eChapters

Introduction

Indian economy is characterized predominance of rural population and is heavily dependence on agriculture sector. The major challenges to the growth and prosperity of the country are unemployment and poverty. Various attempts by government in the past have yielded only marginal success. The problem of rural unemployment and poverty can be solved by creating some new avenues for employment generation in the rural areas. Majority of farmers are still using traditional farming practices. The concept of entrepreneurship in agriculture can play vital role in improving their livelihood security and alleviating the poverty.  The individuals involved in farming/industrial activity should posses drive, ambition, foresight, and imaginations to break their traditional barrier, overcome social inertia, transform theory into practice. The individuals performing these functions are the entrepreneurs, and their enterprising ability and skill can be termed as entrepreneurship (Kothari, 1989).

The goal of food for all can be achieved only through sustained efforts in producing, saving and sharing food grains.

The Supreme Court of India has rendered great service by arousing public, professional and political concern about the co-existence of rotting grain mountains and mounting hungry mouths. In several African countries hunger is increasing because food is either not available in the market, or is too expensive for the poor. Food inflation is showing no signs of abating. In our country, chronic hunger is largely poverty induced. The progress made in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal No. 1, namely, reducing hunger and poverty by half by the year 2015, has been far from satisfactory and the available data indicate that we may have years and years to go before we achieve this target. Globally, the number of persons going to bed hungry has increased from 800 million in the year 2000 to over one billion. The position is likely to get worse in the near term, since the prices of wheat, rice and maize are going up in the global market. Adverse growing conditions in Russia, Canada and Australia are partly responsible for the recent escalation in grain prices. Nearer home, Pakistan is recovering from serious floods. According to a recent UN report, 3.2 million ha of standing crops and 200,000 heads of livestock have been lost. 

There are reports in financial newspapers that the ongoing (2010) drought affecting nearly 200 districts in the country may not have much effect on GDP, since the farmers in the drought-affected areas contribute hardly 3 per cent to GDP.  It is sad that such a measure of the impact of drought on the lives and livelihoods of millions of rural families is even considered. It is this mindset, typical of the growing insensitivity to human suffering in our country, that is responsible for India being the home for the largest number of undernourished and malnourished children, women and men in the world.  No wonder we are finding it difficult to achieve the first among the UN Millennium Development Goals, namely, reducing hunger and poverty by half by 2015.  Unless we realise that agriculture in India is not just a food- producing machine, but is the backbone of the livelihood of over 60 per cent of our population, rural deprivation and suffering will not only continue to persist, but will get worse, leading to severe social unrest.

Although women work in household chores, agricultural activities, factories, and different workplaces in days of yore, their valuable work is still not recognized as a financial entity (Kathrivel and Sivakumar, 2003). The multiple roles performed by ‘Nari shakti share many working hours, but financial terms are off the records. Women’s power at construction work is greater utilization as labour and their daily routine employment. 

Agriculture is of paramount importance in most developing countries because large proportion of the population involved and the need to maintain national food production. It is generally accepted though not fully proven, that health and productivity are positively correlated. This is of particular  relevance because many agricultural tasks in developing countries demand high level of strenuous activity (Anonymous, 1987). Investment to improve agricultural worker’s health would be justified on both humanitarian and economic grounds. Nearly half of the available human resources in India are women.  It has been roughly estimated that women represent 50% of population and have contributed about 10% of income and own less than 1 % of the world’s property.  The population of farm women are involved in sowing, transplanting, weeding, winnowing, drying, bringing drinking water and firewood, cleaning and dehusking.  Most of the drudgery prone tasks for women in agriculture are cutting uprooting, transplanting, weeding and sowing and post harvest tasks like manual threshing of maize, millets and pulses, sieving and cleaning. For groundnut, after the harvesting, removal of nuts and cleaning of groundnut seeds are also performed  manually. Further, sieving, cleaning are performed by winnowing followed by traditional sieve. (Badiger et al. 2006).  Studies have pointed out that farm activities that are time and labour intensive, monotonous, repetitive and more drudgery prone are generally performed by women.

Introduction

‘Health is wealth’ is a common saying. Every individual should take care of his physical and mental health. During work performance, if an activity leads to any health problem it is referred to as an occupational health hazard, which needs urgent attention. In agriculture, occupational health problems sometimes amount to incurable diseases/disorders.

Meaning of Occupational Health Hazards

Occupational hazard is something that causes harm to a working person, in terms of injury or ill health, damage to property, workplace environment, or a combination of both. In India, farm women contribute as farmers, agricultural workers, and entrepreneurs. As per the 2012 census data, women’s share was 55%, which is projected to be 65% by 2025. They are the backbone of the agricultural rural economy but still are one of the most vulnerable groups. Though nowadays, mechanization is gaining importance due to various reasons, it has yet not reached farm women, who are still not recognized as ‘farmers’, and the machinery is designed to suit the men’s folk. The role of women in farming operations like transplanting, harvesting, post-harvest management, and packaging, which are drudgery-prone, are on the increase. Considering these facts, the tools’ designers should give due thought when designing agricultural tools and equipment, to address farm women’s drudgery.

Abstract

Cattle are reared for milk and dry periods are considered loss to the exchequer of livestock farmers. To avoid it, farmers mostly abandon the cattle to become stray animals. Latest research supports that cow dung and urine are endowed with versatile medicinal, biofertilizer and bio-pesticide properties of socioeconomic importance. This has given the concept of dry cattle farming where focus is utilities of cow dung and urine and their value added products. Cow urine is useful for numerous human ailments like, cancer, osteoarthritis, allergies, kidney failures, skin diseases, healing of wounds etc. Cow dung is main source for vermicompost, FYM and biogas. Many products containing cow dung and urine i.e. soap (23% cow dung content and 7% urine), toothpaste (10% cow dung content and 10% urine, 2% Ghee), floor cleaners (Gaunyle: 11% cow urine), hair oil, incense shaving cream, face wash, talcum powders and dark circle removers are available in the market. The term cowpathy has been coined for diverse uses of cow dung and urine and is now focal area of research and innovative products development. Further, the dry cattle farming offers solution to problems of stray animals and helps in empowering the women farming community to exploit dry farming for more profit, product development and economic strengthening.

ABSTRACT

Agriculture is an important sector of economy that ensures food security of the nation. About 58 per cent of the Indian population is engaged in Agriculture and planners are concerned to increase agriculture productivity. The National Knowledge Commission has also looked into various problems of this sector and made some recommendations from the knowledge perspective. This paper includes review of existing plans and programs for improvement of knowledge accessibility to Indian farmers. Article also discusses how the Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications, especially, the hand held devices like mobile phones can improve knowledge accessibility in the agriculture sector and describes how the ongoing programs of mobile telephony are helping Indian farmers.

10.1 Introduction

The incredible technology usage in e-commerce over the last several years has resulted in the fast growth of e-business enterprises. Technological innovation has created new opportunities for online businesses looking to provide value added services. Technology adoption, enhanced customer support, and creative product development have given businesses the necessary competitiveness. Consumers are more demanding than ever and more aware of their rights. E-commerce businesses are pressured to develop and provide value for their customers in novel ways.

e-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions and integration of previously existing services and information portals. The "e" in e-Governance stands for 'electronic'.

e-Governance refers to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), particularly web-based applications, to provide access to and deliver information/service to the public, businesses, other agencies and governmental entities faster, cheaper, easier and more efficiently.

The Council of Europe referred to e-governance as: "The use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action

1. Relations between the public authorities and civil society

e-Learning

It is the concept of learning which is conducted via electronic media. This is usually via the Internet but can also be offline with a CD-Rom or DVD. Examples of e-Learning in icar: e krishi siksha, e-agri diksha web education channel of icar and virtual classroom of icar.

Advantages

• It promotes active and independent learning
• An efficient way of delivering courses as the resources are available from anywhere and at any time
• Students can interact with their peers from all around the world through group discussions and private chats
• The studying material can be accessed an unlimited number of times.

Introduction

e-Literacy as defined by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO) refers to the awareness, skills, understanding and reflective approaches necessary for an individual to operate comfortably in information-rich and IT enabled environments. Most definitions of e-literacy or digital literacy covers three abilities

• The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information

• The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers

• The ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment

To promote e-literacy, every state in India has initiated a project in their own names. For example, in Kerala the e-literacy is promoted in the name of Project Akshaya. Initially, this project was started with a noble intention of making at least one member in each of 64 lakh families e-literate. The pilot project started in Malappuram, and was inaugurated by His Excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India on 18th November 2002. 100% eLiteracy was achieved in eight districts in Phase 1 and the project has been roaring success. Nowhere has such a feat been attempted or accomplished. The vision and scope of the project is beyond comparison. The operations of Akshaya as unfolded so far consist of three distinct phases. The first phase is that of enabling the masses by imparting basic skill in computer operations and making them familiar with internet. This phase is the period of eLiteracy training. In the initial phase, the Akshaya ecentre imparts basic training that not only familiarizes people with the basics and the scope of IT, but also ensures hands-on-skill in operating a computer, using the Internet etc to at least one person in the 64 lakh families in the state that makes it the largest rural eliteracy training project worldwide. Malappuram is declared as the first eliterate district in India. Malappuram and Kannur districts were already declared 100% eliterate. Kollam, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kasaragod districts achieved eliteracy above 90%. So far around 33 lakhs beneficiaries were trained.

Introduction

Agriculture forms the backbone of the Indian economy. Although there has been large industrialization in the last 60 years, agriculture still occupies the prominent place of importance (Banarsi Lal, 2019). The agriculture sector contributes about 20 per cent of GDP in India (MoF, 2020-21). Both the agriculture and livestock sectors provide employment to 52 per cent of the work force (Rathod and Dixit, 2019). In India, most of farmers have small average holdings. Agriculture marketing can play important role in increasing income of farmers with same landholding. Agriculture plays a vital role in India’s economy. 54.6 of the total workforces is engaged in agriculture and allied sector activities (Census 2011) and accounts for 18.8% (First Advance Estimates) of country’s Gross Value Added (GVA) for the year 2021-22 (at current prices). Agriculture sector needs structured and functional markets, preferably in the vicinity of farmers, to drive growth, employment, remunerative prices and economic prosperity in rural areas of the country.

Introduction

E-Portal otherwise called as an electronic portal is a webpage that allows business application procedure developed by framework to be easily deployed via internet. Portals are usually created in standard Java format. It utilizes an Extensible Mark- up Language (XML) interface protocol in addition to Java Server Pages (JSP). Portals are given different names based on the field they are created. For example, if the portal is developed to improvise agriculture, then they are termed as agri-por- tals. Similarly, if a portal is developed for academic reasons they are called web portal. Examples of web portals are iGoogle, MSNBC, Netvibes, and Yahoo.

Portal concept has opened new possibilities to address some of the issues concern- ing the personal management of academic information and knowledge through internet. Some of the main issues are the lack of integration, personalisation and customisation of existing academic information sources and systems. A Web por- tal can be defined as a Web site that aggregates an array of content and provides a variety of services including search engines, directories, news, e-mail and chat rooms. Portals have evolved to provide a customised gateway to Web information. A high level of personalisation and customisation is possible (Melzer 1999; Boye 1999). It was felt that the portal concept could be further developed to function as a sophisticated Web interface that can support the task performance (teaching and research) of academics.

ABSTRACT

Information is basic element in any development activity. It is useful only if it is available, if the users have access to it, in the appropriate form and language. Information in the field of agriculture, to benefit farmers, has to be tailored to local agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions backed up by relevant input supply services and public policies. The impact of information revolution with its powerful information and communication technologies are making the whole universe into a small global village enabling easy access and faster sharing of knowledge among the world communities. Information Communication Technologies have great prospect and wide scope for disseminating information to the people in remote areas with great accuracy and with no loss or distortion of any information. ICTs can empower rural communities and give them ‘a voice’ that permits them to contribute to the development process.

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.

ABSTRACT

India’s North-East is predominantly hill agriculture based and endowed with rich natural resources for the development. The average rainfall in the region is the highest in the country. However, low agricultural productivity and food in-security are largely prevalent in the North- East India. Lack of adequate information on advanced farm technologies, market intelligence and rural development schemes led to the income poverty in the region. The limited technical manpower, lack of transport and communication facilities, inadequate financial support to the technology transfer and less infrastructure facility creates huge technological gap among  rural tribal farming community.

Economy consideration: Economy consideration suggests that some tradeoff which is needed between the ideal research project and that which the budget can afford. The length of measuring tool is an important area where economic pressures are quickly felt. Even though more items give superior reliability, but in the interest of limiting the interview or observation time, the research worker is to take only a few items for his study purpose.

Early childhood care and education provides the foundation for children’s physical, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and creative development. This chapter examines the meaning, objectives and importance of early childhood education, together with the characteristics and developmental needs of young children. It covers preschool programmes, curriculum planning, play-based learning, classroom organization, teaching-learning materials, daily schedules, evaluation and the professional qualities of early childhood educators. Questions address the contributions of major educational thinkers and approaches, including Montessori and other child-centred practices. National policies, Integrated Child Development Services, Anganwadi programmes and contemporary challenges are also included, supporting effective preparation for academic and professional examinations.

Abstract

Extreme weather conditions often cause considerable damage. Much of this damage can be mitigated if people are better prepared for impending disasters. Therefore, public authorities and private enterprises have been investing in Early Warning Systems (EWS). Environmental degradation and destruction of natural resources has been faced by humans and other organisms for hundreds of years. Some of these incidences have been caused by natural climatic and geologic processes and others by human activities. These natural disasters have been increasing over time due to factors such as urbanization, population growth, destruction of natural environment and climatic change. Biogenic and anthropogenic related environmental and natural resources degradation has direct economic and health impacts on affected regions. Land and water degradation as well as disasters such as floods and droughts have led to famine, hunger, disease, death and created many other problems. It is necessary, therefore, to keep focused on the ultimate goal of reducing disasters by all possible means. India must invest generously on infrastructure and resources for preparation of early warning systems and disaster preparedness.