Animal Husbandry Practices of Organic Farmers: An Appraisal

In Uttarakhand organic farming is being promoted through a special institution i.e. Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board (UOCB) through registering the farmers and orienting them towards organic farming. Organic farmers currently practicing and marketing only organic crop products. However, their livestock production practices are also similar to recommended organic standards. Hence, to document their livestock production practices, a total of 180 registered organic farmers selected through multistage sampling technique studied during 2006-07. Cent percent of registered organic farmers were involved in mixed farming enterprises and most of them were with more than one livestock species (farm diversity). The breeds maintained by these farmers were of indigenous and they were raising livestock on the inputs met on farm and from the farms of similar agro-ecological regions. In view of the raising demand for organic livestock products locally as well as internationally, the organic promoting agencies have to focus on orienting these farmers towards stringent organic livestock standards so as to enable them to meet the organic livestock products demand locally as well as internationally

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: A WAY FORWARD TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY IN INDIA

Among several benefits of organic agriculture, emphasis on gender equality is one important aspect which makes it unique as it is believed that it empowers women. This can be contrasted with conventional agriculture, which is said to marginalise women. To understand gender dynamics in organic farming, 111 men and 69 women registered organic farmers were studied using a semi-structured interview schedule and on-farm observations in the context of livestock production activities during 2006-07 in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, which has embraced organic agriculture by declaring itself as first organic state in India. Land and livestock ownership was mostly with men, whereas income was jointly managed by both men and women followed by women members alone in most of the households. Animal husbandry activities were performed by both men and women, followed by women members of the family, whereas, decision making in animal husbandry activities though reflected plurality, the final decisions in most of the cases rested with men only. This study was not designed to compare the gender dimensions in conventional/traditional farms against organic farms, yet it was observed that women's formal involvement was being encouraged through appropriate policy interventions in the state of Uttarakhand. In particular, the gender sensitisation training imparted by the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board (UOCB) appeared to have played key role in making women's participation more proactive and visible. The authors recommend that studies should made to compare the conventional and organic agricultural systems along gender dimensions so as to know to what extent organic agriculture is helping in achieving the millennium goal of gender equality and women's empowerment

Organic animal husbandry: concept, status and possibilities in India-A review

The animal production system, may be broadly classified as traditional, conventional and organic with their distinct characteristics.While traditional and conventional production systems are well established and their respective features known widely, the organic animal husbandry system has emerged only recently, which is still evolving. Many believe that the organin animal husbandv is same as traditional animal husbandry practiced in India since centuries, which of course, it is not. The organic animal husbandry is far more sophisticated and knowledge intensive system of' animal production meant to safeguard not only the human health but also the welfare of animals and the environment on the whole. Thus, it is important to develop correct understanding of the organic farming and especially the organic animal husbandry per se. This review therefore has attempted not only to define the organic farming and organic animal husbandry production system and progress made around the world in this front, but also explored the oppurtunities for India in this regard

A scale to measure attitude of registered organic farmers towards organic livestock farming

Organic farming an innovative area gaining importance worldwide and became a boon to the areas which are organic by default and far from the reach of green revolution technologies. Uttarakhand state in India, where most of its farming is organic by default, promoting organic farming in a systematic way through creation of special institutions like UOCB. As attitudes assist individuals in processing complex information and to make decisions, an instrument has been developed to measure attitude of organic farmers towards organic livestock farming, for which ‘Likert method of summated ratings’ was followed. A total of 102 statements were developed from the subject matter of organic animal husbandry standards, worked out by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India (GOI), and published by the Agriculture Processed Food and Exports Development Authority (APEDA). A total of 94 statements resulted after edition of 102 statements as per the criteria suggested by Edwards (1969), and were sent to 101 extension specialists working in various Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and State Agriculture and Veterinary Universities throughout India for the critical evaluation of statements on a 3 point continuum. Of the responses received from 50 out of 101 judges, a total of 47 statements were selected basing on relevancy weightage, percentage and mean relevancy scores, and these were subjected to item analysis by administering to 60 farmers from a non-sample area. A total of 21 statements were selected based on the‘t’ values (above 2.75) resulted from the item analysis and included in the final scale. Thus, the instrument developed to measure attitude of farmers towards organic livestock farming consists of 13 positive and 8 negative attitude statements representing the various areas of organic animal husbandry standards (NSOP, 2000) viz. sustainability, ecology, environment, animal health and welfare, animal production, certification, quality of organic products including philosophical and ideological views of organic farmers

Compatibility of animal husbandry practices of registered organic farmers with organic animal husbandry standards (OAHS): an assessment in Uttarakhand

Organic fanning is increasingly being seen as one sustainable option to farmers, among the alternatives to conventional input intensive farming systems. Uttarakhand in India is promoting organic agriculture state state through registering the farmers and providing them necessary support including marketing in crop sector. However, these registered organic farmers, who maintain two or more than two livestock species under crop-livestock mixed farming systems, not yet geared to organic livestock production per se. As 'organic' is a process claim rather than a product claim, the study on the compatibility of animal husbandry practices of registered organic farmers with the recommended organic livestock production standards, may provide an idea of the existing situation to the stakeholders of organic farming, to explore possibility of organic livestock production in the state. Hence, this study was carried out with 180 registered organic fanners selected from 3 districts of Uttarakhand. Majority of the animal husbandry practices followed by the farmers were favorable to or closer to the recommended organic livestock production standards. Besides, the Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of registered organic farmers, if scientifically validated, may be further useful towards promoting organic animal husbandry in the state

Analysis of completeness of information in package inserts of Indian and foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies: an Indian perspective

Background: A package insert (PI) should contain all the information required for safe and effective use of the medicine. The present study evaluated and compared the completeness of information in package inserts of Indian and foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies based in India.Methods: A total 150 PI’s consisting of 75 package inserts of Indian and foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies in India were collected and analyzed based on the criteria of Indian drugs and cosmetics rules, 1945 under section 6.2, 6.3 of schedule D, which consists of 25 parameters. Each criteria was scored for presence of information as ‘1’, absence as ‘0’. Total score was 25, score >20 was graded as ‘A’, 10-20 as ‘B’ and <10 as ‘C’. Data was expressed as numbers and percentage.Results: Total 150 PI evaluated included antimicrobials, antipsychotics etc. Out of all the PIs 26% belonged to grade A, 70% belonged to grade B and 4% belonged to grade C. Lack of information was found in both the categories of PIs. Foreign PIs performed better in comparison to Indian PIs as in grade A, 27 out of 41 PIs were foreign whereas 56 PI’s in grade B were Indian and 47 were foreign. Both categories of PI showed good information about active ingredient, dosage form, warnings, contraindications and lacked information about retail price and references etc.Conclusions: Both categories of PIs were deficient in completeness of information. The pharmaceutical companies, both national and foreign, must provide the information as per regulatory norms.

Assessment of Farm Animal Welfare using Organic Animal Husbandry Standards as Yardstick: A micro-level study in India

Animal welfare has attracted widespread attention worldwide in recent times including within the conventional systems of intensive production in industrialized countries. It can be assessed in a number of ways, also, the yardstick of welfare may differ from people to people and region to region since OIE is only now considering development of more science-based internationally acceptable criteria for animal welfare. In this study, the organic livestock production standards, developed inter alia, the Government of India (GOI) under its National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), were used to assess the practices being followed at farmers' level in India. Organic production standards are supposed to keep animal welfare as one of the top most requirements with no compromise on welfare issues. A micro-level study was conducted in Bankura district (22038′N-23038′N and 86036′E-87046′E) in India with 50 tribal and 50 non-tribal farmers practicing mixed crop-livestock farming. The farmers (average landholding 1.02 ha, average herd size 4.02 cattle equivalent), were asked about several animal welfare criteria including those for draft animals. It was found that almost all farmers, either, tribal or non-tribal provide shelter to animals against extreme weather conditions. Ninety percent of the farmers provided immediate treatment to sick animals and none of the farmers used sick animals at work. However, 26.46% of non tribals beat their animals at work. Nine point eighty-five percent of farmers confessed that they sometimes overload their animals. The average duration of work in summer, rainy season and winter was found to be 5.27 h, 7.09 h and 5 h, respectively. In the study, it was found that the welfare standards were well cared of though farmers were not organic per se, nor they have had any specific training or programme on animal welfare measures. It is recommended that the organic animal standards may be used as the yardstick to measure animal welfare even in conventional non-organic forms of livestock production systems as is demonstrated in the current study

A comparison of efficacy and safety with add on therapy of pioglitazone in adult patients of psoriasis with and without metabolic syndrome

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic disease involving skin with systemic manifestations whose etiology remains unknown. In recent times, an increased occurrence of metabolic syndrome has been seen in psoriatic patients and potential role of antihyperglycemic in such conditions is being evaluated.Methods: This was a prospective, controlled, randomized, open label comparative clinical study conducted on 51 psoriatic patients. The patients were divided into two groups with and without MS and both these groups were further randomised to receive either standard therapy alone (topical 0.05% betamethasone dipropionate applied twice daily) or therapy with pioglitazone 15 mg orally once daily as add on to standard treatment. The study was conducted over a period of 12 weeks and the primary efficacy outcome was assessed by a change in psoriasis area severity index (PASI). The secondary outcomes were achievement PASI 50/75 and change in parameters of metabolic syndrome (MS). Change in quality of life assessed using dermatological life quality index (DLQI). Results: Both the treatments significantly reduced the PASI score in psoriatic patients with and without MS, maximum being at 12 weeks. In patients with and without MS, pioglitazone caused a greater reduction in PASI score and DLQI score though it was found comparable to ST alone. Significant improvement in parameters of metabolic syndrome was observed in pioglitazone treated group.Conclusions: Pioglitazone given as add on therapy caused an additional improvement in clinical severity and QOL in both the group of psoriatic patients with and without metabolic syndrome. Role of pioglitazone needs to be further explored with higher recommended dose range (30 mg and 45 mg) to demonstrate the usefulness of this drug in psoriatic patients

Evaluation of medication adherence patterns amongst anti-hypertensive drug users in a tertiary care hospital in north India

Background: Non-adherence to prescribed medications is a major barrier in management of chronic diseases like hypertension, which can lead to treatment failure and can increase morbidity, mortality and health care costs. The objective of this study was to assess the level of adherence of hypertensive patients to their anti-hypertensive medications and various factors influencing the adherence among these patients.Methods: A cross sectional, observational, questionnaire based study was carried out amongst 70 patients diagnosed with hypertension. Adherence was measured using Morisky medication adherence score questionnaire (MMAS-8). Co-relation of various factors like age, sex, education level, number of drugs taken, presence of concomitant diseases etc. were assessed. Univariate and multivariate analysis was done to determine the factors associated with adherence.Results: The mean age of 70 patients (35 male, 35 female) were 52.29±11.39 years. Using MMAS-8, high, medium and low adherence was seen in 58.6%, 20.0% and 21.4% patients respectively. Middle age group patients were more adherent (60.8%) than younger age group and elderly (37.5%) (p-value <0.05). Adherence rates were comparable in men and women. There was a positive correlation of adherence with education level, knowledge of BP goals and presence of diabetes. It showed negative correlation with chronicity of hypertension and number of drugs taken.Conclusions: Medication adherence rate was found to be low in the present study. The level of adherence to treatment among the participants can be achieved through better health promotion and education strategies

Phenylephrine induced fixed drug eruption: a rare case of cross sensitivity

Fixed drug eruption (FDE) is a type of dermatosis characterized by recurrent lesions at exactly the same sites with each administration of the causative agents. FDEs are common types of drug eruptions amongst all cutaneous drug-induced side effects, mostly by intermittent exposure. Multiple drugs with common chemical structure can cause same type of lesions at same site called as cross sensitivity. There are many causative agents and the incidence of FDEs for a particular drug depends on the frequency of its use. Though usually not severe or fatal, cosmetic embarrassment is main problem, especially when they recur on the previously affected sites leaving behind residual hyperpigmentation. Phenylephrine is a sympathomimetic agent, given orally for the symptomatic relief of nasal congestion. It is also commonly combined with other ingredients in preparations intended for the relief of cough and cold symptoms. Considering the frequent use of Phenylephrine, associated drug eruptions generally appear to be rare, cross sensitivity with pseudoephedrine is even rarer. In our case phenylepherine was self-administered to control cold induced congestion and patient developed FDE on vermillion of upper lip, which healed after 2 weeks leaving hyperpigmentation and reappear on same site after re-challenge also. She has history of FDEs due to pseudoephedrine on same site on lips. This is a rare case of sympathomimetics induced FDE with cross sensitivity between phenylepherine and pseudoephedrine; hence we are reporting it here