eChapters

Abstract

One of the major distinctive agriculture extension concepts is the Intensive Agricultural Development Village concept or Village Adoption System, where in the Extension Guides who are working at taluk level select a suitable village and disseminate the need based and innovative technologies released by the University. In this connection Extension Education Unit of University of Agricultural Sciences at Mangalore has adopted Irvathur and Renjala villages of Karkala taluk in Udupi district and several educational activities like Field Trials, Result Demonstration, FLD, Block Demonstration and Integrated Farming System Demonstrations were carried out. Training programmes were conducted on Vermiculture, Dairy farming, Paddy cultivation, Cashew demonstration, IPM on Areca nut, Coconut etc., Besides establishing Milk Producer’s Co-operative Societies in the villages, the key programme observed in the village was Vermiculture. To start with, Vermiculture was tried with one farm woman with 100 worms.

1. Introduction

Radio Frequency Identification popularly known as RFID is a term used for a radio-enabled device that communicates with or interrogates a tag or smart label, which is embedded with a single microchip processor and an antenna. "This is an automatic identification method that relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices such as RFID tags or transponders (Mamdampur and Rajgoli, 2011)". This technology is similar in concept to a cell phone (Singh and Midha, 2008) which refers to the subset of automatic identification that uses radio waves to automatically identify bulk or individual items (Chavan, 2012).While the origin of RFID lie more than 50 years in the past, passive RFID technology is actually only in its infancy (Sarma, 2008).

Abstract

The upsurge in global population rates has triggered a significant escalation in food demand across the world. This is accompanied by urbanisation and a pressing need for sustainable agriculture. In this context vertical cultivation of plants as well as breeding of livestock on vertically inclined surfaces, such as in skyscrapers and other high-rise buildings in urban regions has gained prominence. The dynamics of urban agriculture is captured through the case study of Urbagrow Aquaponics, an urban, aquaponic, soil-free, food garden based in Kolkata. The garden exhibits an assortment of aquaponic systems for growing a variety of vegetables as well as the tilapia and catfish. The systems make use of less water, require less work in man-hours and can grow vegetables in greater density than a traditional soil based food growing endeavour. A feasibility study has been conducted to explore the potential of scaling such a venture across myriad other high-rise buildings across Indian cities.

Abstract
Urban farming, encompassing practices like rooftop gardening, vertical farming, hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, involves cultivating, processing, and distributing food in urban areas. With global urbanization projected to reach 60% by 2030, urban farming addresses challenges like rural youth migration, farmland fragmentation, and declining agricultural engagement (currently 49% of India’s workforce). It offers sustainable solutions by producing fresh, pesticide-free food, reducing transportation needs, and combating urban heat island effects. Techniques like hydroponics and aeroponics enable high-yield, year-round crop production in controlled environments, minimizing resource use and environmental impact. Despite high initial costs and skill requirements, urban farming creates employment, enhances food security, and supports urban environmental management, making it a viable alternative to conventional farming in India’s rapidly growing cities.
Keywords: Urban Farming, Vertical Farming, Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Aquaponics, Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security, Urbanization, Environmental Management, Agri-preneurship

Synopsis

Food safety has become increasingly important with globalization due to various factors such as increased volume and diversity of trade in foods, greater public demand for health protection, changing hazards e.g., resistant microbes, more sophisticated methods for detection of hazards, changes in production and consumption pattern, etc. Food safety contributes significantly to food security as unsafe and poor quality food leads to illnesses as well as food wastage. This leads to a strong need to emphasize not only on availability of food but also ensure that the same is safe.

Real benefits are obtained when we use a participatory approach to curriculum development and reorientation. Primarily, the course contents we provide and the learning will become more effective. If students participate actively in the learning process, then they are more likely to learn and teaching is more likely to be effective. They will have more ownership in the teaching, because their needs will have been identified and hopefully they will also be involved in deciding how their needs can be met. This will increase their motivation, which will help them to learn more effectively.

Indian Spices: These are dried, fragrant, aromatic or pungent vegetables or plant substances. They can be whole, broken or in ground forms. Primary function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition and which contributes to the flavour and piquancy in foods and beverages. These have been used as food additives widely since ancient times [http://www.imedpub.com/articles/herbal-medicines-possible-risks-andbenefits.pdf,https://www.ncbinlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170500/pdf/nihms307509.pdf). They also exert digestive stimulant action of food enhancing the taste. A few medicinal properties of spices are as being a tonic, carminative, stomachic, diuretic and antispasmodic (Aboaba et al., 2011; Achi, 2006 and Adefegha et al., 2012). This has led for pharmacological applications in the indigenous systems of medicine as digestive stimulants and to relieve digestive disorders and makes the food more palatable. In many countries around the world these are grown and reared for the purpose of trade and distribution. In the ancient times the spice merchants have been the most popular traders. India is well known for spices with a wide variety of recipes that are laced with them.

Animal husbandry contributes 30 percent of agricultural gross domestic products in India and hence remains an important livelihood activity to the growing population of India. Mixed and diversified farming provides significant profit to the farmers than either only with agricultural or livestock farming. One of the biggest challenges in animal production is to produce animal products for human consumption through sustainable technologies. In the southern districts of Tamilnadu, dairy farming, sheep and goat rearing and back yard poultry form the major livestock livelihood activities.

1. Father of agronomy is -Peter Decresenzi.
2. Dr. Biwant Rajis the founder of Relay cropping.
3. The Indian Institute of Farming System Research is located at - Modipuram, Meerut, U.P.
4. Scientific study of mixed cropping was firstly done by -La-Flitze (1928).
5. Relay cropping concept was derived from -Relay race.
6. Natural Resource Management is an example of Sustainable Agriculture.
7. Cropping System is a component of -Farming System.

Text titles play an essential role in creating compelling video content by providing context, enhancing storytelling, and engaging viewers. While most video editing software offers basic title features, Adobe Photoshop allows video creators to design intricate, customized titles with enhanced visual effects. Once created, these titles can be imported into video editing software, where they are integrated into the final video. This chapter explores the steps for importing text titles from Photoshop into video editing platforms, discussing techniques, examples, and best practices to ensure high-quality results.
Understanding Text Titles and Their Role in Video
Text titles serve various purposes in video production, such as conveying information (e.g., names, locations, subtitles), adding emphasis, and supporting branding. High-quality titles create a polished look and help maintain viewer interest. Photoshop provides a comprehensive toolkit for crafting these titles, including tools for color grading, typography, textures, and other effects, which video editing software often lacks.

In modern video production, one of the most critical steps in the post-production workflow is the importation of video. This process marks the transition from raw footage to a structured project that can be edited, refined, and turned into a finished product. Effective offline video editing techniques, which allow for the editing of low-resolution proxies of the original footage, are crucial for enhancing workflow efficiency, particularly in large-scale or resource-heavy projects.
This chapter will guide you through the fundamental working methods of offline video editing, focusing on the process of importing video footage into your editing system, preparing that footage for editing, and understanding how offline editing fits into the overall post-production pipeline.
1. Understanding the Workflow of Offline Editing
Offline video editing is a method used to edit a project using lower-resolution versions (or proxies) of the original high-resolution video footage. This method allows editors to work faster, save on computer processing power and storage space, and still be able to create a solid edit that can later be “conformed” to the original high-resolution footage in the final stage of post-production (referred to as “online editing”).

Impromptu speaking, the skill of delivering an unprepared yet coherent and impactful speech, is a hallmark of effective communication and leadership. From workplace meetings to social gatherings, the ability to articulate thoughts spontaneously is invaluable. This chapter explores the essence of impromptu speaking, the challenges it presents, and practical strategies to excel at it.
The Importance of Impromptu Speaking
Impromptu speaking is a fundamental skill in personal, professional, and social settings. It reflects one’s ability to think critically, adapt quickly, and communicate ideas clearly without prior preparation. Mastering this skill builds confidence and enhances credibility, making it an invaluable asset for individuals across diverse fields.
Key Reasons Why Impromptu Speaking is Important
1. Demonstrates Confidence and Leadership Impromptu speaking showcases your ability to handle pressure and remain composed in unexpected situations. This quality is often associated with leadership and inspires trust among peers and audiences.
2. Fosters Quick Thinking and Adaptability Speaking without preparation hones your ability to process information swiftly and form coherent responses. This skill is crucial in dynamic environments, where adaptability is essential.
3. Builds Effective Communication Skills Impromptu speaking encourages clarity, conciseness, and relevance, sharpening overall communication abilities. These traits are beneficial in both formal and informal interactions.

Abstract

Vegetable crops are inherently rich sources of various health-promoting nutrients and thus they play an important role in balancing our daily diet. Being excellent source of vitamins and minerals, vegetables have a relatively variable nutrient content per unit of energy. These nutrients can be increased by proper selection of vegetables in our diet. Whereas their intrinsic quality maintains human health, the extrinsic quality has significance in determining acceptability by the consumer. Vegetables also have medicinal properties. These diversified and highly nutritive crops are of great importance in alleviating hunger and malnutrition. The present production of vegetable crops is, however, not enough to meet per capita daily dietary requirement as per dietitians’ recommendations. The vegetable production, therefore, need to be almost doubled by 2025 to meet requirement of ever increasing population from diminishing land, water and other natural resources. Although, there has been a trend of increase in production and productivity of vegetable crops since liberalization of seed trade in 1988 by Government of India, yet it has not been commensurate with the requirements. Compared globally, we are far behind in productivity of vegetable crops in spite of being second largest producer after China.

1. INTRODUCTION

India is principally an agricultural country with seventy per cent of its population living in villages and fifty nine per cent of the total work force dependent on agriculture for its daily bread. Almost 20% of the gross GDP is contributed by agriculture. A steep surge in production since late 1960s has made country self-reliant in food grain production with buffer stocks full to the brim. Since independence, 0.66% growth/ year in gross agricultural area combined with 2.67%/year increases in food grain production led to a net increase in per capita food grain availability from 395 g/ day to 475 g/ day. An outstanding achievement, as it happened despite an unabated population build up at a rate of 2.15 %/ year or 13 million more mouths to be fed every year. Not only in food grain production, the country has made revolutionary progress in milk, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetable production also (NAAS, 2004).

Needless to say that the economic growth of our country depends largely on the prosperity of the agriculture. The agricultural sector acts as a bulwark in maintaining food security as well as national security. The first and the foremost role of agricultural is its promotion of economic progress in the country by enlarging the savings of the rural sector and making them available for the development of industries. Gandhiji, the father of the nation called “Agriculture as the soul of India”. Also, agriculture has been termed as “The mother of all industries and the maintainer of human life standing at the need of all sciences and arts, indeed, at the head of civilization and progress”. The significance of agriculture in India arises also from the fact that the development in agriculture is an essential condition for the development of the national economy. Thus any change in the agriculture sector- positive or negative- has a multiplier effect on the entire economy (Rekha & Rangappa, 2010).

Over 70 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi made the following observations while addressing youth who wanted to serve rural India:

‘The fact is that the villagers have lost all hope. They suspect that every stranger’s hand is at their throats and that he goes to them only to exploit them. The divorce between intellect and labour has paralyzed our agriculture. The worker should enter a village full of love and hope, feeling sure that where men and women labour unintelligently and remain unemployed half the year around, he working all the year round and combining labour with intelligence cannot fail to win the confidence of the villagers’.

This message is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago. Integrating brain and brawn in farm enterprises should hence be the purpose of agricultural education. (ICAR, 1997)

Increased importance of research publications, impact factor and citations as metrics in evaluating science and assessing the quality of research is driving unethical practices too in research and publications. Adding to that, limited access to research publications, exuberant subscription charges, heavy article processing charges and several other transboundary science and technology issues are further dividing the scientific community which is severely impacting the progress of the Nation (Pathak, 2025). The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) journal rating system serves as a cornerstone for researchers in India, particularly in the domain of agricultural sciences. Its significance lies in providing an accessible and systematic framework for evaluating the quality and relevance of academic journals. This chapter explores avenues for enhancing the NAAS journal rating methodologies to ensure greater accuracy, inclusivity, and ethical rigor in the assessment process. By integrating global best practices, incorporating diverse metrics, and addressing emerging challenges in the academic publishing landscape, the proposed framework aims to make NAAS ratings more robust and globally competitive. To enable universal access to scholarly scientific literature, under Aatmanirbhar Bharat it would be appropriate to strengthen our own Indian Journals to compete globally in the long run. In this regard, NAAS rating of Agri-journals has been a progressive step and NAAS should continue to upgrade its evaluation mechanism. The Professional Association of Agricultural Societies (PAAS) and NAAS partnership in upgrading of publications in Indian society journals should be encouraged.

7.1 What is Soil Moisture Conservation Technique?

In situ soil moisture conservation means capturing rain water and retaining it in soil for utilization by plants for better growth and increase in biomass and grain yield. This is achieved through rain water harvesting on farm or field where crops are planted to get benefit from the conserved rainwater. It reduces rainwater loss through runoff and increases rain water infiltration time, thereby increasing the amount of rain water in the soil that will be useful for crop production.

Incentives are a powerful stimulus to transfer of technology. They can encourage researchers to get their results to market, a new career path for many of them. They can create a culture that attracts and retains entrepreneurial staff, scientists, students and technology transfer professionals (TTPs) that view the university as a career path and a vehicle for making a contribution to society. Working in a pro-entrepreneurship team of colleagues can also lead to getting people to think in terms of making a connection between their work and its application. Incentives can be short-term or long-term in nature, and can be tailored to individual or collective requirements. As it is likely to be challenging for universities to design incentives that cater to every researcher’s or TTP’s desire, they can design incentive programs to cater to various aspects of human. Nature.
12.1 Why incentives matter in this ecosystem
Incentives can be either financial and non-financial. These are needed to ensure that researchers and TTPs remain motivated, aligned with institutional goals, and committed to the long-term process of technology transfer and commercialization. Incentive programs serve several important purposes:
• Motivation: Incentives energize individuals to pursue innovation and commercialization, often over long- and uncertain-time horizons.
• Retention: By offering recognition, rewards, and career advancement opportunities, institutions can retain high-performing researchers and skilled TTPs.
• Alignment: Well-designed incentives ensure that the personal goals of stakeholders align with institutional and societal objectives.

ABSTRACT

Income generating activities are considered as those initiatives that affect the economic aspects of rural youth’s lives through the use of economic tools such as credit and subsidy. If the youth in farming is not economically free and self-earning, he has to depend on others or migrate to the urban cities in search of jobs. Agriculture, self-employment and wage employment are the basic tools to fulfill the desire of economic independence. In the past, agriculture was placed on the top position as an income generation option and self-employment and wage employment to rural youth was the 2^nd and 3^rd priority respectively. Income generating activities such as dairy activities, goat and sheep rearing, poultry unit, bamboo products making, pickle making, leaf plate making, keeping powertiller, husking mill cum wheat grinding machine, tractor etc. Further, there are various self employment and wage employment opportunities through rural development programmes like Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana (PMRY), Swarnajayanthi Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY), Pradhan Manthri Gram SadakYojana(PMGSY), Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Training of Rural Youth for Self -Employment (TRYSEM) etc. These are the best programmes especially for the upliftment of the rural youth to enhancing their income level. Some of these programmes are now helping rural youths to become more and more independent and free from economic dependence.

Abstract

Major occupation of women in Bijapur area is agriculture with an average land holding of 1-2 ha. Most of them are unaware of advantages of vermicompost. In recent times, dependence on agriculture is becoming very difficult for them. Majority of the women population in these areas are below poverty line (BPL), because of increased cost of production, and fluctuations in market prices of major crops grown by them. Erratic and ill distributed rain fall pattern makes life hard for them. The ill effects of chemical fertilizers have lead to interest in organic farming through vermiculturing using farm and urban wastes in order to produce risk free crop at reduced cost of cultivation.

This practical assignment is related with indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures for writing research articles, this assignment provides hands on experiences for the students on working with indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures which eventually helps them during writing research articles.

PURPOSE

To make the students acquainted how to write indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures.

1. Footnotes

Footnotes have a pronounced effect on style, general tone and clarity. Every footnote is a disgression from the main stream of thought. It interrupts the reader. If he reads it, his eyes must make an excursion to the bottom of the page; and when he is through, he must find the place where he departed from it. Lengthy footnotes can cause the reader to lose the thread of your message, to miss what you are trying to tell him.

It is of two types.

Indexing is the act of describing or classifying a document by index terms or other symbols in order to indicate what the document is about, to summarize its content or to increase its findability. The function of indexing in libraries and information retrieval systems is to indicate the whereabouts or absence of items relevant to a request. It is essentially a time-saving mechanism. Theoretically, we can always find the relevant items by an exhaustive search through the whole collection (assuming that we can recognize what is relevant when we see it). Since this is economically impossible, the size of the store to be examined is reduced by classification, using this term in its very broadest sense, i.e., as the recognition of useful similarities between documents.

Indexing performs an indispensable service to the filing function. Index, is a reference list used for locating a particular document in the filing equipment. Similarly, while filing a document, the index aids tracing out the place where the particular paper should be filed. Particularly when a large number of files are maintained for various purposes, index is very essential.

Indexes are constructed, separately, on three distinct levels: terms in a document such as a book; objects in a collection such as a library; and documents (such as books and articles) within a field of knowledge. Subject indexing is used in information retrieval especially to create bibliographic indexes to retrieve documents on a particular subject. Examples of academic indexing services are Chemical Abstracts and PubMed. The index terms were mostly assigned by experts but author keywords are also common.

ABSTRACT

ICT has seen its vertical as well as horizontal growth in various domains, be it rural livelihood sectors and governance. India is well poised to take the benefits of ICT to the common man. There has been consistent progress in addressing the challenges that exists - be it infrastructure or social barriers. The India Development Gateway (InDG) initiative is in response to limitations that exist at the social front. InDG facilitates rural empowerment through provision of relevant information products and services that respond to the real and strategic needs of the rural communities, in their local languages.

1. Country Background

India is one of the oldest civilisations in the world with rich cultural heritage. India has become self-sufficient in agricultural production, and is now the tenth industrialised country in the world. It covers an area of 32,87,263 sq km. Lying entirely in the northern hemisphere, the mainland extends between latitudes 8°4' and 37°6' north, longitudes 68°7' and 97°25' east, and measures about 3,214 km from north to south between the extreme latitudes and about 2,933 km from east to west between the extreme longitudes. 
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy, as it constitutes the backbone of the rural livelihood security system. It is the core of planned economic development in India, as the trickle-down effect of agriculture is significant in reducing poverty and regional inequality in the country. Growth in agriculture has a maximum cascading impact on other sectors, leading to the spread of benefits over the entire economy and the largest segment of population. 141 million hectares is the net sown area, while 190 million hectares is the gross cropped area. The net irrigated area is 57 million hectares with a cropping intensity of 134 per cent. Eighty-two per cent of farmers have small and marginal land holdings.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. National Agriculture Scenario

Agriculture is the most important sector of Indian Economy, contributes 23 per cent of national GDP, accounts for 11 per cent of exports, and 50 per cent of billion depends on it. Interestingly India feeds 16 per cent of population with 2.4 per cent of global land.

In the last five decades, there has been a steady and spectacular transformation of Indian agriculture from the food deficit to food sufficient status. Diffusion and adoption of modern technologies, high yielding varieties, dedicated efforts of farmers, extension personnel and scientists and also programmatic support of central and state governments have all contributed significantly from 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to land mark achievement of 230.67 million tonnes of food production in 2008-09.

On different occasions I have expressed my views on hunger and food security. Here are some of the views published earlier.

1. Food Security bill: Why it is an opportunity lost

Several years ago I and Dr M S Swaminathan were speaking at a conference on hunger at Rome. Also speaking at one of the sessions was the Brazilian Minister for Zero Hunger Programme, the dream programme of ex-President LuizInácio Lula da Silva. After he had listened to us, he sat down with us to know of how India was battling hunger, specially the way India was managing its food self-sufficiency and the massive food procurement programme.

Despite of pandemic the Indian economy has been growing consistently and Agriculture sector also maintained the momentum. Let us have an overview of investments in India’s agritech startups during 2019-2022:

1. Total investment: $2.5 billion
2. Number of deals: 234
3. Average deal size: $10.7 million
4. Top sectors: Market linkage (52%), Farm management (25%) & Agri- inputs (18%)
5. Key drivers of investment: Growing demand for food and agricultural products, Increasing adoption of technology in the agricultural sector and Government support for the agricultural sector

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.

Abstract

The hilly regions of western Himalayas comprise of three states namely Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal which are divided into High Altitude Temperate, High Hill Temperate and Valley Temperate zones. Through observations, trial and error, man has developed skills related to cultivation, utilization and livelihood. These were transmitted through generations and in this way, a system of traditional knowledge developed and moved forward for the benefit of the society. Food is the basic necessity for the survival of human beings. Since ancient times, various methods have been used to process and preserve foods especially in the Himalayan regions. The food habits and preparation of various dishes depend upon the availability of crops and surrounding vegetation. On the basis of the substrate used, traditional foods and beverages of Himalayan region are broadly classified as Cereal and Legume based, Milk based, Fruits and Vegetables, and others. Some of the popular traditional foods of Himalayan region are Aenkadu/Askalu, Bagpinni/ pinni, Chhangpa, Chaulai ka bhat, Kutu ki roti, Lesuwa roti, Tilkuta, Kaddu ke khwaire, Mooli ke khwaire, Sarson ki dhusi, Arbi ke sukhe danthal, Chaulai ki kheer, Ogal ka halwa. Traditional fermented foods and beverages are very popular in the tribal and rural areas of western Himalayas. Besides being source of nutrition, these fermented foods constitute staple food (Bhaturu) in larger part of western Himalayas while others are consumed during local festivals, marriages and special occasions. A variety of indigenous fermented foods and beverages available are; Kinema, Marcha, Phab, Bekanthu, Gundruk, Sinki, Soibun, Sura, Chhang, Daru, Angoori/ Kinnauri etc.Due to lack of proper scientific technology the quality of such foods especially beverages (many- a- times) is uncertain and their consumption leads to a higher incidence of fatal diseases among the consumers. This chapter briefly reviews the preparation, significance and quality of indigenous foods of Western Himalayas which offer tremendous opportunity for sustaining livelihood of the people of Himalayan region and stimulating agro-industrial development even in the developing countries, after upgrading and sustaining their quality.

No society can ever desire to achieve a long-term goal of sustainable development unless it builds upon its own knowledge, traditions, ethical foundations and technological endowments. The knowledge of the people particularly in drought and flood prone regions, hill areas, tribal areas and other high risk environments, has to become a building block of new technological improvements. Knowledge happens when our expectations are belied, modified and sometimes confirmed. Because the asymmetry in our expectations is influenced by our access to resources, institutions, technology and cultural platforms, we get different kinds of knowledge, even when we confront similar situations Gupta (2005). In any community living close to nature, asymmetry in knowledge generation and its utilization is inevitable. The experts exist not just in our profession, but in every profession.

What is Indigenous Knowledge?

Indigenous knowledge (IK) is the local knowledge which is considered as the social capital of the poor. It is their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide for shelter and to achieve control of their own lives. Indigenous knowledge is a cumulative body of knowledge, practices and manifestations maintained and developed by people with long histories of interaction with their natural environment. It forms the basis for local-level decision-making in agriculture, health, natural resource management and other activities, especially for the poor, and provides problem-solving strategies for communities (World Bank, 1998). IK is a tacit knowledge that is not easily codifiable and unique to a particular culture and society.

12.1. General Practices for Storage

• Lime juice is mixed with grains and then sun dried before storage to prevent insect pests (Farmers in Nigeria).
• Seeds are safely stored in earthern pots after mixing with the leaves of neem and Vitex negundo (Farmers in Gujarat, India).
• Drying seeds and grains of all the crops on the new moon day before storing to avoid pest attack.
• Store seed materials in earthen pots which are kept on the ‘Paran’ directly above the furnace in kitchen. The smoke acts as a repellent.
• Grains, trees etc. harvested on full moon day are raqre prone to storage pest attack.
• Mixing the dried leaves of neem with seeds while storing them.

Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) based inputs (Most of the ITK’s needs scientific validation before large scale adoption)

Is the systematic body of knowledge acquired by local people through the accumulation of experiences, informal experiments, and intimate understanding of the environment in a given culture (Rajasekaran, 1993). Learning from ITK can improve understanding of local condition and provide a productive context for activities designed to help the communities. In addition, the use of ITK’s assures that the end user of specific agricultural development projects are involved in developing technologies appropriate to their needs’. Yet, ITK is still an underutilized resource in the development activities. It needs to be intensively and extensively studied, and incorporated into formal research and extension practices to make agriculture and rural development strategies more sustainable.

Many of our indigenous practices in agriculture and allied fields have been replaced by the so-called modern technologies and they have become obsolete, especially among the younger generations. Now these indigenous practices are endangered ones and these are a possibility for them to become extinct particularly during this era of globalization, liberalization and commercialization. Now the need has come to re-examine and then gradually re-introduce the effective traditional technologies of crop production.

Therefore, there is a need to systematically document the ITK as they are the unwritten body of knowledge. There is no systematic record to describe what is, what it does, how it does, means of changing it, its operations, it boundaries and its applications. It is held in different brains, languages and skills in as many groups, cultures and environments. Tamil Nadu is also a treasure land of indigenous practices in agriculture. However, only a few attempts have been undertaken by social scientists to document the available indigenous agricultural practices but none has evaluated scientifically. The documented ITK practices are given below.

7.1. Rice

• Treatment of paddy seeds in diluted bio gas slurry for 12 hours increases resistance of seedlings to pests and diseases.
• During panicle formation in paddy, the flowers of Cycas circinalis are placed on sticks in paddy fields @ 4/ac. Its unpleasant odor repels ear head bugs.
• About 30 kg of tamarind seeds are applied for an acre of paddy field 1 day after transplanting to boost up the crop growth and yield.
• Soaking the paddy seeds in diluted cow’s urine before sowing, considerably reduces the incidence of leaf spot and rice blast
• Presoaking of paddy seeds in milk increases its resistance against ‘tungro’ virus and ‘stunt’ virus
• For control of red leaf spot disease in paddy, the seeds are soaked in ‘Pudina’ leaf extract (Mentha sativa) for 24 hours
• ‘T’ shaped bamboo stands are placed in many places in the paddy fields so that birds can sit on them and feed on the larvae and adults of rice pests.
• Sowing on eighteenth day (Aadipperukku) of Tamil month Aadi (Jul-Aug.) ensures good harvest.
• Daincha (Sesbania spp.) seeds are sown on paddy main fields when paddy nursery is raised and the grown up daincha is ploughed in-situ during field preparation.
• Plough the main field for four to six times for better yield.

Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)

Indira Awaas Yojana, which used to be a component of Jawahar Rozgar Yojana became an independent Scheme from 1997-1998 onwards. Its objective is construction of free houses to members of the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes, Freed Bonded Labourers in Rural areas and also to non SC/ST rural poor living below poverty line. The beneficiaries are selected from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list approved by the Grama Sabha. Atleast 60% of the total IAY allocation during a financial year should be utilized for construction/ upgradation of dwelling units for SC/ST BPL rural households. A maximum 40% of allocation is for non- SC/ST BPL rural households. 3% of the above categories should be allocated for physically and mentally challenged persons. 

Meaning-Steps for individual presentation; Group presentation-Meaning-Stages of group presentation; Impromptu presentation.

A Presentation is the process of presenting a topic to an audience. It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build good will or to present a new idea or product.

Individual Presentations allow a person to completely control the thoughts, ideas, and methods of presenting without outside influence. Individual presentations allow someone to work at their own leisure and pace.

The practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner is known as presentation. A presentation is a process of offering for consideration or display.

Presentations can also be categorized as expository or persuasive. They can also be impromptu, extemporaneous, written, or memorizes. But it’s more important to focus on their purpose. There are three basic purposes for giving presentations:

Policy research plays a critical role in influencing policy change by generating robust evidence that can guide decision-making processes. The use of evidence is crucial in ensuring that policies are both effective and appropriate to address specific issues. Evidence-based policy-making relies on credible, relevant and timely research that helps identify problems, evaluate potential solutions and
forecast the impacts of various policy options.
Role of Policy Research in Generating Evidence
1. Identification of issues: Policy research begins with identifying key issues or challenges that require policy intervention. This involves conducting systematic research to understand the scope, scale and
nature of the problem. For example, research on gender disparities in agricultural labor in India may highlight specific barriers women face, such as lack of access to resources or discriminatory practices.
2. Data collection and analysis: Gathering quantitative and qualitative data is essential for building a comprehensive understanding of the issue. For instance, data collection may involve surveys, interviews,
case studies and secondary data analysis to capture diverse perspectives and experiences. This data provides a solid foundation for analyzing the problem’s root causes and identifying the affected population.

Introduction

Voluntary efforts are always focused on the search for an efficient extension mechanism towards a progressive rural development intervention. Extension is otherwise the organized exchange of information and purposive transfer of skills to fulfill the communication gap in transfer of technology process. The goal of extension varies between different extension organizations according to their system of administration and management. As such the voluntary organizations engaged in agriculture & rural development need an incessant backstopping of farm and allied information from the formal Government extension network, so as to complement & supplement the state sponsored extension efforts as an able stakeholder. Hence the study is an attempt to unearth the information flow in voluntary agencies for viable cooperative extension in the times ahead.

Materials and Methods

The study was conducted with 34 numbers of agro-based grass-root voluntary organizations of Kendrapara and Balasore districts of Odisha. One functionary each from the cadre of administrative, supervisory and field staffs were selected as respondents covering total sample size of 102 respondents. Random sampling technique was followed to select voluntary organizations and respondents. Responses were collected on a four point continuum with the use of mean score, pooled mean and rank order for analysis of the data. Results obtained on the information and communication behaviour of voluntary agro- extension workers towards field extension are tabulated and interpreted below.

Information and Communication Technology: Concept

ICT refers to an extensive array of systems and technologies dedicated to managing and delivering information and facilitating communication. This includes digital platforms such as the internet and the World Wide Web, as well as traditional media like radio, television—through cable and wireless methods—mobile phones, and printed materials. Accompanying these technologies are services and applications such as videoconferencing and online learning that utilize these mediums.

s per the advancement in technology, our society is steadily moving towards adapting the new ordinary technologies for their normal affirms of life. While many’s daily lives are far from ordinary, one critical enabler for humans to survive and sustain their livelihood has been the accelerated adoption of digital technologies, especially in the last two years. We have witnessed how things happened because of the emerging technology in various sectors: education, business, communication, interaction, socialization, professional work, agriculture, etc. This will be the norm for the new normal and the “Gig Economy” evolution. Technology disruption has helped almost everyone in their many walks of life. When we consider the rural women at large, technology has, directly and indirectly, helped each procure food and other commodities to manage their livelihood. 

The present era is rightly termed as an “Information era”. Therefore, information and wide access to it is considered as wealth. People want adequate and authentic information as early as possible. In recent years, information delivery system has been changed from old ways to the modern ways. At the present time information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being used as effective tool for reaching and delivering professional services among urban and rural communities. Yet the benefits of the information revolution are still much debated, particularly, in case of developing countries like India. There is a growing concern about the gap between the information “haves and have not’s”, which will continue to grow unless the developing countries acquire the infrastructure and resources to access these new ICTs.

ABSTRACT

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become one of the basic building blocks of modern society. Young people are the world’s largest resource in development. Forty percent of the world’s population is under 20 years of age while 66 per cent of the total population in the country is below the age of 35 and this youth play very important role in adoption of ICTs. Present study is concerning with Information and Communication Technology, importance of ICTs on youth and rural peoples of our country, the importance of ICTs is not the technology as such, but its enabling function in facilitating enhanced access to information and communication across large distances. It involved development and need of Information and Communication Technology. It also focused on strategies for sustained ICTs growth in India and development ranking of some selected countries. India has been ranked 121^st among 157 countries in terms of progress in the realm of information and communication technology.

Introduction to DHAN Foundation

DHAN (Development of Humane Action) Foundation is a grassroots action agency working with poor communities in villages. Enhancing poor people’s livelihoods in sustainable way and enabling the poor communities are the focus of the programmes. The mission of the organisation is to build institute for innovation in the development work and reaching significance to bring positive changes in the lives of poor. DHAN Foundation was established in year 1997 as spin off institution of PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action) based at New Delhi.

DHAN Foundation believes in building the capacity of people in planning, organizing, conflict resolution and implementation of development programmes. This will be possible only when people are encouraged to work on a single thematic focus, either through micro finance or small scale irrigation theme, for a substantive period to pick-up the generic skill of developing viable alternatives to their stalemate situation; DHAN Foundation initiatives are aimed at building people constituencies around specific activity, these institution will move into civic programmes like health, Education and Information Technology to address their member’s needs. Simultaneously DHAN Foundation as a mothering institution promotes thematic organizations as subsidiaries to upscale the matured themes and continue the promotional role to sustain the people’s organization in the specific theme for e.g. micro finance or irrigation.

ABSTRACT

The chapter focuses that information as an economic resources and the role of library to distributing information among the user’s communities. From the economic point of view-the most important properties of information are easy to access and limited money acquire more information i.e. cost benefit. Information economy makes people ware about their goal and library help people to provide resources on need base.

Keyword: Information economy, Library, Information Communication Technology, ICT, Users’ community.

Introduction

Increasing quantum of information being generated and distributed in electronic form and management of these resources has become a real challenge to the library professionals.  How to integrate and handle this information increasing at phenomenal speed and how quickly and effectively it can be accessed and provided is the real concern. This has given rise to the concept of 'poly-media library'. This concept has brought to the front the importance of Information Literacy (IL) for academic pursuits as well as for life-long learning.

Introduction

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands popularly known as the Bay Islands are situated 1200 Km away from Indian mainland and are well known for their wide range of biodiversity.The dreaded tsunami hit the island on 26th December, 2004 and it destroyed livelihood of thousands of people. CARI on a limited scale initiated process of restoration of livelihood by technological interventions with generous funding by DBT under project entitled “Integrated Rehabilitation of tsunami affected people through technological intervention in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands” in the adopted villages of Manjeri, Manglutan and Guptapara. (Three situations). A total 56 ha has been affected by tsunami in the adopted villages. Following three situations occurred after tsunami and for each situation appropriate technological interventions were taken up.

ABSTRACT

Information is the data that have been put into a meaningful and useful context and communicated to a recipient who uses it to make decisions. Information is needed because of it affects individuals living activities. The present age has rightly termed as an ‘information age’. Information cannot provide finance, inputs or infrastructure. But, it can help in creating awareness about technologies and mobilise people to use them. It also helps in imparting training to people, organising community and ultimately the development of the whole nation.

The present study was undertaken to assess the information needs of young farm women (18-35 age group) with respect to kharif paddy cultivation. The study was conducted in Bolpur sub-division of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Results of this empirical study indicated that farm women wanted to know more about selling of product, pest control, nursery raising and disease management. The study also revealed that most preferred sources of information for the young farm women personal localite sources.

Key words: Young farm women, information needs, personal localite, personal cosmopolite, kharif paddy

ABSTRACT

The domestic buffalo occupies an important niche in agricultural systems by providing milk, meat and draught power. Indian buffalo population which is about 1/3 of the cattle population contributes more than half of the total milk production of the country.  Several biological and socio-economic problems restricted the efficiency of buffalo production which needs careful and intensive research. Studies pertaining to reproduction are one of the important areas in buffalo research. The reproductive process in buffalo is complex in nature, which differs on many aspects with the cattle. There is a need to undertake separate strategies to understand buffalo reproduction to disseminate the information to the livestock owners and researchers.

India is one of the countries where 90% of the small, marginal and medium land holding farm families are depending on agriculture. The average annual income of the each farm family isvery less from the agril sector. At present farmwomen play an important role in managing different kinds of farm and home activities. The entrepreneurial behaviour development among the farm family is very essential to earn the additional income to manage their family. Farmwomen not only are involved in home activities but also play a significant role in farm production. In India farmwomen take decisions in their day-to-day life in agricultural sector. However, farmwomen are greatly aided by the amount of information available to them about their felt needs.  The World Bank Report(1992) states that keeping the role of farmwomen in mind, there is a need for training of farmwomen regarding necessary dairy technologies, so that they can perform these activities with more competence.
 
The advances in information technology have brought an explosion in information flow like Radio, T.V, Internet etc in agriculture.  There is large quantity of information through various sources, channels and Website on the Internet, but the information tends to be one sided, as it is gathered from Research stations. Farmwomen seek information sources.  Therefore, a study was conducted to understand the information seeking behaviour of dairy farmwomen.
 
The study was conducted in Manvi and Deodurga taluks of Raicur district in Karnataka state to know the information seeking behaviour of farmwomen regarding dairy farming and allied sector.

Introduction

Public extension services in the agricultural sector have not kept pace with new challenges and opportunities. Overall, the reform measures initiated by the Government are yet to penetrate agriculture and allied rural sectors. The development of linkage in agriculture is extremely important for the system approach, in order to provide proper knowledge and services to the farmer contributing to the agricultural production. Many service sectors in agriculture are working independently to achieve their organizational objectives. This results in less organizational effectiveness and exhibits poor forward and backward linkages. Public private partnership and NGO partnership has been promising institutional interventions to provide need based information through information and communication technologies (Van Den Ban 1997). Policy frame work for Agricultural Extension (2000) has notified the provision for establishing partnership with private and other public agencies. Uzhavar Udhaviyagam is one of the interventions implemented by Govt of Puduchery since 2000, with an objective of integrating various agro extension services offered by related public sectors, private sectors and NGOs, cooperative sectors under one umbrella. This is a’so providing ample scope for establishing 3 Ps (Public private/NGOs partnership) model and participatory extension services. Keeping this focus point a study has been formulated with an objective to study the degree of linkage on information sharing and dissemination regarding the extension services rendered by Uzhavar Udhaviyagam.