eChapters

Agricultural sector worldwide is faced with several serious challenges as follows the spiralling demand of food, declining agricultural productivity due to natural resources degradation and increasing competition in international markets. The new millennium throws up new challenges in the Indian agriculture sector that are different from those in the past. Continuous pressure of producing more food from the same land with shrinking natural resources and marketing the product is a tough task for farmers. Public agricultural extension system with a mandate and mission, beyond transfer of technology, is needed to develop the capacities of the farming community.

Climate change is a complex problem involving varied interactions between the environment, natural resources (land, crops, animals and water) and people. These interactions are likely to change the ecological and agricultural landscape, and therefore influence agricultural and animal production. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has dictated that global warming/climate change could lead to many environmental problems i.e., Drought, floods, crop and animal farming, food production, and health hazards etc. Agriculture is closely dependent on the endowment of natural resources and environmental conditions of soil and climate. India is divided into many agro—climatic zones depending upon rainfall, agriculture and soil fertility. The agro climatic conditions of India and the various other factors that largely determine the cropping patterns vary throughout the country. Warangal district falls into two agro climatic regions namely Southern Telangana Zone and North Telangana Zone.

India’s agrarian culture and economy is undergoing drastic changes. In this progressive path of agricultural resurrection, a comprehensive multidimensional understanding of agricultural development is of great importance. In the present context of Kerala, where the local administrative bodies are vested with more powers to plan and execute need based agricultural development activities, a clear understanding of the concept of agricultural development among the major stakeholders shall serve as a firm base for development.

The digital revolution is radically shifting how people create, manage, share and publish information, as well as how they relate, collaborate, communicate and share resources. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Social Media, Web 2.0 and mobile applications have also significantly changed the livelihoods of the local farmers especially in developing countries.

Water is one of the most important production assets and securing access to and control and management of water is key to enhance livelihood base of any country like India where most people depends on agriculture. India is endowed with rich and vast diversity of natural resources, water being one among them. But water resources in India are unevenly distributed over the country. The more than 50 per cent of the total resources distributed with five states namely Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal (MWR, 2008) and left other states much prone to water scarcity.

Technology adoption is mounting every day in the field of agriculture. The greatest need of the day is to effectively communicate the information related to farm technologies to the millions of farmers to educate and to adopt them in order to modernise their agriculture. Inspite of our best efforts, only 25 to 30 per cent of the modern agricultural technologies have reached farmers. This modern technology however has been restricted to favourable farming situation only.

Today, in many countries mobile phones are being used by farmers, not only as a person voice communication medium but also to provide access to  information through sending message service (SMS), multimedia messages service (MMS) and access to the internet. Across the developing world, there are programmes that give farmers access to research and best practices, weather information and market prices via SMS, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or call centers.

The ICT enabled extension systems act as a key agent for changing current agrarian situation by improving access to information, sharing knowledge, providing incredible opportunities and enabling the empowerment of farming communities. In order to extend the benefits of ICT’s to the disorganized and disadvantaged farming sector, one of the road maps to achieve them are access of ICT’s to villagers through Mobile telephony.

The transfer of technology keeps the wheels of agriculture development moving. The existing transfer of technology mechanisms and extension programs are either slow or ineffective in bridging the linkages between the research community and the farmers. Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development. The advancements in ICT can be utilized for providing accurate, timely, relevant information and services to the farmers, thereby facilitating an environment for more remunerative agriculture.

In India, self employment has been recognized as an essential force of development in rural areas. It has emerged as a strategy designed to improve the socio-economic life and mainly focuses on extending the benefits of development to the poorest in the rural areas improving their standard of living and self-realization. SHGs in India are integrating the low income segments with rest of the rural community by ensuring them a better contribution in a more equitable share in the benefit of developments. These Groups are not only speeding up economic growth, but also providing jobs and improving the quality of rural life towards self-reliance. Self-employment needs a very wide ranging and comprehensive set of performance, relevant to all aspects of rural economy and covering rural people including skilled, unskilled and landless labours and artisans of Rural India. The Rural Indians put their entrepreneurial skills in all the rural development performance  but their economic status has not improved to the expected level. They have much potential, despite they are ignorant of converting their skills into reality.

e-SAP is one of the important emerging and efficient dissemination tool for agricultural pest management. e-SAP refers to electronic solution for  agricultural pest management. e-SAP is a ground – breaking application built on the backdrop of agricultural pest management. Its foundation lies on a unique platform that facilitates the storage access and transfer information between all stakeholders in agriculture. It enables rapid and delivery of farm data in various forms including multimedia to researchers, policymakers and other users in real time.

Web-education Technology

“Educating the people through web” this process is called web-education. The World Wide Web provides new opportunities and hopeful future for distance education over the Internet and the distance education is becoming a widespread used for quite a long time through Newspapers, Radio and TV. Now-a-days mostly the World Wide Web (WWW) getting vital role in distance education, e-learning and distance learning since the networking technologies are emerging very rapidly in the media dominant era. The connectivity of the internet to different kind of people around the world is increasing steadily, like TV and Radio. The World Wide Web and other Internet–based collaborative modern communication technology tools have significantly enhanced the ability to train and educate people electronically.

Information Technology can play an important role in disseminating agricultural information to the farmers by using various multimedia sources. Farmers are more desirous and anxious to get quick, accurate and authentic information in the changing scenario of agriculture at local and at global levels. Dissemination of the required and recent agricultural information to the farmers in scattered villages at the variegated geographical situation in India is very difficult task. Transfer of technology to farmers is not a one time exercise because new farm technology is being constantly evolved. A continuous flow of technologies in an appropriate manner is vital to provide quick benefit for the development of the farmers. There has been a technological explosion in the field of agriculture. This demands that the farmer has to know all aspects of technology prior to its adoption. Hence Interactive Multimedia Module (IMMM) has potential to reach the unreached.

Information and Communication Technology is ruling the world in all walks of life and access to mobile phones and internet facility is growing in India at a rapid rate in recent years. However, the access to internet based technologies have confined primarily to the urban areas. Rural communities have not been able to gain to the same extent from IT. As a means of agricultural technology transfer to farmers, information technology has had a limited impact.

Kerala State receives an average annual rainfall of about 3000 mm but with high variability. The demand for water in Kerala is mainly for drinking, agriculture, power generation and aquaculture as well as for prevention of salt-water intrusion. Currently 71 per cent is used for irrigation , 18 per cent for domestic use and the rest is for other purposes. However, Kerala is one of the States with lowest per capita water availability among the Indian states. Basak (1998) reported the per capita water availability in Kerala was only 69 per cent of that of the country in 1981 though the general perception is contrary to this.

The Indian agriculture is on the threshold of a second revolution. It is becoming increasingly clear that the next leap will come from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Even though ICT has developed very well, its penetration to the farming community seems to be very less. At the same time, it is difficult for the extension agent to personally attend the queries of every farmer individually. With the decreased number of extension workers, there is a need to use the latest technologies for delivering extension services.

Indian economy is basically an agrarian economy (Saxena, 2012) and the majority less literate and unskilled population living in rural areas does not fit into the employment market. Employing 55% of labour force, agriculture sector is a major employment provider (Chand, 2014). However, the seasonal nature of Indian agriculture leads to seasonal and cyclical unemployment. This situation can be altered by generating employment opportunities through nurturing entrepreneurship in agriculture (Rehman et al., 2012).

The prosperity and growth of a nation depends on the status and development of women as they constitute about 50.00 per cent of the human resource of the country. Women play a significant role in agriculture and allied fields. She also performs several management and decision making roles in farming and home making practices with her male counterpart and sometimes alone.(Sreenivasulu and Punna Rao, 2005). Khelkar (1995) found that 64.55 per cent had medium level of farm management followed by high and low 18.18 per cent and 17.27 per cent respectively.

Women hold up half the sky’ according to Chinese saying. This is true with the Indian scenario as well, since women make up half the country’s population. The rural women in India constitutes nearly 77.00 per cent of the total female population. About 79.00 per cent of rural women workers are involved in agriculture related pursuits as cultivators and labourers. Farm & home are integral parts in the rural society in India and the ‘house wifes’ in the farmstead often plays multiple roles as producer, entrepreneur, workers, consumers, and homemaker. Women are more sensitive than men to the extremes of poverty and its consequences.

World-wide, both in developing and in developed countries;family farming is one of the most predominant forms of agriculture. It includes a wide spectrum of farm sizes and types. In high-income economies, it ranges from very large land holdings that are easily cultivated by one or two family members with the use of labour-saving machinery and hired labour. In low-income economies,with small holdings of a few hectares or less and that are often oriented towards subsistence with low marketable surplus.

There are 437 tribes in India and Andhra Pradesh is inhabited by 33 tribes. Of these, 13 tribal groups  inhabit in high altitude zone of Visakhapatnam. Livelihood security is the ability of a household to meet its basic needs like food, health and shelter, basic education and community participation. Livelihoods can be made up of a range of on-farm and off-farm activities which together provide a variety of procurement strategies for food and cash.

The College of Food Technology was established in the year 1976 at Parbhani as one of the constituent College of VNMKV, Parbhani. Food Technology College involves the knowledge of application of different fields of food Science and also includes transfer of Food Science technology to the students to make them well equipped with knowledge and skills required for employment in public  and private sector.

In the semi-arid tropics, where small farmers depend heavily on rain-fed agricultural systems, variability in precipitation has a dramatic impact on crop production and livelihoods. Because small-scale agriculture depends on rain-fed cultivation, it is vulnerable to factors such as flooding and drought. Unfortunately, the frequency of unexpected heavy rainfall or flood events has increased in many areas of Africa, including Southern Zambia. About 75% of farmers in Zambia engage in small-scale farming, with an average farm size of 2 ha (VAM Steering Committee Zambia, 1998). Most of these farmers cultivate maize, which is a staple food in Zambia, and stable maize production and increased productivity are important both for food security and to provide a livelihood to farmers.

Tank irrigation is passing through a critical juncture in India today. Tank irrigation contributes significantly to agricultural production in India in general, and in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in particular. The tank irrigation system is one of the vast networks of thousands of water bodies that constituted a distinctive landscape which was medieval in origin but still the basis of livelihood in the dry Southern plains(Mosse, 2003, P-4). Tank is a small reservoir constructed across the slope of the valley to catch and store water during rainy season. Water is controlled by sluices attached to the tank bank and is delivered to paddy field by distributing channels. Tank is considered as a common property resource. The National Sample Survey Organization defines common property resources as the resources that are accessible to and collectively owned, managed by identifiable community and on which no individual has exclusive property rights (NSSO, 1999).

Cassava is one of the leading staple food crop which is consumed as food and rest is used in industries and as feed to animal. Cassava has the potential to increase farm income, reduce rural and urban poverty and help to close the food gap (Nweke et al., 2001). It is used in many sectors like food processing, textile industries, glucose production etc. Salem stands first in area and has about 650 sago and starch industries acting as a prime reason for the intensive area under the cassava cultivation in Salem also 60 per cent of the starch produced in India comes from Salem District alone. Nearly 200 products can be made from cassava which leads to implementation of several interventions in the district which helped in imparting knowledge on cassava value addition techniques and improve adoption. Present study was undertaken to analyse the perceived impact by focusing on the effect of interventions of CTCRI and TNAU among the women growers in enhancing group approaches and empowerment through entrepreneurship activities.

Sustainability issues have infused sanity in utilizing interventions without much damage to the environment. The wisdom of the practitioners, who had over generations developed their own eco-friendly practices, is being appreciated. Recent researches have aimed at documenting, rationalizing, and blending the Indigenous Knowledge with the so called Scientific or Western knowledge so as to take care of the sustainability issues. Many researchers have contributed to this pool of knowledge by documenting many of the technologies, crop wise, area wise and operation wise and so on.

Climate change referred as, a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (IPCC, 2001). In other words, it is any long term conspicuous deviation from usual prevailing climate bringing variations in normal temperature, rainfall, atmospheric circulation with abnormal expression in extreme climate such as floods, droughts, extreme temperature etc.

In conventional agriculture, spatial variability over the landscape is ignored and fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc. are applied at a uniform rate throughout the crop field. Precision Farming emphasizes on the infield variability which is first recognized, located, quantified and recorded, then managed by applying farm inputs  in specific amounts at specific time and at specific locations.

Livestock sector plays a vital role in the welfare of India’s rural population by acting as an important source of income and employment in the rural sector (Dastagiri, 2004). India possesses the largest livestock population in the world and ranks first with (520.6 million), and accounts for the largest number of cattle (world share 16.1%), buffaloes (57.9%), second largest number of goats (16.7%) and third highest number of sheep (5.7%) in the world (FAOSTAT) and sustaining all these in less than 5% of world’s and one-third of Asia’s agricultural land area (MOA, 2003).

The agricultural production is inherently a risky business characterized by seasonality; perishability and variability which make it susceptible to vagaries of climate and markets and thus farmers face a variety of agricultural risks. In response to these risks over a period of time, several risk management mechanisms have been evolved. Risk management strategies refer to ex-ante measures taken before such an event has taken place, whereas risk coping strategies are, ex-post strategies dealing with the consequences of the event (World Bank Report, 2005). Invariably, farmers use both ex-ante and ex-post strategies. It is interesting to note that so far agriculture risk management has been in terms of risk avoidance and risk reduction and mostly these risks are addressed at farm or production level. Currently there has been a shift in agriculture risk management from risk avoidance and risk reduction strategies to risk mitigation strategies. Similarly, there exist shifts from production to market orientation in agriculture. To understand this phenomenon involved, it is felt necessary to study the agricultural risk management behaviour farmers. Keeping this discussion as focal point, the study was conducted with an objective to assess risk management behaviour of farmers.

Rationale of the Study

Greens are the cheapest of all the vegetables within the reach of poor man, being richest in their nutritional value. The problem of malnutrition is assuming seriousness in the vulnerable groups viz., adolescents, pregnancy, lactation and school children, not because of poverty but because of ignorance, illiteracy and callousness of the people. The lack of knowledge especially on the nutritive value of these green leafy vegetables among the public in general is the main drawback in their lower consumption. (Jyoti, 2008)

The potential yield levels in major crops have reached almost to a plateau. The current world population of 7 billion is likely to reach 9 billion by 2050 putting huge pressure to produce more from the available arable lands as acreage of major crops is predicted not to increase any further. The deficit of food requirements will have to be met partly by bridging the gap between farm yield (the average yield of the crop in a particular region/country/world) and the potential yield (the yield obtained usually in the breeders’ plots grown across the region of interest with the best yielding new varieties and without biotic stresses as diseases and pests, and abiotic stresses such as drought, flooding, salinity, heat and cold and partly by increasing potential yield per se.

Transgenic plants are those plants, in which a foreign gene(s) has/have been introduced and stably integrated into the genome. The inserted gene sequence is known as Transgene. Almost three decades ago, in early 1983, the first cloning of the recombinant genes in tobacco signified the beginning of plant molecular biology in its own right. Since then the number of genes transferred and studied in plants has increased exponentially and the first transgenic crop (‘FlavrSavr’ tomato) was commercialized on May 18, 1994. However, the impact of transgenic crops was perceptible only after 1995 when transgenic maize, soybean and cotton were released for cultivation in USA.

The Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is the most important commercial source of natural rubber, a strategic raw material. Rubber is an indispensable commodity used in the manufacture of over 50,000 products worldwide. This crop has therefore emerged as a key plantation species in various countries. The global area under rubber  cultivation is about 9.6 million hectares producing 9.2 million tones annually (IRSG, 2014). Among the major natural rubber producing countries, India occupies 4th position in terms of production with 0.91 million tones and more significantly the first position in average productivity of 1823 kg/ha/year. The major rubber producing countries are Thailand, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Rubber is also commercially cultivated in Philippines, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote de Ivoire, Liberia, Brazil, Cambodia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guatemala, Myanmar, Mexico, China, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Papua New Guinea.Increase in production and improving productivity of NR continues to be the subject of considerable research efforts, particularly in the context of the widening gap between demand and supply of natural rubber. Over one million small farmers  in India owning less than 0.5 ha. of land depend on rubber cultivation for a livelihood.

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) represented as ‘Food of Gods’ is considered as an important beverage crop next to Tea and Coffee. The economic produce of cocoa is the bean, when it is fermented and dried, become the source for chocolate. Cocoa is native to Amazon basin of South America and is domesticated and distributed to different regions by the natives Mayas, Aztecs and Pipil- Nicaraos (Wood and Lass, 1955; Young, 1994) who consumed it as an energy drink called ‘xocoatl’ by roasting and grinding cocoa beans. When Spanish conquered Mexico in 16th century they took cocoa to Europe which is christened as ‘chocolate’ the worlds’ favourite food. From then on cocoa spread to many other countries (Wood, 1991). According to World Cocoa Foundation, currently 40–50 million people depend on cocoa for their livelihood and the production is 3.97 mt in which Africa contributes 71%, Latin America 14% and Asia and Oceania 14% (Jean Marc Anga, 2013). Ivory Coast is the major producer followed by Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Brazil. In Asian continent, Indonesia and Malaysia are the leading producers (www.wcf.org.).

The rootstocks are known to have a profound effect on the vigour, productivity, precocity, fruit quality and tree longevity of scion varieties grafted or budded onto them. They also influence the susceptibility of scion trees to various diseases and pests. It is well recognised that optimum performance of scion varieties depends on the proper selection of rootstocks for a given set of agro-climatic conditions. To achieve success in orcharding, always select a right type of rootstock for the particular fruit or variety. In addition, it is important to raise the stock seedlings in a proper manner so that there is good germination and the stock seedlings are ready for budding/grafting in the shortest possible time. Rootstock seeds of desired fruits and varieties must be ensured from reliable sources.

The research work carried out throughout citrus growing countries of the world including India showed utility of different rootstocks for citrus plants, which varies greatly with scion variety and agro-climatic condition. A wide range of citrus rootstocks are available, each having desirable attributes. The success of a rootstock is determined by its tolerance to prevailing conditions of soil, climate and diseases. Citrus plants are unusual in that many species and cultivars including the commercial rootstocks reproduce true to type from seed. Commercial citrus rootstocks are usually highly polyembryonic but there can be 1-40 zygotic seedlings in the seedbed.

Crop productivity is largely affected by the several factors; however, biotic stress factor is one of the major concerns. Horticultural crop productivity is low in India as compared to other countries for many reasons including pest problems. Plant parasitic nematodes is one of the potential threat for cultivation of some important crops- root knot and reniform nematodes in vegetables; burrowing nematodes in banana, spices and plantation crops; citrus nematode in citrus; cyst nematodes in potato, foliar and lesion nematodes in flowers etc.

Vegetables are considered protective foods and play an important role in human nutrition. These help to combat malnutrition and also diversify diets with variety of colours. The compounds imparting various colors to the vegetables are important antioxidants that also help to combat degenerative diseases like cancer. Over the years, vegetable sector has made an appreciable progress in terms of production and productivity and emerged as the better option to diversify agriculture, generate employment and enhance farmers’ incomes. The worldwide production of vegetables has doubled over the past quarter century and the value of global trade in vegetables now exceeds that of cereals.

Flowering is the most important phenological event in the phyotogerontology, as it is the key factor contributing to fruit production and profitability to the orchardists. Under favourable growth conditions the timing and intensity of flowering greatly determine the quantum of production. However, several times there are very contrasting florigenic events where despite prolific flowering, resultant fruit set remains low leading to low yields. Therefore understanding of the various external and internal factors involved in flower induction in mango is crucial for developing suitable orchard management practices to achieve regular and high yield.

Presently, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the world’s third most important crop, after wheat and rice. Tubers of the potato plant have been used as a primary nutritional staple and a carbohydrate source in many diets and as the basis for a variety of processed products throughout the world. Owing to climate change, potato production is expected to fall in the coming decades, predictions asserting that global potato yields will decrease by 9–18% in most parts of the world. Availability of new varieties less sensitive to these environmental cues is thus crucial to overcome the negative effects of global warming. Of various developmental phases, tuberization is the most sensitive stage in potato limiting its climate associated geographical distribution and actual yield.  Hence, understanding the tuberization process becomes even more important in the face of changing global climate. The induction of tuber formation is a key developmental transition for the production of potatoes.  Understanding the regulation of tuber induction is essential to devise strategies to improve tuber yield and quality.

Nearly 70 percent of the cultivated crops all over the world are cross-fertilized and depend on insects like honeybees for pollination. At present, several countries are making desperate efforts to achieve self–sufficiency in food production by physical expansion of the area under cultivation, production of better quality seeds and animals, bringing more waste lands under cultivation, use of fertilizers,pesticides and irrigation. However, in the past decade or so, food production has come to a point of stagnation for some cultivated crops. Emphasis in the future therefore, should be on full use of under used resources. In order to maximize horticultural production, pollinators can be used as an important resource or input as improved variety of seed, timely irrigation, doses of fertilizers and plant protection.

Water is a critical input for crop production. Its optimum availability is important in augmenting and sustaining crop productivity. Lack of adequate supply of water can limit crop yields ranging from 10 to 90% or even be subjected to mortality if moisture go below permanent wilting point. It is also observed that the moisture shortage during some critical crop growth stages would cause severe detrimental effect. This necessitates us to provide irrigation to crops at right quantity and frequency. In other words, irrigation schedule plays key role in optimizing or maximizing crop yield. Moreover, judicious use of irrigation water has potential to enhance the agricultural productivity which in turn would lead to food security. As water resources are getting diminished day by day, the application of water saving techniques would be needed for addressing the food security objectives of the nation.

Coconut is a traditional plantation crop of India and assumes the status of a high value commercial crop. In India, most of the acreage under coconut palm (90%) lies in the four southern states i.e., Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Kerala ranks first in area (53.76%) and production (45%) followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Coconut is mostly a crop of small farmers in India, the average size of a holding being 0.22 ha. More than 90% of the five million coconut holdings in the country are less than one ha in size. The income derived from such small holdings is not sufficient to sustain even the small families.

Hydro-climatology is defined as the investigation of the impact of climate upon the waters of the earth. This topic includes hydrometeorology, the water processes of evaporation (surface and near surface), rainfall-runoff, and groundwater studies (Langbein, 1967; Wendland, 1998). Hydroclimatology provides a systematic foundation to assess how the climate system causes spatiotemporal changes in the hydrologic cycle with respect to global or local aspects. Variations in the relationship between the hydrologic cycle and the climate system underlie droughts, floods, and future impacts of global warming on available water resources. Both land and satellite based data and computer programming and modelling contribute to our knowledge of the spatiotemporal changes of physical processes shared by the hydrologic cycle and the climate system (Shelton, 2009).

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is the principal and one of the most important horticultural products of India. In spite of its immense popularity and commercial importance, information relating to nutrient deficiency/toxicity symptoms in cashew has not progressed much. Nutrient deficiency is common in cashew growing soils as most of the cashew plantations in India are established on degraded slopes with poor fertility, where soil and water erosion are common phenomena. Nutrient deficiency in cashew is influenced both by soil and climate.

In India, land is limited and shrinking whereas the human and animal populations are increasing. The land and man ratio has fallen rapidly in the past half century from 0.34 in 1950 to 0.14, and is projected to be 0.10 in 2025. Horticultural crops however, have shown substantial growth acceleration (Table 1).The area devoted to fruit production increased 50 per cent, while the vegetable growing area increased 20 per cent. Grape, an export crop, currently at 43,000 ha, increased by 70 per cent. The value of horticultural crops grew at an average of 7.5 percent during the 1990’s. High yield and quality in horticulture can only be ensured through rational blend of commercial fertilizers and organic nutrient sources.

Acid soils occupy a considerable area in the country. There are about 90 million ha. of acid soils (27.4 per cent of total geographical area) spread across several states. They are found to occur in the Himalayan region, the eastern and north-eastern plains, peninsular India and the coastal plains under varying environmental conditions of landscape, geology, climate and vegetation. Thirty one million hectare area show severe soil acidity problems (pH 5.5) and 59 million ha. have pH between 5.6 and 6.5 (Sharma and Sarkar, 2005). Laterites and various latosolic soils are the large groups among acid soils. The other groups are podzolic soils, brown forest soils, peaty soils etc., Distribution of acid soils in different states of India is given in (Table 1 and Figure 1). Acid soils usually have problems associated with aluminium, iron and manganese toxicity, low nutrients status, nutrients imbalance and multiple nutrient deficiencies.

Technologies for cultivation of crops are changing over the years. Adherence to the principles of conservation, high input-use efficiency and higher productivity with optimum inputs and the very idea of crop production as a business venture; all these are leading to increased adoption of high technological (high-tech) crop production practises.

There are about 6.5 million coconut farmers in the country. Coconut production, processing, marketing and other connected activities support the livelihood of over 12 million people. Coconut crop provides natural health drink, nutritious edible products and oil for edible and non edible uses, fibre of commercial value, shell and wood for fuel and industrial uses, and a variety of miscellaneous products of utility. Coconut is a symbol of national integration and prosperity. The crop is considered reverential cutting across linguistic and religious barriers promoting national integration. Contribution of coconut to the GDP of the country is around Rs. 100,000 million.