The study was conducted to analyze the value chain finance of ABC Intermediation and Services Pvt. Ltd. It has covered Ahmedabad region of Gujarat state consisting of 5 talukas. For this study, 60 traders and 10 processors were selected based on purposive sampling technique. Both primary as well as secondary data were used to achieve the stipulated objective of the study. Primary data were collected with the help of structured schedule. Descriptive statistics and Garrett ranking were applied to achieve the stipulated objective of the study. The most of the traders were dealing with cereals and they procure the cereals from farmers on cash basis and sell it to processors on credit basis. Here, traders have to give payment to farmer on the same day of purchase but he receives the finance from processors after 10 to 15 days of selling. So, brokers and traders require finance for 10 to 15 days to run their business effectively. Processors procure cereals from APMC and from some farmers on direct basis also. Traders purchase agri produce from farmers at prevailing price in the market but, they sell the agri produce to the processor at different price which includes the procurement price, commission (here in this case average 1.5%), market access, labour charge for loading and unloading the produce.

The present study was carried out during 2018-19 to analyze the knowledge and attitude level of farmers about Soil Health Card (SHC). Out of 120 soil health card holders 60 farmers were selected from each in Mandya and Maddur taluks of Mandya district. The respondents were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using a pre-tested interview schedule. A large number of the farmers (49.16%) had medium level of overall knowledge regarding SHC, while 27.50 and 23.33 percent of the farmers had high and low level of overall knowledge regarding SHC, respectively. It was also found that a majority of farmers (80.00%) were having favorable to more favorable attitude towards SHC. Education, achievement motivation, management orientation, scientific orientation, Cosmo politeness, mass media exposure, risk orientation, extension agency and extension participation of farmers had significant to highly significant association with their knowledge and attitude towards SHC. Around 70 and 72 percent of the variation in the knowledge and attitude level of farmers respectively It was explained by all the 14 independent variables selected for the research study. Delay in distribution of soil health cards, fertilizers calculations are not given in SHC, difficulty in following the soil test-based results, illiteracy of farmers, lack of awareness regarding method of soil sampling and inadequate follow-up by extension agency were the major problems faced by the farmers.

Ground water levels are declining in various parts of Haryana, India. In order to arrest this problem, an Android based Mobile App was developed for GPS based dry well mapping. GIS Mapping of Dry wells in Karnal was conducted using the mobile based App. Attributes such as diameter, depth to water table and type of well (lined or unlined) etc. were also be collected during field survey. The collected data were individually processed and analysed in GIS environment. The study indicates that the maximum of dry wells is in Nilokheri block and minimum no of wells in the Karnal block of the district. It was also observed that the all the wells were lined and dried. Surely, all the blocks fall under overexploited category, there a constant decline of water levels over the past years in the major portion of the district. The results was in par with the anecdotal evidence that the wells used for domestic purposes are more susceptible to drying than wells used for agricultural purposes throughout Karnal district of Haryana as domestic wells are shallower as compared to agricultural wells.

The present study was conducted to assess the impact of agri-tourism as perceived by its stakeholders. The sample comprised of forty-five Agri-tourism Centres (ATCs) drawn from two states i.e. Maharashtra (n=30) and Goa (n=15). The total number of visitors selected for the study was 200, thus consisting 100 visitors each from respective states. It followed an ex-post facto research design and was purposively conducted in Maharashtra and Goa. The status was determined by combination of parameters such as package tariff per person per day, level of dependency on farm income, seasonal trend of agritourists arrival to farms, agritourists motivation to visit and agritourism selection criteria. The overall prospects of agritourism venture among the operators of both states combined was as high as reported by 46.67 percent of the total respondents while equal percentage (26.67%) reported medium and low overall prospects. Similarly, in terms of increasing promotional activities, 46.67 percent of the respondents reported high prospects and 40 percent of the respondents were willing to add facilities to the agri-tourism unit thereby indicating great prospects of agri-tourism venture in the study area.

Objective of this study to characterize paddy production environments in hill. The productivity of paddy is not only lower but also stagnated from several years in the hills. To understanding the production practices of paddy cultivation, primary data of 60 randomly selected households from two villages namely: Adhuria and Balai from Almora district were collected for detailed analysis. The operational holding size is usually very small in the hills, therefore, the farmers having 10-20 and 20-40 nali cultivated land were classified as marginal and small, respectively. Descriptive statistics were applied for data analysis. Paddy was the major cereal in the surveyed area during kharif season and it accounts 47.66 and 58.13% area to total cropped area in terraces and valleys, respectively. The study was initiated to characterize physical and bio-physical conditions, households, cropping pattern, farming systems, input use in production practices and detailed cost and return analysis of two distinct paddy growing environments as terraces and valleys. The causes of low productivity of paddy is discussed in detail in this paper. There is need to design suitable policy and technological interventions for improvement in yield and profitability of paddy cultivation in hills.

The study was conducted to know the employment opportunities of women workers in agriculture by analysing the supply - demand gap of women workers participating in various agricultural operations in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Tabular analysis using descriptive statistics was done to achieve the objective. The supply and demand of women workers in agriculture were calculated in terms of man days. The results showed that the supply of women workers was greater than the demand for them in the selected villages, which proves that there exists a larger unemployment of the women workers in agriculture. Hence it is suggested that there should be alternate employment sources for the women workers by promoting agro based industries in the rural areas.

A pot culture experiment was conducted during 2018 November to 2019 January at the Department of Plant Physiology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani to study the physiological and morphological changes that occur during ex vitro establishment of orchid (Phalaenopsis sp.) and to find out measures to overcome the field mortality rate and improve the propagation efficiency. The orchid used for the experiment was Phalaenopsis sp. The results revealed that physiological parameters like specific leaf area and photosynthetic rate were significantly higher at all the four stages of observation, in the treatment provided with 40-50% light intensity and 80-90% humidity (T6) and the transpiration rate was lowest in T3 (plantlet dip with triazole @ 5 ppm + foliar application of triazole @ 5ppm, after 15 days of planting). At 45 and 60 days after planting (DAP), the plantlets which were provided with 40-50% light intensity and 80-90% humidity (T6) recorded the highest plant height. Number of leaves per plantlet and survival percentage were also found higher in T6. But in the treatment, T3 (plantlet dip with triazole @ 5 ppm + foliar application of triazole @ 5ppm) maximum number of roots was observed at all the four stages of observation. Among the different treatments, T6 (plantlets provided with 40-50% light intensity and 80-90% humidity) recorded the highest plantlet survival percentage at 15,30,45 and 60th day of observation (80, 76, 72, 66 percentage respectively) compared to control.

Among all, seed is most vital input in successful agriculture programme. Various physiological parameters which are associated with seed vigor can provide information about actual performance of various crosses or parental combinations even in very early stages of crop improvement programme at laboratory level. In this study, a total of thirteen parents of sorghum including five male sterile and eight pollinator lines were evaluated for heterotic combinations based on general and specific combining abilities on the basis of various vigor associated seed physiological parameters. Among seed parents, M 35-1 was found the best general combiner for seed vigor (4.96) while in pollinators, MR750A2 performed best for GCA. For SCA, crosses like MR750A2 x M 35-1 showed highest significant values for seed vigor (5.99) followed by 11A2 x M 35-1 (4.83) and ICSA 469 x PC5 (4.14). The study can be very useful for the rapid selection of vigorous parents on the basis of early seed vigor parameters in sorghum.

The field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2017-18 at Genetics and Plant Breeding Research Area of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, which is located at 29°09’N latitude and 75°46’E longitude in western Haryana with an elevation of 215 m above mean sea level. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications containing three tillage practices viz. conventional tillage, zero tillage and zero tillage + residue @ 6 ton/ha (pearlmillet straw) as main plot treatments and five barley varieties viz. BH 902, BH 946, RD 2552, DWRB 101 and DWRUB 52 as sub plot treatments. The different tillage practices failed to produce significant variation on plant height, dry matter accumulation and tillers irrespective of growth stages of barley. Two rowed barley varieties (DWRB 101 and DWRUB 52) have higher number of tillers as compared to six rowed barley varieties. The different tillage practices failed to produce significant variation on yield attributes i.e. spike number, spike length, grains per spike and 1000 grain weight of barley. BH 946 being at par with RD 2552 produced significantly higher grain yield than BH 902, DWRB 101 and DWRUB 52.

The study was under taken in waterlogged affected area from 2009-10 to 2014-15 at adjoining villages Gulkhara (Jivsiyani), Sahar, Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh. The main objective was to increase the farm family’s income more than two-fold. The secondary objective was to raise the wheat and onion crops under integrated nutrient management with conjunction of organic matter supplied by water chestnut green biomass. Before the initiation of study, the farmers of this locality were depending upon income. The possible crop of water chestnut was included before the harvesting of wheat or onion during rainy season for increasing he farmers income by 2 or >2 fold. The cropping systems i.e., water chestnut-wheat K-7903, water chestnut-wheat K 9423, water chestnut-wheat PBW- 373 and water chestnut-onion cv. Kalyanpur Red Round were tested. The Kanpuri cultivar of water chestnut was used in the study. The average nut yield of water chestnut was recorded 90.00 q/ha, while average wheat yield noted by 30.00 q/ha and onion by 215.00 q/ha after nuts plucking of water chestnut. The system productivity from water chestnut-wheat and water chestnut-onion was computed by 111.81 q/ha and 382.70 q/ha, respectively. The net return and BCR were obtained from water chestnut-wheat by Rs. 70000/ha and 1:1.61, respectively. Similarly, water chestnut-onion cropping system gave net return and BCR by Rs. 148575.00/ha and 1:1.93, respectively. Water chestnut inclusion in water chestnut-late sown wheat and water chestnut-onion cropping systems increased the farm family’s income about 3-fold.

The study has attempted to examine the present status of cashewnut processing units in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh and also to identify the constraints associated with the running of the cashewnut processing units. Per day processing capacity was taken into consideration for the selection of the processing units. Relevancy rating was used to identify the major constraints of the owners. The study revealed that, 292 cashewnut processing units are currently functioning across the 38 mandals of the Srikakulam district and among them 67 per cent processing units were functioning in Palasa (145) and Mandasa (51) mandals only. Regarding the problems of processing units, high working capital requirement and higher taxation were the most prominent. Shortage of skilled labour, irregular power supply, unavailability of raw materials in domestic market and inadequate storage facilities were the other major problems reported by the owners of the cashew nut processing units. The study suggests for the establishment of Cashew Industry Development Board for the effective functioning of the processing units and also for the establishment of processing units in other regions of the district, on cooperative basis.

This research was conducted in four panchayat samities (two tribal and two non-tribal) of Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Four beneficiary villages and two non-beneficiary village from each selected panchayat samiti were taken and 10 respondents were selected randomly from each selected village for the study. Data were collected through pre-structured interview schedule. It was found that there was a significant difference in level of knowledge between beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers about recommended maize interventions. The beneficiary farmers had more knowledge than non-beneficiary farmers about recommended maize interventions. It indicates that there was positive impact of RKVY on beneficiary farmers in gain in knowledge about recommended maize interventions.