Integrated approach of rural development is adopted by the government of India as a resource and income development programme at all India level through 5011 blocks. Main objective has been to provide gainful employment and to remove poverty in rural area by increasing income of families living below poverty line. The present study was conducted in district rural development agency area in palanpur taluka was selected purposefully and the villages and respondents were selected randomly. The total size of the respondents was 1200. The respondents were interviewed personally with the help of interview schedule. To assess the knowledge, utilization pattern, opinion and suggestions certain seats of questions were asked to the respondents. After that, the data were analyzed with the help of Statistical tools. Majority of the respondents had average knowledge about IRDA activities.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate 32 rice hybrids for yield and quantitative characters during Kharif-2015. The data were recorded on 13 quantitative characters to study genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance. Analysis of variance among 32rice hybrids showed highly significant differences for all the characters indicated the presence of substantial amount of genetic variability for all the characters. Based on mean performance high grain yield per hill was observed for hybrid IHRT-E-22 followed by IHRT-E-23. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was observed for Flag leaf length followed by biological yield indicating that environment highly influenced these characters. High estimate of heritability was observed for test weight and plant height.

A low cost manually operated seed drill for jute and other similar small seeds has been developed and evaluated in the laboratory and field condition to study its seed pattern characteristics and economic viability for small and marginal farmers in the jute growing areas of Indo Gangetic Plain. The machine was evaluated with Jute variety JRO-204 (Suren) in ICAR-CRIJAF Farm. From the experiments, it was found that the seed requirement for developed seed drill was 3-4 kg/ha against 6-7 kg/ha in broadcast sowing. The effective field capacity at mean speed of 1.6-2.0 km/h was 0.17 ha/h i.e., 6 man-hours per hectare with field efficiency of 89.5 per cent. The draft requirement for its operation was 75.6 N which is within the capacity of an average man/woman. The sowing of jute with seed drill followed by mechanical weed control using jute weeder/nail weeder showed reduction in manual labour (about 87) requirement for weeding and thinning as compared to about 135 man-days/ha required in broadcast field and there was net saving of Rs. 15000-17000/- per hectare with increase in fibre yield of 20-22 per cent.

The study was conducted to identify and document the various indigenous technological knowledge regarding indigenous methods for pest control in agriculture gathered and applied through experiences of the local people in north eastern part of India. This indigenous technological knowledge is based on the experiences of the people over a period at a given place. The information, thus, were collected from the selected informants of the given area and documented in a systematic manner based on some attributes. In recent times, climate change has taken place with its significant and most observable impacts on various aspects of agriculture. Subsequently, plant protection, now a day, has become a serious matter because due to changes in climate, the ecology and biology of different insect pests are also changing which makes pest control mechanisms more difficult and complex. Moreover, indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides in agricultural field not only develops resistance in the pests but also leads to environmental degradation. On the other hand, there are some indigenous people who are still following some indigenous practices in case of controlling the pests in their agricultural fields through using locally available plans and low-cost resources. The basis of these indigenous technological knowledge has its base deep rooted into the experiences of their ancestors being passed on from generation to generation. As these ITKs fulfil the criteria of cultural and environmental compatibility and are also economically feasible, therefore, an appropriate blend between the indigenous knowledge system and scientific knowledge system regarding pest control methods should be considered during formulation of an effective and efficient crop protection strategy for ensuring sustainable agricultural development.

- Cabinet tray drier (Gallen Kamp hot box) of banana was conducted in 3 steps. i.e. Concentration, time and thickness (longitudinal 15cm). Osmosis was carried out using three different concentrations of sugar solution (50, 60 and 70 %) with added preservatives of KMS (0.1%), citric acid (0.1%), and ascorbic acid (0.2%) in the osmotic solution at immersion time of (40,60,80 minutes) whereas, constant parameters were sample to solution ratio of 1:1 and sample thickness of around 5mm,10mm, 15mm during osmotic solution and found that best 55°C of osmosis remain constant. The combined effect of solution, sugar concentration, time of moisture loss and thickness was investigated by developing treatment combinations. Biochemical parameters while osmosis and physical parameters of osmo-air dried banana slices were statistically analysed by using RSM (9.3 ver.). The combined parameters with the obtained results showed significant differences based on the concentration, time, thickness, shape.