The present investigation was undertaken in Anand district of Gujarat State in 2014-2015. Three Talukas were selected purposively because of large area and more number of potato growers is available. From each of the selected Talukas, 4 villages having large area under potato cultivation were selected purposively. Thus, total twelve villages were selected for the study. From each village ten potato growing farmers were randomly selected for the study. Thus, 120 potato growers were selected for the study. The findings revealed that according of information needs hierarchy, plant protection measures which ranked first with 41.68 average mean per cent score of information needs, followed by harvesting and post harvesting technology ranked second (38.82) average mean per cent score), fertilizer management ranked third (38.68 average mean per cent score), respectively. Whereas land preparation and sowing ranked eighth (28.48) average mean per cent score) and supportive fact ranked ninth (19.76 average mean per cent score).

The farm labourers are the base level, class four employees of Agricultural University, who shoulder the major responsibility of successfully carrying out the field work. Therefore there is a need to study the communicational, psychological and social characteristics of the farm labourers. Accordingly, present research was undertaken to study the communicational, psychological and social characteristics of farm labourers. The study was conducted by selecting the 222 farm labourers in Pune, Dhule, Kolhapur and Rahuri region of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state in India. The result therefore indicates that, during the work period, farm labourers used limited source of information. Therefore, majority of the respondent farm labourers had medium and moderate level source of information. Majority of the respondents are having medium and moderate level of knowledge. Majority had low to medium level of social participation and cosmopoliteness. This might be due to low level of education and also they are doing routine work in their service. The study will be helpful to policy makers and extension personnel to formulate proper action plan to change communicational, psychological and social characteristics of farm labourers.

Present investigation was conducted in Navsari district of Gujarat state during 2015 to study 100 gram panchayat members which performing role for development of village in Navsari, Jalalpore, Gandevi, Chikhli and Vansda talukas of Navsari district. Results revealed that the most important constraints / inconveniences faced by the Gram Panchayat members in performing their role for village development were: Inadequate administrative and financial power, Inadequate financial support from government, Low knowledge regarding rural development programmes, Inadequate co-operation from village people, Lack of training, Low level of education, No whole hearted support from family, Unavailability of computer operator, Inadequate co-operation from members, Inadequate co-operation from village level worker and Less availability of time. Major suggestions offered by gram panchayat members in performing their role for village development were: administrative procedure should be quick and easy to avoid unnecessary delay in work; sufficient financial grant should be provided to the Gram panchayat; training programmes should be organized at local places and training facilities should be created for panchayat members; updated information should be given to gram panchayat members regarding PRS and development works; staff in panchayat should be increased; all required facilities should be provided in panchayat; lesson on unity and co-operation should be taught to the panchayat members, village people and village level workers and awareness and interest should be created among people in development work

The present investigation was undertaken in Tapi district of South Gujarat to analyze knowledge and aptitude of pesticide users about use of Pesticides. Total 150 respondents were selected randomly for the study. The study revealed that 68.00 per cent of the respondents had medium level of knowledge about optimal use of pesticides. Education of respondents (0.555**), occupation (0.308**), annual income (0.365**), economic motivation (0.411**), scientific orientation (0.294**) and risk orientation (0.512**) were positively and highly significantly correlated with knowledge about optimal use of pesticides. Majority (86.00 per cent) of the respondents had medium to low level of aptitude in respect of use of pesticide where as education (0.466**), occupation (0.325**), annual income (0.263**), mass media exposure (0.309**), economic motivation (0.326**) and scientific orientation (0.489**) were positively and highly significantly correlated with aptitude in respect of use of pesticides.

An attempt has been made for studying rural development activities in the Okhamandal area of Gujarat. The Gini coefficient was estimated to 0.043. Among all the ten groups, Madhav group had the highest share (17.38 %) in total income. Regarding the value addition in the Okhamandal area about 23 per cent farmers did the value addition which was very poor as compare to their future expectations i.e. 82 per cent farmers. The highest scope of value addition was observed in commodities like chillies (27 farmers), tomato (20 farmers) and groundnut (48 farmers). Per acre net income was obtained Rs, 6,03,526. The crops like sapota, coconut, coriander, chillies, brinjal and cotton were the major sources of farm income. In case of animal husbandry, the average gross income received per cluster from animal husbandry was estimated at Rs. 1,19,502 per annum. Labour activities in the form of driving, industrial and agril labour, masonry works etc. were the major alternative sources of income in the study area.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, JAU, Porbandar (Gujarat) conducted 30 demonstration in 12 hectare area on improved variety Guj. Coriander-2 with recommended practices during 2010-11 to 2012-13 in different adopted villages. Prevailing farmers’ practices were treated as control for comparison with demonstration. The average three year data showed that an average yield of demonstrated plot was obtained 1610 kg ha-1over control (1454 kg ha-1) which was 10.6% higher than farmers' practice. The overall average extension gap of 155 kg ha-1 with technology gap (404 kg ha-1) and technology index (20.2) was recorded. The higher net returns of Rs. 52105 ha-1 was obtained under the demonstration fields than farmer's practice (Rs. 42669 ha-1) with additional return of Rs. 9436 ha-1. Benefit cost ratio was also considerably higher in demonstration plot (3.70) than farmer's practice (2.90). So, improved variety Guj. Coriander-2 with recommended package of practices should be adopted in Saurashtra region of Gujarat for gaining higher yield and profit from coriander cultivation.

Knowledge of the farmers plays an important role in adoption of improved poultry management practices. The present study on knowledge and adoption of poultry owners’ about poultry management practices was conducted in four talukas of Anand district of Gujarat and total 110 poultry owners were selected for the study. The data were collected through personal interview method. The analysis of the data revealed that majority of the poultry owners’ had medium level of knowledge and medium level of adoption of poultry management practices. The relationship between the knowledge and adoption level of the poultry owners’ about the poultry management practices was found to be positive and highly significantly. It is also observed that great majority of the poultry owner had partially adopted the practice regarding rearing the birds (90.00 per cent), summer and winter management (80.00 per cent) and culling the birds (76.36 per cent).

Association analysis of personal, socio economic, communication and psychological characteristics of mustard growing farmers of Gujarat with extent of adoption was studied amongst 200 mustard growing farmers of North Gujarat. The study revealed that education, social participation, scientific orientation, innovativeness, extension contact, size of landholding, irrigation facility and annual income characteristics of the mustard growing farmers were positively and significantly related with extent of adoption of mustard cultivation technology by the farmers at 0.01 level of significance, while, the age had negative and significant relationship with the adoption of mustard cultivation.

Women are very important and undivided part of any country. They play very significant role in the all rounded sustainable development process of society and country. Despite of this, there position in family and society is not remarkable. Training forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content. The significance of training and education for improving the standard of living of the family, especially through homemakers, has been recognized long bake but has gained impetus in the recent past. The importance of training for women empowerment has further gained the attention of policy makers in our country The present study was undertaken on 100 women of Junagadh district of Gujarat state who participated in a 3-day vocational training programme on bakery. Participants came to know about training through newspaper advertisement (75%) and were self-motivated (79%) to attend the training. The training on bakery brought about significant gain in knowledge and attitudinal change among women. About two-third respondents were confident and motivated to start their own professional venture. Trained group possessed significantly higher levels of knowledge, adoption and gain in income than the respondents from untrained group.

Information and communication technology has become an inevitable component in all matters of life, its appropriate use for agricultural has made remarkable impacts in the past. To integrate technology further into farming sector we need more intensive and agile network frameworks. It should be cost effective, user-friendly and affordable. However, due to high investment cost for installing and maintaining IT infrastructure many organisations are not in a position to use ICT. This is where cloud computing as a framework for harboring different ICT services plays its role. Through this technology all organisations can make use of ICT simply with the help of various devices like computers, smartphones and tablets. Cloud computing is primarily concerned with providing solutions for data storage, data processing and data dissemination services. This technology supports us to keep up with the changing trends and helps to achieve quantum development in Indian Agriculture.

The study was conducted to develop and standardize a reliable and valid scale, to measure attitude of farmers towards use of neem based bio- pesticides. Appropriate statistical method ‘Scale product method’ was used, which combines Thurston and Likert techniques. Twenty one statements were selected for judgment; a panel of 50 judges was requested to assign the score for each statement on five point continuum. Based on the scale (median) and Q values, twelve statements were finally selected to constitute the scale to measure attitude of farmers towards use of neem based bio- pesticide.

Dairy farming is means of subsistence for millions of dairy farmers in country. It provides livelihood support to millions of small marginal farmers and land less labours. Scientists of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)are effortlessly engaged in doing research for location specific low cost and suitable technologies in the sector of dairy farming which may not only resulted in increase in productivity of dairy animals but also reasonably reduce the cost of dairy farming. Scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Junagadh Agricultural University, Surendranagar are also making every efforts for increasing knowledge of dairy farmers in their operational area of intensive working by imparting vocational training programmes, through implementing Front Line Demonstration (FLDs) and On Farm Testing (OFT), advisory services to dairy farmers etc and try their best to ensure no stone remain unturned for disseminating knowledge among dairy farmers. But gap in knowledge level of dairy farmers still persists regarding SAU recommendations pertaining to improved animal husbandry practices. Looking into this, the present study was taken up among 225 dairy farmer beneficiary of KVK operational villages of Chotila, Sayala and Limbadi taluka of Surendranagar district of Saurashtra region of Gujarat with the specific objectives to study the knowledge of beneficiary dairy farmers about SAUs recommendation pertaining to improved animal husbandry practices and socio-economic status of the dairy farmers of Surendranagar district. Majority of the dairy farmers belonged to middle age group, belonged to other back ward caste, obtained primary education, had membership social organization and had possessed 2 to 3 ha land holding with 3 to 4 live stock . Majority had big size family and had members more than five and had earning upto Rs 51000.00 to 100000.00. Most of dairy farmers had high level of knowledge regarding SAUs recommendation pertaining to animal breeding, live stock production management and animal health while partial knowledge level found in case of animal nutrition and fodder production. So we can conclude that most of the dairy farmers of the Surendranagar district possessed medium to high level of knowledge about recommendations of SAUs pertaining to location specific and improved animal husbandry practices.

The motto of extension and educations service of agriculture is to transfer knowledge related to research and lessons learned that are scattered and mostly anecdotal, to the relevant persons. Communication and Information technologies have emerged very fast and are widely accepted by upcoming generation of India. ICTs thus hold great promise for transforming agriculture sector also. ICTs comprises of tools and resources used to communicate, to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. Time required for knowledge transfer and problem solving has declined by integrating ICT and agriculture. This paper highlights some of the important ICT applications in India, which have revolutionized extension and education service even in remote areas.

The Present investigation was conducted in Navsari district of Gujarat state during 2015 to study 100 milch animal management practices adopted by farmers in Navsari, Jalalpore, Gandevi, Chikhli and Vansda talukas of Navsari district. Independents and dependent variables taken for investigation. Personal variable Characters like age, education, size of family, social participation, source of information, animal husbandry experience, herd size, occupation, land holding, innovativeness, risk orientation, scientific orientation, economic motivation. In results majority middle age (58.00 per cent), secondary education (43.00 per cent), medium (49.00 per cent) size of family, poor (48.00 per cent) social participation, source of information (70.00 per cent) frequently accessed the information, medium (59.00 per cent) level of animal husbandry experience, medium (41.00 per cent) 3 to 4 animal livestock possession, occupation (70.00 per cent) two livelihood activity, small (57.00 per cent) land holding, (50.00 per cent) higher level of innovativeness, medium level (73.00 percent) of risk orientation, moderate level (64.00 per cent) of scientific orientation and (63.00 per cent)moderate level of scientific orientation. Than in overall knowledge about breeding, feeding, management, healthcare, milking and housing. The majority (78.00 per cent) of the milch animal farmers had medium level of knowledge followed by 12.00 per cent of the milch animal farmers had low level of knowledge while 10.00 per cent milch animal farmers was found in high level category of knowledge.

Rural youth are the very important section of the rural society and they play a vital role in the development of rural areas especially agricultural activities. The present study was conducted in Navsari district of South Gujarat region to analyze the knowledge of rural youth towards agricultural development activities. Total 5 talukas were identified from Navsari on the basis of highest number of rural youth. Ex post facto research design was used. For this study, 100 rural youth were selected randomly. To know the various characteristics of the respondents a structured schedule was developed. The majority of the respondents (50.00 percent) had a more favourable level of knowledge, followed by (06.00 percent) and (44.00 percent) of the respondents had less favourable level of knowledge and favourable level of knowledge, respectively. It can be concluded that the age and education were positive and non significantly correlated with the rural youth and their knowledge, Where as Mass media, Annual income, Extension contact, cosmopoliteness, Land holding, Economic motivation, innovation, Social participation were negatively and non significantly correlated with rural youth and their knowledge, whereas Extension participation and Achievement motivation were positive and non significantly correlated with rural youth and their knowledge.