eChapters

Transfer of technology is closely associated with generation of technology and its use leading to development. Extension components contain stimulating inputs that would mobilize the practitioners to put recommendations into action. Sustainability in agriculture is very important component of present day agriculture and future aspirations. Keeping these aspects in view an attempt was made to enlist suggestions under extension approaches that would enhance sustainability in agriculture in the area under study. The suggestive extension measures to enhance sustainability in agriculture were studied under components of social structure, cooperation mechanism, evaluation technique and marketing network.

At present producers and consumers are concerned about products and their uses. In farm sector agribusiness is gaining momentum because of marketing of farm produce and its availability to the consumers at affordable rate. Agribusiness thus has been identified as important element in improving farm business. The farm business is otherwise known as agribusiness. Agribusiness is an off farm activity mainly concerned with processing and marketing. It implies that in addition to production of farm produce farmers responsibility increases to process the out-put and its sale in the market for better price. The farmers like to approach different organizations, corporation and regulated markets. Therefore attempt has been made at government level to encourage cultivators to invest in the farm business. In order to increase the efficiency of farmers there is need of keeping the business flexible encouraging farmers to invest in farm and allied sector business.

8.1. Ecological Soundness

Conservation of natural resources essentially means maintenance and improvement of ecological status and not permitting them for further degradation. The natural resources are soil, water, forest, mountain and animal resources. An attempt was made to find out whether the respondents adopt certain recommendations for preservation of these natural resources irrespective of source of advice.

i. Soil Health

Soil is considered as an important ingredient of ecological soundness of an area. Adoption of soil health measures, like adding of organic manures, following of crop rotations, use of balanced chemical fertilizers, green manure and bio- fertilizers are some of the recommendations to maintain soil health. While examining the adoption of these measures, the following results were obtained.

7.1. Sustainability in Agriculture

Sustainability essentially means meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. The concept used by FAO to convey the meaning of sustainability necessarily rely on management and conservation of resource base in relation to orientation of technological and institutional changes to ensure satisfaction in meeting human needs. Sustainability normally covers the meaning of conservation of natural resources. The natural resources are land, water, forest and livestock. The maintenance of these resources suffers due to low or no maintenance because of absence of infrastructure and inadequate finance. Apart from these constraints, poor management ability is also responsible for degradation of natural resources. To equip the people, in general, poor managerial ability has to be upgraded through multidisciplinary program, appropriate technology and establishment of peoples’ organizations. To work on sustainability as defined for maintenance and conservation, the people in general ought to develop a positive perception to work before the program is initiated. The perception directs action of individual in a positive manner. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the perception of people about the concept of sustainability, particularly in the field of agriculture.

Organic farm produce is now gaining momentum in the world. People of high status and concerned with health hazards are interested in organic product. Since 1990, the market of organic product has grown reaching a value of Rs 55 billion in 2009 as per the Organic Monitor in the world. The demand has been reflected in increase of land under organic farming which has grown correspondingly at a rate of 8.9% per annum. At present there is approximately 37,000,000 hectare of land under organic farming worldwide. The idea has been percolated to rural areas and the farmers of all kinds are aware of organic farming. In terms of organic land, Australia leads the pack with 11.3 million hectares followed by Argentina (2.8 million hectares) and Italy with more than one million hectares. In Asia, China, India and Japan are the largest organic producers. Japan is the region’s largest market and buys majority of Asia’s production.

Social research concentrates more on socio economic variables to find out effects of the events that take place in social system. The magnitude of variation in the variables assumes to bring variation on the effect. The variables relating to farmers of small farms are many and they are specific to farming system of the coastal ecosystem. Such variables were grouped under personal, social, economic, communication behaviour, marketing behaviour, farming behaviour and training. The sub variables under each heading were given in the following table.

This chapter “Research Methodology” deals with methods and procedures followed in conducting the study. The chapter contains three parts. The first part deals with the sampling technique and the second part covers the empirical measures of different variables and last part describes details of data collection and statistical measures used in the study.

3.1. Brief description of the state

Odisha a coastal state of India lies in between 170 31’ to 220 27’ North latitude and 810 27’ to 870 30’ East longitude. It is bounded by West Bengal in the North East, Jharkhand in the North, Chhatisgarh in the West, Andhra Pradesh in the South and Bay of Bengal in the East. The main features of the state are given in Table 2.

Concept of sustainable agriculture is of multiple dimensions. It denotes potential of technology, fragile ecosystem, and human interference of limited natural resources. An understanding of sustainable agriculture in brief indicates:

1. Increase in production with efficient use of resources

2. Control of external inputs of synthetic nature

3. Nutrient cycle within the farm must be closed.

Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of CGIAR reveals that sustainability is a dynamic concept that allows for changing needs of a steady increasing global population. Sustainable agriculture should involve the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of environment and conserving natural resources.

The dictionary meaning of sustainability is to keep an effort continuously the ability to last out and keep from falling. Sustainability basically refers to the capacity to remain productive while maintaining the resource base. Locker (1988) explained the term sustainable, a time dimension and the capacity of farming system to endure indefinitely. The concept of sustainability should serve as guide to agricultural practices. It must include technology and practices that both sustain and enhance productivity to meet the increasing food demands (Rutton, 1988). In short, environmental sustainability implies that it is compatible with and supportive of the criteria like;

With increase in population, demand for basic needs has been steeply rising during the past decades in most of the developing countries of the world. The growing population needs food, clothing, shelter, fuel and fodder for them and their livestock. In India, 50 to 70% of the people are living in rural areas that neither have adequate land holdings nor alternate service opportunities to produce or procure these basic commodities.

The present day living demands quality life. The quality life can be maintained provided our surroundings remain intact or improved to provide means for better living. With increasing advancements in science and technology, we have manipulated our environment without paying adequate attention to consequences. The result has become so alarming that now all the countries of the world are trying to actualize the meaning and concept of sustainability. It is more so in case of agriculture as it forms core base of life supporting system.

The magnitude of manipulation varies from country to country depending upon level of development. It goes without saying that development and manipulation of environment are interrelated having positive and negative effects. To eradicate ill effects of manipulation, we need to understand the meaning of actualizing of sustainability.

Introduction

The right to food is the most fundamental among the human rights. Food production, distribution and consumption is an important issue for developing countries. The dimensions of food problem in Asia have been changing since the food crisis of sixties and seventies. The lesson of those years is well-learnt, and attaining self-reliance in food came to be recognized as a key goal of development. Most of the Asian countries have been suffering with many problems such as slow growth rate in cereal production, large share of agriculture in the gross domestic product, weak infrastructure, low purchasing power and massive rural poverty which had made the South Asia region as a whole food deficit (Plumb, 1998).The possibility of impending world food crisis looms largely from increasing pressure on national agricultural sector to meet the demands triggered by rising population, growth in people’s income and change in expenditure and consumption pattern (Ghosh, 2001).

Introduction

In India, per capita cereal consumption has been declining since the early seventies, despite a significant increase in per capita cereal production (Radhakrishna and Ravi, 1992 and Rao, 2000). Cereal consumption per capita per month fell from 15.35 kgs in 1970-71 to 12.70 kgs in 1999-2000 in rural area and from 11.40 kgs to 10.40 kgs in urban area during same period. It might be due to shifting of consumers’ choice from food to non-food items; from cereals to non-cereals within the food group and from course to fine cereals within the cereal group. The decline in cereal consumption has been higher in the rural area due to development of rural infrastructure and availability of job opportunities which ultimately helped in improving their level of income (Rao, 2000). Despite spectacular growth in food production during last 30 years the problem of malnutrition still persists across different regions in India because increase in food grain supply alone cannot conquer hunger and malnutrition.

The consumption pattern and nutritional status have also experienced a significant change during last two decades in Bihar. Cereal consumption per capita per month has declined from 476 gms in 1983 to 455 gms in 19992000. The situation is more alarming in poor households who constitute about half of rural population in north Bihar. There is lack of research on consumption pattern, nutrient intake and nutritional status based on household data, particularly in context of Bihar. In view of the above observations the present study is undertaken to analyze the consumption pattern and nutritional status of poor households in north Bihar.

Introduction

The Integrated Watershed Development has come to be recognized internationally as an important holistic approach to natural resources management and poverty reduction, wherein promoting the concept of sustainable development. In the Indian context, watershed development has come to be acknowledged as key and discrete units in rural development which forms an important vehicle for achieving the objectives of increased production and availability of food, fodder and fuel restoration of agro ecological balance and in improving the livelihood status of the village communities.

In line with the above, the conceptualization of Integrated Watershed Development Project Hills-II (initiated in September 1999) has been built up on the success of IWDP Hills-I project with a laudable vision to arrest environmental decline, boost agricultural growth, and ensure better management of scarce land and water resources and reducing poverty dimensions in the Siwalik & Karewas regions, which are one of the most environmentally degraded areas in India. The project area encompasses two sub-watersheds in sub-tropical belt of Siwaliks of Jammu region and two in temperate Karewas of Kashmir valley, covering an area of 1,11,080 ha. Ramnagar and Akhnoor sub-watersheds are located in Siwalik range of Jammu region whereas the sub-watersheds of Rajwar and Rambiara are located in Karewas belt of Kashmir valley.

Introduction

Food and nutritional security continues to be the main plank of India’s food policy despite its tremendous achievements on food production front during the last three decades. The Green Revolution helped India to overcome chronic food scarcity and made it self sufficient in food production. The per capita availability of cereals increased from 360 gms/day in 1966 to 422.4 gms/day in 2004. On the other hand, availability of pulses, the main source of protein for over- whelming vegetarian population of India, declined from 48 gms/day to 38 gms/day, which is attributed largely to diversion of land from pulses to cereals crops (Gopalan et al, 2004). The extra income generated due to Green Revolution has increased the access of rural population to a wide variety of foods, like milk, meat, eggs, fish, fruits and vegetables, which perhaps could offset the protein deficiency due to decline in per capita availability of pulses, therefore, resulting in the increase in per capita consumption of protein in rural areas. The trends in cereal consumption indicate that per capita cereal consumption has been declining in most of the states. This trend is more prominent in agriculturally developed states, like Punjab and Haryana. In these states, production and per capita consumption of milk have increased substantially.

The dietary pattern in India remains cereal based and the expenditure shares of foods of animal origin (meat, eggs and fish) and fruits, which are rich in nutrients, are trivial. More than 22 per cent of the population stays below poverty line and generally suffers from various nutritional disorders due to lower purchasing power. The nutrient rich foods like milk, meat eggs, fruits, etc. are highly responsive to income changes. Besides, choice of food and consequently the level of nutrient intake is also influenced by the other economic, social, cultural and climatic factors. Spurt in income growth and increasing consumerism in rural areas in recent years has heightened the need for understanding the food consumption pattern. Using the farm level data from three regions of Maharashtra this paper attempts to examine the pattern of consumption of nutrients by cultivators and sources of supply of different nutrients.