eChapters

Statistics: Collection of methods for planning experiments, obtaining data,

and then organizing, summarizing, presenting, analyzing, interpreting, and

drawing conclusions.

Sir R.A. Fisher: Father of modern statistics.

Population: All subjects possessing a common characteristic that is being

studied.

Sample: A subgroup or subset of the population.

Parameter: Characteristic or measure obtained from a population.

Statistic: Characteristic or measure obtained from a sample.

Karl Pearson: Study of correlation and chi-square test of goodness of fit.

W.S.Gosset: Student’s t-test for small sample

Francis Galton: Regression analysis.

Descriptive Statistics: Collection, organization, summarization, and

presentation of data.

Inferential Statistics: Generalizing from samples to populations using

probabilities. Performing hypothesis testing, determining relationships

between variables, and making predictions.

The term ‘Management’ derived from word ‘manage’ derived from French

word menage means ‘housekeeping’.

According to Knootz and Weihrich 1988, ‘Management as the process of

designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working

together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims’.

According to Louis E.Boone and David L.Kurtz ‘management as the use of

people and other resources to accomplish objectives’.

POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of Management and

Public Administration., it first appeared in a 1937 staff paper by Luther Gulick

and Lyndall Urwick. The acronym stands for steps in the administrative

process: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting

and Budgeting.

Rural Development: The economic betterment of people as well as greater

social transformation. The efforts for rural development comprises the direct

and indirect involvement of people at the grass root level for development of

agriculture/animal husbandry, industry, communication, education, health and

allied sectors.

Democratic Decentralization: To ensure people’s participation in rural

development programmes, democratic decentralization has been the core

principle of the government since 1957. In the process, people’s participation

in all developmental activities has been the unique phenomena to find out the

solutions of their problems.

Panchayat Raj: On the principle of democratic decentralization, Panchayat

Raj institutions were launched in 1957 as per the recommendations of Balwant

Rai Mehta Committee. Under this, the government has derived its authority

from the people, and distribute to some extent to the people for decision and

action at the local level called Panchayat Raj.

Extension teaching methods: Methods by using them new information can

pass freely between the extension worker and rural communities. Extension

education is mainly concerned with the dissemination of useful and practical

information relating to rural life and helping the rural people in the practical

application of such knowledge to rural situations. Extension teaching methods

can be classified on the basis of:

Some Definition

Farmer’s call: Call made by a farmer or homemaker at the working place of

the extension agent for getting information.

Adoptive/minikit trial: It is a method of determining the suitability of a new

practice in farmer’s situation.

Farm clinic: It is a facility developed for diagnosis and treatment of farm

problems and provides specialist advice to individual farmers.

Field day/ Farmer’s day: Methods of motivating the people to adopt a new

practice by showing what has actually been achieved by applying the practice

under field condition.

Communication word comes from Latin ‘Communis’ - Common

Communication: The communication is the process of human interaction in

which one person communicates a message/idea to another person.

Diffusion: It is the process by which an innovation/new idea/new technique

spreads.

According to Rogers (1983) ‘Communication is the process by which the

message is transmitted from the source to the receiver’.

Function of communication

1. Informative

2. Instructive/Command

3. Influence/Persuasive

4. Integrative

Communicator: Person who starts the process of communication OR he is the

sender of message

Message: It is the information the communicator wishes his audience to

receive, understand and act upon

Encoding: It is a process of interpreting the message

Decoding: It is a process of receiving the message

Research: The word research is composed of two words “Re” and “Search”.

“Re” - ‘Again or over again or a new’.

“Search” - ‘To examine closely and carefully’ or ‘to test and try’.

Research is a careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field

of knowledge undertaken to establish principles / policies.

Science: It is a systematized knowledge derived through observation,

experimentation or any other systematic method or procedure in order to

determine the nature of phenomenon or process being studied or the causes

behind specific events.

Research Methodology: The study of conducting research is research

methodology.

Pure/Basic/Fundamental Research: Gathering, knowledge is termed as

‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research. Just to gather knowledge in order to formulate or

generalize theories or policies. Pure research involves developing and testing

theories and hypotheses that are intellectually challenging to the researcher but

may or may not have practical application at the present time or in the future.

Father of sociology: Auguste Comte

The term sociology was coined by Auguste Comte (1789-1875).

Sociology word comes from two roots i.e. Latin word ‘socius’ meaning companion Greek word ‘logos’ meaning speech or reasoning.

Sociology: Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior and its origins, development, organizations, and institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social actions, social structure and functions.

Rural sociology: The study of social life of peoples lives in rural areas.

Social organization: The study of the various institutions, social groups, social stratification, social mobility, bureaucracy, ethnic groups and relations, and other similar subjects such as education, politics, religion, economy etc.

Social psychology: The study of human nature as an outcome of group life, social attitudes, collective behavior, and personality formation.

Social change: Alteration in the structure and function of society. It may be structural, functional and cultural changes and it deals with the study of such current problems in society such as juvenile delinquency, criminality, drug addiction, family conflicts, divorce, population problems etc.

The Constitution of India related to women

Guarantees to all Indian women equality: Article 14

No discrimination by the State: Article 15(1)

Equality of opportunity: Article 16

Equal pay for equal work: Article 39(d)

Securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief: Article 42

The All India Women’s Education Conference was held in Pune in 1927

The National Policy For the Empowerment of Women came was passed in 2001

In 2010 March 9, Rajya Sabha passed the Women’s Reservation Bill requiring that 33% of seats in India’s Parliament and state legislative bodies be reserved for women.

Women perform 2/3 of the world’s work

Women earn 1/10 of the world’s income

Women comprise 2/3 of the world’s illiterate

Women own less than 1/100 of the world’s property

Father of Extension: James Stuart •

Word Extension: Derived from Latin roots “ex” - Out “tensio” - Stretching

Extension term originated in England as University Extension in 1866.

The term Extension Education first used in 1873 by Cambridge University.

Philosophy of Extension (Kelsey and Hearne, 1967): How to think.

Binet test: Intelligence test (IQ)

Function of Extension: Change in Attitude, Skill and Knowledge of an individuals.

Extension Education Process: Extension education is a participative and continuous process

Learning Situation: It is a condition or environment in which all the elements necessary for promoting learning are present.

Elements of effective learning situations in Extension are:

 

About two-thirds of the developing world’s three billion rural people live in about 475 million small farm households, working on land plots smaller than two hectares. Many are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Their choices are constrained, but they cultivate their land and produce food for a substantial proportion of the world’s population. Besides farming, they have multiple economic activities, often in the informal economy, to contribute towards their small incomes. These small farms depend predominantly on family labour. In China, nearly 98 percent of farmers cultivate farms smaller than 2 hectares – the country alone accounts for almost half the world’s small farms. In India about 80 to 85 percent of farmers are small. In Ethiopia and Egypt, farms smaller than 2 hectares constitute nearly 90 percent of the total number of farms. In Mexico, 50 percent of the farmers are small; in Brazil smallholders make up for 20 percent of the total number of farmers (Rapsomanikis, 2019).

Biodiversity encompasses the different kinds of life we find in one area— the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life. Biodiversity refers to all species and living things on Earth or in a specific ecosystem. Biodiversity brings together the different species and forms of life (animal, plant, entomological and other) and their variability, that is to say, their dynamics of evolution in their ecosystems. Traditionally, there are three levels of biodiversity: genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. But what does each of these levels really mean.

Stress is an intrinsic part of biological systems, and successfully adapting to stimuli that induce stress is essential for the survival of dryland crops and farm animals kept in a complex and ever-changing environment. Here the biotic stresses of crop plants are treated and not that of farm animals to avoid the expansion of the volume of the chapter. Biotic stress in plants is caused by living organisms, specifically viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects, arachnids, and weeds. In contrast to abiotic stress caused by environmental factors such as drought and heat. Biotic stress agents directly deprive their host of its nutrients leading to reduced plant vigour and, in extreme cases, death of the host plant. In agriculture, biotic stress is a major cause of pre- and postharvest losses. Plants respond to biotic stress through a defence system (Atkinson and Urwin, 2012).

Marginal and sub marginal lands are being brought under cultivation to meet the demand of human and livestock in terms of rising demand of 6F viz., food, fodder, fuel wood, fibre and fertilizer. These in lands are unable to sustain productivity. Cultivation on such lands leads to imbalance in the ecosystem. In order to meet the above said demands and to conserve the natural resources, a diversified land use system needs to be adopted in different agro-ecological regions of the country as an alternative to conventional cropping systems. Through this approach, the biological productivity and quality of resource base of degraded lands can be significantly enhanced. Land use systems which are alternatives to crop production are called by the term ‘Alternate Land Use Systems’.

Dryland agriculture is a more vulnerable system in view of its high dependency on monsoon rains which are of aberrant nature. The risk of crop failure and poor yields always restrain farmers from investing on new technologies and input use.

Concept of resilience

Resilience is used to describe the magnitude of a disturbance that a system can withstand without crossing threshold into a new structure or dynamic. Resilience is defined as “the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or escape from unacceptable standards of living due to the effects of a hazardous event, in a timely and efficient manner”. In other words, resilience describes the capacity of communities in a given context or landscape to maintain and improve their livelihoods—despite stresses and shocks—through the sustainable management of natural resources while maintaining key ecological functions

In India since ages, the dryland farmers adopted a kind of mixed farming involving traditional annual crops and livestock consisting of one or two cows / bullocks and few poultry birds. This traditional system though of small scale provided some kind of risk minimisation particularly in the years of scanty rainfall causing agricultural drought. (https://coabnau.in/uploads/1587050523_ Agriculturalheritage.pdf) Discouraged by their marginal impact on farm economy, dryland farmers switched over to the lure of ‘productive’ mono-cropping with certain commercial crops like cotton etc. The continuous mono-cropping resulted in impoverishment of soils and low crop yields which took farmers into the labyrinth of poverty.

Historical perspective: Planting of single crops or mono-cultural agriculture—is a recent invention of the industrial agricultural complex (Hirst, 2019). While unequivocal archaeological evidence is difficult to come by, it’s believed that most agricultural field systems in the past involved some form of mixed cropping. That’s because of even botanical evidence of plant residues such as starches or phytoliths of multiple crops are discovered in an ancient fields (Hirst, 2019). Mixed cropping, also known as polyculture, or co-cultivation, is a type of agriculture that involves planting two or more crop plants simultaneously in the same field so that they grow together. The primary reason for prehistoric multi or mixed cropping probably had more to do with the needs of the farmer’s family and perhaps to avoid crop failure. It’s possible that certain plants adapted to multi-cropping over time disappeared as a result of the domestication process (Hirst 2016).

Dryland agriculture limits the crop growth to a part of the year due to lack of sufficient moisture (Peterson et al., 2006). According to the Fourth five-year plan of India, dry lands are defined as areas which receive rainfall ranging from 375 mm to 1125 mm and with very limited irrigation facilities. Dry lands are economically fragile regions which are highly vulnerable to environmental stress and shocks. Degraded soils with low water holding capacities along with multiple nutrient deficiencies and depleting ground water table contribute to low crop yields and further leading to land degradation. In a country like India, 44 per cent of the total food production is supported by dryland agriculture, thereby playing a critical role in nation’s food security. With the increasing population, food production has to be increased. A real need to second green revolution has been envisioned, which can be achieved by improving the dryland agriculture.

Rainfed farming has a distinct place in the Indian agriculture, occupying 67 % of cultivated area contributing 44 % of food grains to our national food basket, supporting 40% of human and 65% of livestock population. The system is characterized by resource poor farmers, poor infrastructure and low investment in technology inputs. Even when full irrigation potential of the country is realized, 50% of the net sown area is continued to be rainfed. The important problems encountered in rainfed areas are unfavorable weather, limited choice of crops and varieties, low cropping intensity and unstable productivity. The research work done by the net work of AICRPDA (All India Co-ordinate Research Project for Dryland areas) centres and SAUs (State Agricultutal Universities) indicated that the production in rainfed environment could be enhanced by 200 % compared to the productivity of farmers’ field by adopting improved cropping systems and agro techniques.

Soil and water are the basic resources in drylands. Soil supports plant life by providing a medium for their growth and development. It is a non-renewable natural resource and susceptible to rapid degradation through various forms of erosion processes. Worldwide, around 52% of total productive land has been degraded by various kinds of degradation processes and almost 80% of the terrestrial land is affected by water erosion .Further, annually ~10 million hectares (Mha) of cropland becomes an unproductive at the global level due to soil erosion with an average rate of 30 t ha−1 year−1 soil erosion .In India, out of 328 million hectares of geographical area, 68 million hectares are critically degraded while 107 million hectares are severely eroded. Soil degradation in India is estimated to be occurring on 147 million hectares (Mha) of land, including 94 Mha from water erosion, 16 Mha from acidification, 14 Mha from flooding, 9 Mha from wind erosion, 6 Mha from salinity, and 7 Mha from a combination of factors (Battacharya et al., 2015).

Moisture deficit causing shortfalls in crop production is the characteristic feature of dryland agriculture. Other adverse factors viz., decline in soil fertility together with play of biotic stresses add to the complexities of dryland crop production. Added to the proven agronomic management to combat the problem of drought in dryland agriculture, there is the need to tailoring of suitable crop varieties which can yield reasonably well under conditions of moisture deficit (Varshney et al., 2021). In this context, the appropriate developmental rhythm along with the combination of the constellation of characters of the crop plant matching with the rainfall and the soil moisture availability patterns of the zone are the important considerations together with stability of yield (Hanson and Nelsen, 1980). This task being a complex one, the problem should be approached through multidisciplinary strategy that should buffer the genetic and breeding efforts.