A Review on Homa Farming – A Vedic Touch to Modern Agriculture

Homa farming is a Vedic discipline which denotes the method of annihilating harmful circumstances of environmental elements and refines the atmosphere by action of flame, outfitted with copper pyramid. Agnihotra is essential flame in Homa farming. It religiously associates living beings on this earth to control energy from space. It is practiced when all hope is gone and has proved to be beneficial in increasing yield of crop , reducing microbial pathogenicity , decontaminating soil and water, against pest and disease infestation. Homa farming is comprehensive method of healing of agriculture and can be used in conjunction with any good organic farming system as it is extremely inexpensive and can be performed by anybody but requires discipline and consistency. In course of time this knowledge has lost because the farming is becoming more modernized with invention of new technologies like GI , GPS , satellite imaging, moisture sensors. Farmers are approaching new methods and practices of farming and they completely relies on chemicals like pesticides, rodenticides, Fertilizers, herbicides to enhance his production. Then it becomes difficult for them to believe in traditional and Vedic type of agriculture as it purely organic in nature and only depends on healing effects of agnihotra. Nowadays this knowledge is being revived by many scientists to give individuals the  guidance about how to address  polluted conditions  of planet. Many scientists have demonstrated the scientific validation of Homa farming methodologies and have conducted experiments to prove the beneficial effect of Homafarming. A famous Scientist named Abhang Pathade, has conducted many experiments to prove that this technique actually works and can be very effective in getting rid of major problems like environmental pollution , disease and pest attack on plants , less crop yield and soil infertility. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2022.v09i05.00

Development and validation of a questionnaire to assess preventive practices against COVID-19 pandemic in the general population

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide with far-reaching socio-economic implications in society. The adoption of preventive practices by the public remains the mainstay in reducing the spread of COVID-19 but there is a dearth of validated tools to assess such infection prevention practices related to pandemics. This study was conducted to develop and validate a questionnaire for the assessment of preventive practices against COVID-19 in the general population. It was done following a standardized protocol involving questionnaire development through literature review, focused group discussions, in-depth interviews, expert opinion, and pre-testing. This was followed by the validation of the questionnaire through a cross-sectional survey on 108 individuals from diverse backgrounds in New Delhi, India in July 2020. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate construct validity. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The developed questionnaire for assessing preventive practices consists of two sections: the first section of 18 items to evaluate preventive practices and the second section of 19 items for assessing various reasons for deficiencies in the preventive practices. The first section has good content validity (CVR = 0.81 and S-CVI/Av = 0.97) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient 0.82). Thus, this questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for the comprehensive assessment of preventive practices and barriers related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be useful in assessing the preparedness of the public and will be helpful to policymakers in designing appropriate interventions for protection against COVID-19