This study was carried out in Daurala and Hastinapur block of district Meerut during 2009-11. The study was based on 80 farmers (33 small +27 medium +20 large) which were selected randomly from sugarcane (planted and ratoon) cropping system in both blocks. The regression coefficient of human labour, micro nutrients, irrigation and seed, TMH, Human labour, irrigation was found statistically positive for planted sugarcane on small and large farmers respectively while in ratoon sugarcane human labour, manure and fertilizer (small farm), micro nutrient (medium farm) and human labour, manure and fertilizer and micro nutrient (large farm) was found statistically positive. However, R2 values were found 0.503, 0.162 and 0.092 on small, medium and large farms respectively for planted sugarcane while for ratoon sugarcane R2 values were found to be 0.271, 0.147 and 0.279 on small, medium and large farms respectively. The MVPs of human labour was highest on large farms and MVPs of irrigation was observed to be diminishing with the increase in the size of farms indicating that more of irrigation is being used per unit of land as the size of farms increase.

A thrice replicated field trial was conducted in Rabi season 2009-10 to evaluate 5 nitrogen rates and 2 zinc fertilizer rates on growth, yield and quality of Indian mustard. The experimental results revealed that application of 100 kg N/ha recorded significantly maximum growth attributes viz., plant height (cm), number of total (primary + secondary) branches/plant, total dry matter accumulation at 60, 90 DAS and harvest stage, dry matter g/plant husk, stem as well as total and seed, straw as well as total, yield attributes (no of siliquae per plant, length of siliquae per plant, number of seed per siliquae, seed weight per siliquae, 1000 seed weight, seed weight per plant) and yield such as grain yield (1804 kg/ha), biological yield (8406 kg/ha) and harvest index (21.6 %), besides achieved better protein content and, protein and oil yield. Although, maximum oil (42.3 %) content was recorded in a plot where N was absent. Moreover, like as above, application of 20 kg/ha zinc recorded maximum growth, yield and quality of Indian mustard over control plot.Thus, the combination of nitrogen @ 100 kg/ha and zinc @ 5 kg Zn/ha appeared to be more promising to boost the productivity of B. juncea on one hand and to improve its quality on the other.

The study was attempted to assess the impact of viable livelihood models comprising effective mix of different technological interventions on sustainable livelihood empowerment to the different category of farmers of four selected disadvantaged districts, viz. Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad of West Bengal as a part of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP). The participatory and personal interview methods were followed to collect the information. To assess the impact paired t-test and Impact Index analysis were done. The results showed positive change in indicators of economic empowerment like income (48.07%), employment (120.83%), investment (166.22%), savings (111.19%), assets (40.21%) and consumption (18.56%) of the beneficiaries after the successful adoption of different on and off farm interventions through NAIP. The calculated t-values for the economic indicators were significant at 1% level. It was revealed from step-wise multiple regression analysis that investment, employment generation and savings were the factors influenced the income significantly. The contribution of these variables was 74%. The gain indexes of social and economic empowerment were found to be 33.84 and 35.97 respectively. Besides, participation of women in agricultural and allied activities shifting from physical hard working to knowledge base skilled activities pushed up the empowerment level and its sustainability. Briefly, livelihood models of different income generating activities for the rural people particularly small and marginal farmers, rural underemployed youths scientifically delivered through livelihood models seemed to be a sustainable rural development strategy for the socio-economic prosperity of rural community.

The present investigation was carried out on “standardization of media mixture for hardening of in vitro plantlets with an objective to develop protocol for hardening of the In-vitro grown Dendrobium cv. Sonia 17 with 8 different treatment combinations. Viz. T1-cocopeat; T2-cocopeat +1pc coconut husk; T3-cocopeat +2pc coconut husk; T4-cocopeat +3pc coconut husk; T5-cocopeat + charcoal (1: 1); T6-cocopeat + charcoal + 1pc coconut husk; T7-cocopeat + charcoal + 2pc coconut husk; T8-cocopeat + charcoal + 3pc coconut husk. Treatments consisting of plantlets 3 pieces coconut husk tied with the ex-agar plantlets and planted in the pro-tray containing coco peat (T4) significantly enhanced the formation of new leaf/plantlet (5.3)no of roots/plantlets(7.5), length of the root (2.5 cm) and percentage of survival (96.67%) of the plantlets. While lowest values in terms of new leaf/plantlet (4.17 )no of roots/plantlets(6.33 ), length of the root (1.83 cm) and percentage of survival (53.33%) are obtained from treatment consisting of coco peat media only.

Field investigation through stratified random sampling was undertaken during 2010-11 in 53 high yielding coconut (Cocos nuceifera L.) gardens located in 17 agro ecological units (AEUs) of Kerala, India to determine production potential of coconut, assess yield disparity between best and common farmer managed coconut garden and develop nutrient management plan based on best farmers’ management practice. AEUs having high production potential were Onattukara Sandy Plain, Northern Laterites, Southern Laterites and Southern Coastal Plains with yields of 250, 208, 180 and 180 nuts/palm/year respectively. AEUs having low production potential were Kole Lands, Wayanad Central Plateau, Kuttanad and North Central Laterites with yields of 60, 86, 100 and 110 nuts/palm/year respectively. Yield disparity in AEUs varied from 36 to 987%. Proposed nutrient management plan involves application of 1 kg burnt lime, on farm composting with 60 kg organic manures comprising of 30 kg each green leaf manure and farm yard manure, application of 1 kg Factamfos, 0.5 kg muriate of potash, 1.5 kg common salt, 0.5 kg magnesium sulphate and 50 g borax to each palm every year.