 Max were measured during the experiments. Observations were recorded on farm women worker with normal health, without any major illness, regularly involved in farm operations and were in the age group of 25 to 45 years. Weeding activity of farm women was quantified and a sample of 10 physically fit rural women having permissible limit of physiological parameters were selected for the study. It was found from investigation that there was reduction in human physiological parameters, viz. heart rate, energy expenditure rate, Total Cardiac Cost of Work, Physiological Cost of work, Blood pressure and Oxygen Saturation.

Farmers mostly prefer mineral gypsum as reclamation ameliorant for sodic soils. Timely availability of quality product many a times hampers the pace of reclamation process impairing crops productivity to a greater extent. To measure the reclamative efficiency of pressmud in sodic ecosystems dominating rice (Oryza sativa L.) - wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)system, a total of 37 farmer’s participatory trials were carried out in Kaithal district of Haryana state. Soil incorporation of pressmud at 10 t/ha improved the plants adaptation through significant improvement in agro-physiological and biochemical parameters of crop response. Concomitant reduction in spikelets sterility (~21%) and chaffy grains per panicle (~17%) in rice under pressmud ameliorated plots imparted yield advantage to the tune of ~21% under sodic conditions. In wheat, pressmud application increased productive tillers per mrl (13%), spikelets per spike (8%), grains per earhead (10%) and 1000-grain weight (2%) elucidating ~14% yield gain compared to farmer’s managed plots. System productivity in terms of wheat equivalent yield improved by ~15% per cent due to pressmud application under a variable range of soil pH (7.18-8.65) and RSCiw (1.6-7.6 me/L). Pressmud incorporation resulted in reduction of Na saturation in soil-plant continum and neutralized soil alkalinity with consequent reduction in soil pH to the extent of 0.07-0.44 units with a mean value of 8.47 after crop harvest against initial value of 8.68. Amelioration of sodic soils through pressmud application showed economic benefits of ₹ 24779 / ha with incremental benefit-cost ratio of 5.04 for each rupee invested against the added cost of ₹ 4920 / ha. Field application of pressmud not only ensured the safe disposal of this waste byproduct but also helped in achieving the sustainable yields. Evidences from farmer’s participatory trials revealed that pressmud can serve as affordable alternative amendment to gypsum in sodic land reclamation programme. In nutshell, scientific diagnosis of field problems, strong farmers-scientist interface and participatory research could work as suitable and location specific adaptive strategies in arresting the salt induced land degradation and strengthening farmers’ livelihood.

The low infiltration capacity of sodic soils and alkaline irrigation water are the main limiting factors in sustaining crop production under salt affected agro-ecosystems. The extreme rains aggravate the chances of crop failure further, due to water stagnation for prolonged period under sodic lands. Frequency of such extreme rainfall events is likely to increase in near future due to changing climatic scenario. ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, designed, developed and installed the cavity type individual farmers' based recharge structure at four locations in low lying areas of adopted villages (under Farmer FIRST Project) of Kaithal district for evaluating their effectiveness in facilitating the localized drainage option and sustainable crop production. The study results indicated that the installed structures were quite effective in saving the submerged crops particularly during the periods of intense rain in addition to augmenting groundwater and improving its quality. The groundwater table rose to an extent of 2-3 m beneath the structure during monsoon month (July 2017) compared to summer month of April 2017. The improvement in groundwater quality was also observed in surrounding areas as a consequence of reduction in RSC by 2-3 meq/l compared to the values at the time of installation of the structure. A heavy rainfall (~150 mm) resulted in 35-40% crop damage in open-fields which was reduced down to 5-15% due to provision of recharge structure, significantly decreasing the additional cost towards re-transplanting and compensated the yield loss. Benefit-cost ratio of 1.93 and internal rate of return of 145% indicated economic feasibility of the investment on recharge structure. The results revealed that installation of recharge structure was quite advantageous in providing the localized drainage option in low lying and land locked areas where runoff gets accumulated and adversely affected the crop production.

Effective and efficient Extensionists are essential for delivering the required services to the farmers. Skill Gap Analysis is important to make the Extensionists updated and competent in their field. A Skill Gap Analysis using Borich Need Assessment Model was carried out in the four zones of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) during 2016. The zones of ICAR-KVK were selected using simple random sampling. Twenty KVK from each zone were selected randomly and 3 Extensionists from each KVK were selected by using simple random sampling technique. The total sample size was 240. Mean weighted discrepancy score (MWDS) was used to study the skill gap. The result of the study indicated that the highest level of skill gap were expressed in designing and conducting farmers training, assessing training needs of the farmers, their ability to use computer (internet) and power point presentation, knowledge and awareness to approaches towards adult education and their ability to prepare visual aids to help deliver information. Lowest mean weighted discrepancy score was given to their ability in presenting the seminar and coordinating work with their peer. Inadequate funding emerged as the major barrier in acquiring the required competencies. Attention should be given to skill gap analysis owing to the importance given to skill development at the national level. Extensionists with the required skill in their job will lead to the better performance and ultimately better services to farmers.

The ginger crop being major crop in the region plays a vital role in livelihood and income of the farmers of the North Eastern Hill Region (NEHR). Study covered NEHR states except Assam. The data pertains to year 2017–18 containing sample size of 271 farmers. The results discussed ample scope to increase factor share to scale-up productivity of ginger. Among the different factors of ginger production, the ginger seed and human labour have contributed large share in ginger production. The study recommends for construction of post harvest storage structures for ginger rhizome in the locality of ginger growing area to store their rhizome for next season crop. To enhance research and development expenditures in North Eastern Hill Region was especially to develop small size of machinery with the intent to reduce cost of human labour. The potential of ginger crop in the study area needs to be tapped not only to enhance the factor share but also through technological interventions.

Study was conducted to assess the effect of dietary supplementation of astaxanthin, prill fat and their combination on physiological responses, energy metabolites and prolactin levels in buffaloes during summer season. Twenty four lactating buffaloes were equally divided into four groups, viz. Gr I (control), Gr II (astaxanthin supplementation @ 0.25 mg/kg body wt/day), Gr III (prill fat @ 100 g/animal/day) and Gr IV (combination of both). The respiration rate was lower in treatment groups than control. Plasma glucose in combination group was higher than control. Plasma NEFA was lower in treatment groups compared to control. Prolactin level was lower in supplemented groups compared to control. Based on the results it can be concluded that astaxanthin supplementation helped in ameliorating effects of heat stress whereas prill fat worked as source of energy to maintain the energy balance in lactating buffaloes. The combinations of both the products are more effective as far as stress markers and increase in milk production is concerned but due to higher price of astaxanthin the cost benefit ratio is lower than prill fat supplementation alone. Therefore, farmers prefer to feed prill fat to their lactating buffaloes during summer conditions.

On-farm cluster front line demonstrations were conducted for lentil crop across the nine districts of Eastern Plain Zone (Faizabad, Barabanki, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Ballia, Chandauli, Mau, Gazipur and Jaunpur) and six districts of Bundelkhand Zone (Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Banda, Jaloun and Chitrakoot) of Uttar Pradesh during rabi season of (2015- 16) in Indian sub-continent. In Eastern Plain Zone an area of 120 ha and in Bundelkhand zone 230 ha area each with plot size of 0.40 ha (1 acre) were included under these demonstrations with active participation of 930 farmers from both the zones. Data were analyzed in terms of yield gap, yield advantages and yield gap minimized for district level, state level and potential yield level of winter pulse crop lentil (Lens culinaris L.). The profitability analysis was also done for these demonstrations. The district level yield gap was computed highest in Bundelkhand (133-296%) followed by in the districts of eastern plain zone (128-158%). The obtained yield advantages helped to minimize the extension gap to maximum extent in districts of eastern plain zone (43-66%). Similar trend was observed in state level yield gap minimization (%) in both the zones of Uttar Pradesh. The potential yield gap minimized (%) at farmer level through demonstration of lentil was computed to be higher (31-52%) for most (3) of the districts of Bundelkhand and remaining districts (2) could witness 15 to 30 percent yield gap minimization except for Banda (7.64%) whereas in other districts of eastern plain zone, the potential yield gap could be minimized only to the extent of 5.43 to 15.43% and for the district Jaunpur, the gap was minimized to as lower extent as 1.62%. The major economic indicators like gross cost (Rupees/ha), gross return (Rupees/ha), net return (Rupees/ha), and B:C ratio were computed both for farmers field and demonstrated plot. The percentage increase in net return over farmers' existing plot and demonstration plot was highest in the district of Mau (219.27%), Sultanpur (115.70%), Jhansi (110.34%), Faizabad (105.57%) and other districts ranged from 18.29 to 88.12% in both the zones of Uttar Pradesh. The above study is, thus, the indicated the practical implications and usability of CFLD in minimizing the yield gap of lentil at the farmers’ fields..

The study was purposively conducted among 97 women agri-preneurs of Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Measuring precisely the success/failure of the rural women entrepreneurship is difficult and complex in the absence of a well- developed scale.Women agri-preneurs were grouped into four categories of success/failure by administering a measuring scale. As high as 47.43% of agri-preneurs were found to be in ‘somewhat success’ category, whereas 16.49% agri- preneurs were in ‘high success’ category and 9.27% of them were found to be in ‘high failure’ category and 26.81% of the agri-preneurs were found in ‘somewhat failure’ category. The Garrett ranking showed that successful women agri-preneurs perceived ‘self’, ‘family’, ‘skilled labour’, ‘credit transaction in time’ and ‘demand’, whereas unsuccessful agri-preneurs perceived ‘spouse’, ‘NGOs’, ‘friends’, Government incentives’ and ‘family’ as the five most important factors for success. Discriminant Function Analysis is a statistical tool used to discriminate between two classes of individuals on the basis of characters which are considered to be relevant. Stepwise procedure was used to identify the relevant variable and the significant ones were identified based on the ‘F’ test. The Fisher’s discriminant function equation established ‘achievement motivation’ ‘general perceived self-efficacy’, ‘collective efficacy’, ‘proactive attitude’ and ‘self-esteem’ as the top five most discriminating variables. Hence, trainings in achievement motivation development, team building, collective efficacy and developing personal managerial competencies like ‘proactive attitude’ need to be incorporated in women agri-preneurship development programmes for success in rural women agri-preneurships.

The study identified constraints encountered by farm women in vegetable farming in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The data were personally collected from 100 farm women of two vegetable growing blocks of the district by using multi-stage sampling technique. Overall, majority (69%) of respondents encountered medium to high extent of constraints. The study revealed that lack of knowledge about enterprise, marketing linkages, schemes of developmental departments, training and financial institutions, lack of financial institutions and difficulty in getting loan, high cost and non-availability of quality inputs in time, lack of entrepreneurship development oriented trainings and requisite support were the major constraints. Lack of marketing centers, low price of produce, lack of storage and irrigation facilities, non-availability of labour, and stray animals were the major general constraints. Effective policy at government level for stray animals and monkeys, timely availability of quality inputs at subsidized rates, promotion of processing units and financial institutes at village level and trainings on entrepreneurship development for socio economic upliftment of farm women are the prime concerns to be looked upon.

Understanding communication networks bear significant importance for undertaking interventions regarding local information needs. It becomes more important if the issues of sensitivity like climate change and its effect on agriculture has to be dealt. The agricultural sector needs accurate, reliable and timely weather and climate information for daily tactical decisions and long-term planning for crop management. They can potentially alter selection and management of crops based on new information obtained within a few weeks or days of planting. The information systems integrating agricultural educators, researchers, extensionists and farmers need to be introduced for agriculture sector for which sufficient data base regarding the gap between the possessed knowledge and the available knowledge and the information source utilization pattern need to be generated. The present study to find out the factors of the knowledge of farmers regarding climate and weather in relation to crop management and the analysis of farmers' communication network was undertaken in Adilabad district (highly vulnerable to climate change effects) of Telangana state of India. A knowledge test specifically designed was administered to 120 respondents and was found that majority of the respondents had moderate level of knowledge. The socio-economic and psycho-personal variables like education, occupation, family type, land holding, social participation, economic motivation, innovativeness, scientific orientation and risk orientation showed positive and significant relationship with knowledge level and in regression analysis education, scientific orientation were positive and had significant contribution to the knowledge level of respondents. Television, radio, agriculture officer and progressive farmers were categorized into strong group of information sources usefulness. In order to support farm level decisions and minimize the loses in adverse climatic and weather conditions farmers' understanding about interaction of climate and agro-ecosystem need to be bridged through inclusion of farmers' communication network

Increasing integration of global markets after WTO has brought several changes in fresh mango export. The sustainability of exporters' income depends on acceptance of consignments by the importing countries who have established legally vetted system of safe import of food commodities. To adjust to these changes, the Indian system of export controls faltered to meet the standards of overseas markets. Adherence to safe export norms is sine qua non to have credible sustainable export. Visualizing the need to discern and quantify the direction of fresh mango export, time series data spanning from 1990-2012 was analysed. From the analysis, it can be concluded that domestic supply of mango is mainly driven by expansion of area rather than productivity. High standards of SPS measures of importing countries raised cost of compliance of safe export norms for which Indian exporters faced problems to adjust to these standards. These challenges need to overcome through generation of research based scientific knowledge for structuring food safety norms and policy alignment according to the changing global regulations. Policy options for streamlining diversified export are to encourage food testing laboratories to get accreditation from international agencies setting up world class food testing and inception infrastructure particularly in clusters with significant presence of exporters to encourage importing countries to set up office for certification of export consignments, and to strengthen prerequisite physical resources for safe export of fresh mango.

The functional linkages of producers with different systems and within the system in the form of backward and forward linkages in production process involve the investments in the form of transactional costs. Farmers’ collective action for better production in the form of self help groups (SHGs), farmers’ interest groups (FIGs), marketing associations, producers associations, co-operatives etc. have contributed in maximizing the input-output ratio and ultimately increasing the benefit of producers. The present study was undertaken to find out the motivating factors to join association and the benefits accrued as a result of joining such producers’ federation namely TAMAFED (Tamil Nadu Mango Growers Federation) dealing with mango crop in Tamil Nadu state of India. A set of sixty member and sixty non-member farmers were selected from the six villages of the three districts of the state. The Logit analysis revealed that education, economic benefit and area under mango cultivation were the major determinants of motivation to join TAMAFED. As a measure of economic gain, transactional output cost due to sale of harvested produce was two and half times less for members compared to non-members. The comparative analysis shows that mean transactional input cost per hectare was found to be significantly lower for members than non-members. The members of TAMAFED gained social and economic benefits and the costs incurred on input and output transactions were quite low ultimately adding to the benefit. As such, it may be recommended that organization of farmers on commodity basis in the form of similar federations may be promoted for socio economic gain of the farmers.

Pulses are generally grown under rainfed, highly unstable and complex production environments, substantial variability in soil and environmental factors, high year to year output variability, and variation in soil moisture. One is required to emphasize the need for identifying and quantifying level of adoption and its determinants across agroclimatic regions. The net availability of pulses has come down from 60 g/day/capita in 1951 to 41.6 g/day/capita in 2012-13 due to stagnant production and rapid increase in population. Among so many, the most important way to increase production in the short-run is to reduce yield gaps between research station, on-farm demonstration and farmer's fields. The yield gap and constraint analysis was carried out for pigeonpea and chickpea in high potential high gap states and districts of India. The results showed high to medium level of adoption gaps in almost all the recommendation domains in both the crops. Nearly 80 percent of the respondents had not adopted manurial aspects of the crop and 76 percent had not gone for any plant protection measures. Only 29% adopted the recommended varieties and nearly 60% adopted agronomic practices like line sowing, weed management, spacing, presowing irrigation and proper land preparation. It can be recommended that in order to have the latest information on pulse improvements from researchers, it will be necessary to have appropriate training for the extension workers and subsequently to farmers with availability of matc11hing input supply system.

Progressiveness of farmers has become the key concern for overall development of farm business. Now a days farmers give relatively more importance to scientific farm information and knowledge over physical inputs/resources and innovation over land and capital possession. The present study was conducted with a sample size of seventy two progressive farmers in ten agro-climatic zones of Karnataka state aiming at tracing out the major factors governing farmers' progressiveness. Data were collected by personal interview using Q-sort methodology and analyzed using median analysis and principal component analysis. Six different factors could finally be extracted out of 17 relatively important variables governing progressiveness of farmers. These six factors were- scientific temperament, perseverance and hard work, cosmopoliteness, achievement motivation, entrepreneurial aptitude and work satisfaction. These factors can be used as input to predictive models or as benchmarks for developing scales or indices for measuring farmers' progressiveness. Moreover, the findings imply that these psycho-social factors contribute to a larger extent towards farmers' progressiveness, hence should invariably be addressed while planning developmental programmes for the farmers.

A paradigm shift to the private and voluntary organizations led extension is being witnessed as the public agricultural extension system has been adversely affected by various constraints. ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) a premier agricultural research institution took lead to develop linkages with voluntary organizations (VOs) of repute for speedy transfer of agricultural technologies to the ultimate users. The present study was conducted on randomly selected 120 farmers of Patiala district to analyze the effectiveness of IARI linkage with VO namely Young Farmers' Association (YFA) of Punjab state. The advisory services through IARI-YFA linkage, higher yield of IARI released varieties, social participation of farmers and their education were the major determinants for the adoption of IARI varieties. In case of both rice and wheat, IARI varieties were sown in more than 60% area of the total land holdings of the farmers. Although, the linkage was perceived highly effective in terms of the delivery of farm technologies, advisory services, farm literature supplied, farmers' fair, front line demonstrations, impact on yield and income of farmers and satisfaction of farmers but non-availability of seeds in desired quantity, higher seed cost and less land for seed multiplication were major inhibiting factors. The functional efficacy of linkage may be enhanced through close collaboration of state level government and private agencies for broad based, inclusive and sustainable agricultural development.

The rural youth are disoriented and clueless in the face of lack of income generating and employment opportunities. The problems of young men and women, as well as their vision and aspirations are essential elements of the challenges facing today's societies and future generations. Farm and nonfarm enterprises in rural areas will be able to channelize energies of youth population in a constructive manner for regional and consequently national development. An action research project was undertaken by IARI for enhancing entrepreneurship among rural youth aiming at identification, prioritization of feasible agricultural technology, technological empowerment and hand holding for agripreneurship development in four selected villages of National Capital Region of Delhi; namely Partapur (Hapur), Hasangarh (Rohtak), Kansala (Rohtak) and Badarpur Said (Faridabad). The participatory prioritization was done involving micro screening exercise which is a very important step positioned between the project idea generation and the final decision about the most promising business idea. Micro screening exercise based on situational analysis of villages revealed that floriculture, seed production, net house cultivation, vermi compost/organic products, apiary, value addition, mushroom production and dairy enterprises excelled in order of scores gained irrespective of location. The psychological traits including need for achievement, aspirations and risk taking willingness of the potential entrepreneurs were found to be of moderate level at initial stage.

The study evaluates the extent, impact and determinants of labour migration in Bihar. Data were collected in 2011 from four hundred households (200 migrants and 200 non-migrants) four villages, each of rainfed ecosystem (Madhubani district) and partially irrigated ecosystem (East Champaran district). Non-linear model (Cobb-Douglas) was used to find out impact of migration on input efficiencies in rice production. Regression coefficients (β) were computed for major factors of production. Probit model employed to measure the determinants of migration. Study reveals that youngsters are more prone to migration to urban centers for non-farm activities. Migration helped in rational use of two critical inputs, i.e. labour and irrigation in rice production. Judicious use of human labour was also observed at native place due to migration of surplus labour. However, potential of land and capital (seeds, fertilizers and agricultural chemicals) are still to be exploited on both categories of households. Migrants remittance utilized for meeting consumption need, better education to children, improved housing and better health care facilities. Remittances helped in improving livelihoods of migrant households. Migration also inculcated saving habits amongst migrants. It emerged as risk-coping strategy for weaker sections of society. Allocation of remittances on agricultural inputs could have increased if proper infrastructure facilities were made available in rural areas for faster dissemination of modern agricultural technologies. Male member of lower caste having large land size and dependents is more prone to migration. Caste barrier in migration has weakened in Bihar but still persist, however, size of farm is no more taboo.

Adoption of agri-horti system and associated factors need to be viewed in totality which calls for the empirical evidences to design pin pointed programmes in order to enhance productivity. The study conducted in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir state revealed that the farmers’ adoption level of seed component of field crops and plant protection components of fruit crops were found to be low. Most of the respondents reported high level of training needs with respect to training and pruning, field sanitation, weed management, selection of fruit plants and diseases management. The farmers’ characteristics like family occupation, land holding, economic motivation, innovation proneness and information sources utilization were found to be positively and significantly associated with their training needs. The farmers’ preferences regarding training programme organization included one week duration, more focus on practical aspects with demonstration method and organization of training in small group in their own locality before sowing and planting season. Therefore, the study has highlighted the need for restructuring the training programmes to benefit the farmers operating agri-horti farming system. Such an approach would boost production and generate additional income for producers and other small scale operators along the value-chain.

The study was conducted with the objective to identify the factors influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour of farm women in vegetable enterprise in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The data collected from 100 farm women of two blocks of the district by personal interview using multi-stage sampling technique revealed that majority of respondents had low to medium level of management orientation, economic motivation, risk orientation, self confidence, moderate to high level of achievement motivation and leadership ability. The majority respondents had low level of utilisation of available assistance, medium level of farm decision making, less innovative and poor level of knowledge about the enterprise. The overall entrepreneurial behaviour of majority respondents (92%) was of low to medium level. Except age and family size, all the personal attributes of the respondents were positively and significantly correlated with overall entrepreneurial behaviour. The regression coefficient of formal education, experience in enterprise, information sources utilization and scientific orientation were significant emphasizing the need to concentrate more on these factors for promoting entrepreneurship development among the vegetable women farmers. Apart, these farm women should be encouraged for formation of groups and made aware of technical knowhow through trainings, demonstrations and exposure visits besides strengthening the marketing facilities in the area. The co-efficient of determination (R2) explained 47.35 per cent of variation in the entrepreneurial behaviour by all the variables together emphasizing the need of identification of other unidentified variables through future research.

The study analyzed various dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour of dairy women farmers and identified their constraints encountered by them in dairy farming in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh State of India. Performance of majority of respondents on 10 dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour was moderate to high except in case of innovativeness and knowledge about enterprise. The overall entrepreneurial behaviour of respondents was of medium level. Except age and family size, all other personal attributes of dairy farm women were observed to be positively and significantly correlated with overall entrepreneurial behaviour. A large majority of respondents (83%) encountered medium to high extent of constraints in dairy farming. The major constraints encountered by women included lack of technical knowhow about improved technology; lack of financial institutions; difficulty in getting loan; high cost of improved milch breed, feed, concentrate and medicines; non-availability of improved seed of fodder crops; lack of proper marketing facility, lack of entrepreneurship development oriented training; low price of milk and repeat breeding in cows.

Since 2002, a Central Sector Scheme on Agri-Clinic and Agri-Business Centres (AC&ABC) is in operation in the country to promote entrepreneurship among farm graduates after their formal graduation. A study was undertaken to ascertain the gender issues in establishing and running agri-ventures by the farm graduates who were provided training under AC&ABC scheme. The data were collected from 70 respondents comprising 35 male respondents and 35 female respondents using structured questionnaire through e-mail and telephonic contacts. Findings revealed that majority of female respondents (71.43%) did not venture into AC&ABC due to lack of family support, previous job experience and self-confidence. Prevailing societal attitude might have forced females to avoid starting of enterprise in their native/surrounding villages due to fear of being criticized. The study also revealed gender differences in nature of farm enterprises, motivational factors, site selection, investment pattern, income level, working time as well as cooperation of family and banks. The success of AC and ABC depends on effective sensitization of family members, bank and development officials, more hand holding and financial support and incentives and mass media support for reinforcing the success models across the country.

Twenty-four lactating buffaloes were chosen and subsequently divided into 4 groups i.e. group-I (control), group-II (supplemented astaxanthin at 0.25 mg kg-1 BW/day), group-III (prill fat at 100 g day-1), and group-IV (combination). Surface body temperature at different anatomical regions of buffaloes was recorded using infrared thermography (IRT), rectal temperature using a digital thermometer, and cortisol hormone by ELISA kit at the fortnightly interval. Forehead region temperature showed a higher correlation (0.390) with THI compared to other anatomical regions. The change in surface body temperature was positively correlated with THI and cortisol levels. The increase in the IRT temperature at different anatomical sites of buffaloes was at a lower magnitude in treatment groups compared to the control group. Udder surface temperature was higher in peak lactation and high producing buffaloes. Forehead region temperature showed a close relationship with rectal temperature and cortisol levels of buffaloes. According to the research findings, astaxanthin and prill fat can be used in ameliorating heat stress. Infrared thermography (non-invasive method) of the forehead and udder can be used as indicators for measuring the heat stress and production levels of buffaloes, respectively.