Influence of farmers educational level on comprehending, acting-upon and sharing of agro advisories

Although short messaging service (SMS) through mobile phones has quickly gained popularity among most other sectors in India, its potential is not fully realised in the agriculture sector as a cost effective service to reach farmers and elicit desirable action. Despite the cost effectiveness, mobile messaging has remained a challenge in the farming sector in terms of its end use and action as far as extension systems are concerned. While there could be many influencing factors affecting the utility of mobile messages, this study assumed that educational level of farmers could be a major factor. A telephone survey was conducted to ascertain the influence of farmers’ education on the level of utilisation of mobile-based advisories. Farmers with higher education level showed better comprehension of advisories, acted-upon the advisories more promptly and shared the information with fellow farmers more often than those with lower education level. There was a significant association between comprehending, sharing and acting upon advisories. This has implications to achieve enhanced extension reach with higher efficiency in terms of cost and time

Land scene classification from remote sensing images using improved artificial bee colony optimization algorithm

The images obtained from remote sensing consist of background complexities and similarities among the objects that act as challenge during the classification of land scenes. Land scenes are utilized in various fields such as agriculture, urbanization, and disaster management, to detect the condition of land surfaces and help to identify the suitability of the land surfaces for planting crops, and building construction. The existing methods help in the classification of land scenes through the images obtained from remote sensing technology, but the background complexities and presence of similar objects act as a barricade against providing better results. To overcome these issues, an improved artificial bee colony optimization algorithm with convolutional neural network (IABC-CNN) model is proposed to achieve better results in classifying the land scenes. The images are collected from aerial image dataset (AID), Northwestern Polytechnical University-Remote Sensing Image Scene 45 (NWPU-RESIS45), and University of California Merced (UCM) datasets. IABC effectively selects the best features from the extracted features using visual geometry group-16 (VGG-16). The selected features from the IABC are provided for the classification process using multiclass-support vector machine (MSVM). Results obtained from the proposed IABC-CNN achieves a better classification accuracy of 96.40% with an error rate 3.6%

Parameterizaion – Simulation – Optimization Approach for Reservoir Operation

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Investigations of Common Effluent Treatment Plant Sludge based Controlled Low-Strength Material

453-456The management of industrial waste is a difficult task in the developing country like India. In the study, fresh and in-service properties of controlled low-strength material (CLSM) consisting of cement, class-F flyash, CETP sludge, M-sand and water were determined by laboratory scale tests. The CETP considered when combined with cement and flyash, exhibit self-hardening characteristics similar to cement. The developed CLSM constitute for five classes of mix design (A, B, C, D and E). The results show that the proposed CLSM satisfy for the pavement backfilling for sub-base and sub-grade of flexible pavement requirements

Productivity attributes of six desi cow breeds in Karnataka

Desi cows are playing crucial role in the national economy for their draught power, milk, dung, fuel and urine. It is a source of subsidiary income for many families in India especially the resource poor. The present study was carried out in six districts of Karnataka with higher population of each of the six desi breeds. Forty farmers served as respondents for each breed, making the total sample size of 240 farm households. Deoni productivity was the best with 3.85 L/anim./day followed by 3.07 in case of Krishna Valley. Daily net return per animal was ₹ 18.20 in Deoni and ₹ 15.51 in Krishna Valley, while it was lowest in Malnad Gidda. Without considering cost of fodder, net return (₹/anim./day) was the highest for Hallikar followed by Deoni and Krishna Valley. Draught power, dual purpose utility, quality and taste of milk, adaptability to harsh tropical climate, religious sentiments and social esteem were the important attributes of desi cows. Natural service, open grazing, feeding concentrates, green fodder and hay, closed housing system, vaccination, utility of dung and urine in the farm, full hand milking method were the management strategies adopted. Shrinking holding size, non-availability of grazing land, longer inter-calving period, and poor milk production were the important constraints perceived by farmers. Non-availability of superior quality breeding bulls and high price of cattle feed were perceived as causes for decreasing indigenous cattle population

Occupational Aspirations of the Participants of Agricultural Skill Training in Kerala

'Skilled India' is the ambitious mission of Government of India. Krishi Vigyan Kendras, with the support of qualification packs and model curriculum developed by Agricultural Skill Council of India, are organizing skill trainings besides providing the post-training technical handholding. Training, similar to formal education, mould the aspirations of trainees to pursue occupational choices. The paper presents the occupational aspirations of 277 participants of 16 training programmes on 11 job roles related to agriculture in nine districts of Kerala. Most prominent aspiration was to ‘start a new enterprise’, which is in line with the objective of creating entrepreneurs in rural areas. Post-training aspirations indicated enhanced aspiration to get a job in government/recognized institutions, an indicator of increased selfconfidence and employability of trained manpower. Occupational aspirations varied with job roles and thus provide crucial feedback to policy makers and development agencies for working on future roadmap

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Sending advisories is a one-way communication and has all the disadvantages of impersonal communication viz., limited feedback from receiver, lack of information about understanding of message by the receiver,and little or no control over timing of message. The feedback loop is a critical component of any project that uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and updating.Although short messaging service (SMS) through mobile phones has quickly gained popularity among most other sectors in India, its potential is not fully realised in the agriculture sector as a cost effective service to reach farmers and elicit desirable action. Despite the cost effectiveness, mobile messaging has remained a challenge in the farming sector in terms of its end use and action as far as extension systems are concerned. While there could be many influencing factors affecting the utility of mobile messages, this study assumed that educational level of farmers could be a major factor. A telephone survey was conducted to ascertain the influence of farmers’ education on the level of utilisation of mobile-based advisories. Farmers with higher education level showed better comprehension of advisories, acted-upon the advisories more promptly and shared the information with fellow farmers more often than those with lower education level. There was a significant association between comprehending, sharing and acting upon advisories. This has implications to achieve enhanced extension reach with higher efficiency in terms of cost and time.Not Availabl

Runoff Modelling using different member ship functions in Adaptive Neuro fuzzy inference system

Rainfall runoff modelling using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system has been presented. In the present study ANFIS models are developed using different membership functions Triangular, Trapezoidal, Bell-shaped, Sigmoid and Gaussian method. All the models are compared with the statistical tests. West flowing river Nethravathi located in Karnataka, India has been selected as study area. It was observed that adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system using Triangular membership function show a good performance compared to other models developed

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This article facilitates a simpler understanding of the innovation learning pathway among Indian farmers. It was hypothesised that innovation learning patterns differ within the same category of innovativeness. It was also hypothesised that farmers adopt multiple innovations, and at different relative earliness for each innovation. Thus, based on a combination of relative earliness/innovativeness and learning patterns, through a two-stage process, new adopter categories were identified. The overall objective was to arrive at a new typology of innovation learning that enables extension programs to target their efforts and limited resources towards enhanced effectiveness and reach.Early studies on diffusion assumed that farmers adopt one innovation at a time, and hence adopter categorization was innovation specific. Since many innovations are being introduced by different agencies, pooled relative earliness for the multiple innovations adopted was computed, resulting in Innovators, Early Adopters and Late Adopters. This linear approach has limitations in explaining the complex innovation-adoption process, therefore,innovation learning pathways expressed as knowledge index, was used in further categorization. High-knowledge late adopters were sub-categorized as Informed Late Adopters. Similarly, low-knowledge innovators were sub-categorized as Ignorant Adopters. Profile analysis confirmed prevalence of categories ranging from Ignorant Adopters to Late Adopters and Informed Late Adopters to Innovators. Identification of Ignorant Adopters is critical for delivering targeted solutions by the extension system, demanding a shift in focus from innovators. Enhanced competencies among extension personnel are also required for adopting a techno-socio-psychological approach. Informed Late Adopters have a crucial role to play in promoting sustainable agriculture.National Agricultural Science Foundation, ICAR New Delh