To sustain the self sufficiency in food production we need effective technologies which can improve the productivity and sustainability of our major farming systems .Greenhouse technology, one among improved technologies which ensures stability in agriculture production. But farmers are facing different constraints while adopting greenhouse technologies. Therefore, present study was undertaken with the objective to study the constraints faced by farmers in adopting greenhouse technology in Anand district of Gujarat. . Five talukas of Anand District viz., Anand, Borsad, Petlad, Khambhat and Sojitra, was selected purposively looking to the more number of respondent who adopted greenhouse technology. The data were collected from each respondent through personal interview method with the help of structured schedule. Percentage score were allotted for each of the constraints affecting the adoption of greenhouse technology. For better understanding all the constraints were divided into five categories viz. knowledge and information, technical, socio-economic, infrastructural and managerial.

Larval bio-assays were conducted to evaluate the virulence of B. bassiana isolates against diamondback moth, P. xylostella. A total of eight isolates from different parts of Tamil Nadu and one isolate from Punjab were collected through extensive surveys. Local isolates of B. bassiana, BbI8 and BbI3 recorded the highest mean mortality per cent of 86.67 and 83.33, respectively. Virulent isolates thus identified can be further mass produced at larger scale and successfully employed for the biological control of diamondback moth as an innovative tool in the integrated pest management.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif (soybean), 2012 and rabi (onion) 2012-13 in a sandy clay loam, at college farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to study the response to P levels (0, 30 and 60 kg P2O5 ha-1) either alone or in combination with PSB @ 5 kg ha-1, biochar @ 5 t ha-1, humic acid @ 20 kg ha-1 and citric acid @ 10 mM concentration to study the direct, residual and cumulative effects of the treatments imposed on yield of soybean(direct) and onion (Residual and Cumulative). The mean seed yield of the soybean with biochar was 2077 kg ha-1, which was significantly higher against the control seed yield of 1329 kg ha-1. In onion, among organics, biochar application led to a statistically significant positive effect on both biomass and yield. Biochar resulted in a significant increase in mean onion yield to 22.1 t ha-1 against 15.8 t ha-1 when organics were not supplemented, the yield response being 39.9 per cent across inorganic P and mode of effect. Cumulative effect was found to show significant influence resulting in a mean yield of 21 t ha-1 which was higher by 22.1 per cent as against 17.2 t ha-1 due to the residual effect.

Experiment was laid in split plot design assigning transplanting dates (25 May, 10 and 25 June) in main plot and four cultivars of rice (Jhelum, Shalimar rice-1, SKAU-341 (SR-2) and SKAU-382 (SR-3) in sub-plots. The crop planted on 25 May produced the highest yield of 74.0 and 79.0 q ha-1 during 2011 and 2012 respectively over 10 June (57.3 and 57.1 q ha-1) and 25 June (31.1 and 32.2 q ha-1). Spikelet sterility was 19.08 and 18.18, 20.21 and 20.62, 29.67 and 33.84 with 25 May, 10 June and 25 June transplanting during 2011 and 2012 respectively. Yield attributes like grains panicle-1, spikelet’s panicle-1 and test weight were recorded highest with 25 May transplanting and lowest in 25 June transplanting. Variety Jhelum recorded highest grain yields. The superiority of variety Jhelum over Shalimar rice-1, SKAU-341 and SKAU-382 was 3.9, 9.1 and 15.9 per cent, respectively during 2011 and corresponding values for year 2012 were 1.7, 8.5 and 14.7 per cent, respectively.

Investigation on evaluation of nine genotypes of Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) with respect to growth and flowering parameters were carried out under valley conditions at HNBGU, Srinagar Garhwal, Department of Horticulture, during 2013-14. The genotypes were studied for various vegetative, floral and bulb yielding attributes. Results revealed that there was a significant variation among the genotypes for various attributes. Out of the nine genotypes studied, Genotype Subasini (G9) recorded to have maximum plant height (56.00 cm), leaf area (51.71cm2), maximum number of sprouts (9.26) per plant, fresh weight of spike (123.47 g) and highest yield of spike (1.11 kg) per plot, vase life (14.22 days) and regarding bulb yielding attributes genotype G5 (Vaibhav) have maximum bulb diameter (1.77 cm) and bulb length (4.78 cm) Keeping all these parameters in view, it may be concluded that genotype Subasini is suitable for cultivation in the valley conditions of Garhwal region followed by Vaibhav and Kalyan Single.

A study concerned about an assessment of the resource and environmental constraints and cost analysis of transplanted rice (TPR) and direct seeded rice (DSR) is made in agri-economics context to suggest options for promotion of DSR in India. Results showed that net return was higher in DSR (Rs. 60105) as compared to TPR (Rs. 57532.5) and B:C ratio was found 2.13 in DSR while it was only 1.94 in TPR. Thus, net returns were 4 % higher in DSR than TPR method as cost of cultivation was 15% less in DSR. Moreover, technical efficiency of DSR was found to be 92% whereas it was 87% in case of TPR. In case of DSR system, economic efficiency measure was 0.52 as compare to 0.32 in TPR system. It was observed that farmers could save 55% human labour, 10% machine labour and 33% irrigation water in DSR as compared to transplanted rice. The results showed that DSR method of paddy cultivation was more economically efficient compared to TPR system.

Prediction of evapotranspiration is important for design and management of irrigation systems, water resources management and climatological studies. The ASCE had recommended Penman-Monteith model (FAO-56) as the sole standard method for determining ETo over the wide variety of climatic situations over the world and it requires all types of data. At many locations, there is either lack of meteorological data or availability of meteorological parameters is limited. It is necessary to find alternative to Penman-Moneith method with limited data availability. In order to carry out study, average weekly meteorological data, viz., maximum temperature, minimum temperature, maximum relative humidity, minimum relative humidity, bright sun shine hours, wind speed and pan evaporation were collected from whether station located at Dhule (Mahaashtra, India) for period of 1980 to 2014. In this study, the potential of Linear Regression is investigated in modeling of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) using the standard FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equation. The four types of linear regression models were developed by varying the independent variables, these are; LR1(pan evaporation); LR2 (maximum temperature and minimum temperature); LR3 (maximum temperature, minimum temperature and bright sun shine hours); LR4 (maximum temperature, minimum temperature, maximum relative humidity, minimum relative humidity and bright sun shine hours). The results of all performance measures for all LR models during development stage varies in the range as R (0.902 to 0.933), d(IA) (0.946 to 0.964), RMSE (0.701 to 0.841), MAE (0.532 to 0.646), MAPE (11.609 to 14.274) and CE (0.813 to 0.870) and showed the performance in sequence of LR4, LR3, LR1 and LR2. It indicates that all LR models performed satisfactorily and showed marginal difference of performance measures among them in development stage. Similar kind of close difference for each performance measure occurred during validation stage of all LR models. It indicates that all LR models were validated satisfactorily and generalized for estimation of ETo. Overall, the performance suggest that all LR models can be an acceptable approach to predict ETo values for Dhule station as per data availability

The level of agriculture development of different states of India was obtained with help of composite index based on optimum combinations of eight agricultural development indicators. The study utilizes very recent time period for measurement of development for seventeen non-specific states of India. It is found that Uttar Pradesh scores first rank in the agriculture development whereas Goa stands on the last position. Wide disparities have been observed in the level of agricultural development between different states of India.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of season, stage of lactation and parity on test day milk yield and major milk components in lactating cross bred Holstein Friesian cows. There was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of season, stage of lactation and parity on fat percentage, solid not fat (SNF), total solid and FCM .SNF was not significantly affected by parity. The lactose content of the milk was affected significantly (P<0.01) by season only. Fat, protein and total solids content were lowest in rainy season while protein, lactose and test day milk yield showed higher value in winter season. Lower values of fat, protein, lactose and total solids were reported in mid stage as compare to later stage of lactation. This study indicated that different factors affect the milk yield and major milk components

There is a great potential for increasing the total sugarcane production in the North-Eastern Region due to suitable climatic, edaphic and great market prospective in the region. In Tinsukia district, sugarcane is the important commercial crop grown next to tea and khasi mandarin. The study was conducted as a part of Front Line Demonstration (FLDs) of KVK, Tinsukia with 90 numbers of farmers of three Rural Development Blocks viz., Hapjan, Margherita and Kakopothar of Tinsukia district. The study revealed that out of the technological constraints; lack of knowledge of scientific crop production ranked I (75.55%), Occurrence of insect-pests and diseases ranked II (60.00%) and Lack of regular visit by extension personnel to villages ranked III (54.44%). Again, as regards to the infrastructural constraints; Non-availability of HYV ranked I (78.88%), Use of hazardous chemicals for pest and disease management ranked II (76.66%) and Less cultivable land ranked III (64.44%). Whereas, out of the economical constraints; Low selling price ranked I (77.77%), Non-availability of labour during peak period ranked II (75.55%) and High cost of agricultural chemicals ranked III (67.77%).

The present investigation was under taken with the basic objectives of assessing distribution channels of fertilizers and buying behaviour of the farmers towards fertilizers. The multistage random sampling technique was employed for the study. The study was conducted in Banaskantha district of Gujarat state. Three talukas namely Deesa, Dantiwada and Tharad were selected randomly from the district. In the next stage, four villages from each taluka were selected randomly. Thus, total 12 villages were selected through random sampling technique. In the last stage, 10 farmers were selected randomly from each village for making a sample size of 120 farmers. The primary data were collected from the respondents through a pre-structured interview schedule by personal interview technique. The statistical tools such as frequency and percentage were used. Majority of the farmers (65.00%) are purchasing fertilizers from co-operative societies because of easy availability and reliable product. It was found that GSFC, GNFC, IFFCO and KRIBHCO companies have their own outlets for distribution of fertilizers in the study area. However, they sell the fertilizers only to co-operative societies. Looking to the buying behaviour of farmers, all the farmers highly considered quality while purchasing the fertilizers followed by brand image (96.70%), own experience (90.80%) and easy availability (90.00%). Farmers were most focusing on quality and good brand image rather than other factors, therefore, to sustain in the market, companies should maintain the quality and thereby, establish goodwill for positive results.