Impact of Land Irrigability Classes on Crop Productivity in Canal Command Area of Gujarat: An Economic Analysis

The impact of land irrigability classes on crop productivity has been reported based on the survey of Mahi right bank (MRB), Ukai-Kakrapar right bank (UKRB) and Kakrapar left bank (KLB) canal command areas of the Gujarat state. The multi-stage random sampling method was used to select the farmers. The MRB and UKRB areas have five different soils environment in terms of land irrigability classes, while the KLB area has only three soils environment. The major crops grown in the UKRB are sugarcane, rice, cotton and pigeon pea, while sugarcane and rice are the major crops in the KLB. Similarly, in the MRB, rice, pearl millet, groundnut, wheat and tobacco crops occupy 95 per cent of the total irrigated area. The study has revealed that farmers have violated the recommended cropping pattern and are growing high water-requiring crops, irrespective of their suitability to land. In the land irrigability classes III, IV and V, cultivation of sugarcane and rice has led to waterlogging and secondary salinization problems, and reduction in crop yields. Hence, the cultivation of lower irrigability classes with minimum use of major inputs is not an advisable proposition. It would be better if crops are selected according to land irrigability classes which might result in a higher production with lower unit cost of production in the command areas under the study.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Impact of Shelterbelts on Net Returns from Agricultural Production in Arid Western Rajasthan

This paper has documented the impact of shelterbelt on agricultural returns by collecting primary data from 80 farmers each in shelterbelt and non-shelterbelt areas. To decompose the total change in net returns, separate production functions have been estimated for shelterbelt and non-shelterbelt farms. The study has revealed an increase of 430.8 per cent in net returns due to shelterbelt plantation, in which shelterbelt technology has contributed 399.4 per cent and increase in use of complementary inputs, 31.4 per cent. In the change of 399.4 per cent, shelterbelt has accounted for 305.6 per cent, i.e. shifting from non- shelterbelt to shelterbelt and remaining 93.8 per cent has been due to inputs used by non-shelterbelt, which might be due to improvement in soil health.Agricultural Finance,

Economics of Camel Rearing on Grasslands in Gujarat

Camel in India is primarily reared for carting/draft, agricultural operation, transportation in addition to the secondary utility of milk and hair production (Saini et al 2006). The One humped or Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) is an important livestock species uniquely adapted to hot and arid environments (Schwartz, 1992). It is important livestock specie contributing significantly in rural economy and livelihood of desert dwellers in Kachchh region of Gujarat. It still plays a very distinctive role in various agricultural operations and rural transportation in dry land farming (Rajput and Tripathi, 2005). The Kachchh region of Gujarat has large camel herders’ population mainly reared on common grasslands. These herders not only move in different parts of this region for grazing but also visit adjoining area of Gujarat every year in search of better fodder resources. The present study highlights the socio-economics of camel herds of Kachchh, Gujarat

ANALOGY OF MODERN CHEMICAL PROCESSES WITH PRINCIPLES OF ‘RASA SHASTRA' OF AYURVEDIC MEDICINE SYSTEM

Ayurveda is basically a medical science but different branches of science were nurtured by it like biology, genetics, microbiology, clinical medicine, surgery, astronomy, pharmaceutics and metallurgy etc. In this traditional therapeutic system, various categories of formulations have been described in official and traditional literature. Similar to modern system of therapeutics, various units operations were adopted in developing various dosage forms to obtain the desired effect upto the optimum time. Every step has been explained in detail in traditional literature and sight modifications have also been mentioned in some texts. Besides these, numbers of metals, their alloys, metallurgy etc. have also been elaborated for the well being of the society. Hitherto, ‘Rasayan’ (chemistry) and the associated studies were also familiar in ancient time. Various chemical like common salt, alkali, borax and compounds of elements like Fe, Cu, Hg and Au etc., were commonly used from in that period and the techniques for making alloys of bronze, brass, and bell metal etc. were also very common. The applicability of natural preservatives like oil, salt and sugar were also much known in ancient time. However; the terms used as stated in traditional literature were not similar to modern time. Also, the alcoholic and acidic fermented products were prepared very commonly. The present study has been focused to assess the similarity of chemical terms mentioned in literature with modern science and technology

RASAYANA: THE REJUVENATING REMEDY FOR HEALTH

Gradual increase of Population in urban area may leads to environmental pollution and microbial infection in air and water increases exponentially. Most of the persons in the population are in trap of mental stress and depression due to struggle in the life and overload of work. So both of these conditions are responsible for so many disease and ill-health, and one more important thing is that due to increase negligence and uninhabited use of processed food, the ill effects on health are compound manifold when coupled with unhealthy lifestyle and food habits. So there is a need of taking dietary supplementary food or nutraceutical. The main aim of Ayurveda has been working upon a twofold process i.e., to maintain the health of a healthy individual and to treat the one with the disease. Thus by laying emphasis on the first aspect and combining it with the knowledge of the role of phytochemical as, one can gradually deduce an effective module for living healthy and line of treatment of metabolic and geriatric disorders. The phytochemical are the essential nutrients, which are naturally contained in plants and are required for normal physiological functions. The Rasayan not only boost general health but also provide the necessary raw materials to strengthen the defense mechanism of the body.

Improving a Transhumance Livestock System of India with Modern Technologies

Traditional livestock rearing systems in grasslands evolved in response to social, climatic, vegetative and technological conditions that existed scores, hundreds, or in some cases up to a thousand of years ago. Many of these systems involve vertical transhumance where flocks and herds are moved up elevation gradients for summer pasturage or horizontal transhumance in which livestock migrate across greater distances in response to regional rainfall patterns and the resulting availability of forage. In spite of the relatively low earnings of individual herders, these pastoral systems can contribute substantially to the national economies, while providing sustenance and food security to significant portions of the population. Additionally, traditional livestock rearing often contributes a rich social culture in regions where it is practiced and many societies closely identify with traditional livestock herding lifestyles. In many parts of the world herders still use traditional transhumance systems but they are coming under increased pressure from a number of forces such as social, economic (globalization) and political both within and external to these societies. Yet, many rural people living at or near the subsistence level still rely heavily on small flocks or herds that migrate for their livelihoods. These traditional pastoral or agro pastoral systems and the people that use them have an opportunity to employ modern technologies to change and improve with developing technologies. We studied the Indian Raika (Dewasi/Rebari) horizontal transhumance system of sheep and cattle from their home villages in western Rajasthan to the regions of Haryana and Delhi. During this project we attempted to understand the constraints to production, techniques that could increase animal health and family income of herders. One of the main goals of the project was to also identify programmatic opportunities whereby information at the national or international level could be used to improve sustainability and efficiency of movement from one grazing location to another

Association of biotic factors with indigenous knowledge of farmers on rainfall predictions

Farmers use different factors (biotic and abiotic) around them to predict rainfall. Several Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) practices followed by farmers in different parts of the country are documented and published. ITKs collected from flood and drought prone areas of south India along with documented ITKs were analysed to know the biotic indicators used by farmers to predict rainfall. These biotic factors were classified as insects, birds and animals. Farmers use 19 types of insects, 17 types of birds and 10 types of animals as indicators to predict rainfall. Various behaviour types of these biotic factors are observed by farmers based on which they make decisions about possibility of rain occurring and in some cases the intensity of rain. These are grassroots innovations which are time tested and facilitated farmers to make their farming decisions

Pastoral Land Use and Grazing Measurement through Remotely Sensed Data

About 60 percent of the world\u27s pasture land (about 2.2 million sq km), just less than half the world\u27s usable surface is covered by grazinglands. These are distributed between arid, semi arid and sub humid, humid, temperate and tropical highlands zones. This supports about 360 million cattle (half of which are in the humid savannas), and over 600 million sheep and goats, mostly in the arid rangelands (grasslands) (IFAD, 2005). Grasslands around the world can have drastically different grazing management systems depending on the political, social, economic, and cultural settings. Livestock grazing is the predominant type of land use, providing the livelihood for more than a billion people. Still, livestock grazing is associated with large uncertainties, as the productivity of the pastures depends strongly on the low and highly variable precipitation (Behnke et al., 1993; Sullivan and Rhode, 2002; Westoby et al., 1989). In the semi-arid areas of western Rajasthan, the sparse yearly rainfall is concentrated in a distinct and short rainy season that is followed by the crop growing season and also the grassland vegetation. For a risk-averse herder, the challenge of grazing management is to optimally adapt to this highly variable and highly uncertain rainfall scenario while taking into account ecosystem dynamics. Extensive livestock rearing by Raika / Dewasi community has been a major occupation for centuries and traditional nomadic herding lifestyle in western arid Rajasthan. Its open grazing lands have so far, more or less, sustained this activity. But, with the teeming population of small-ruminants, management and control over village pasture use has slackened as a result incidences of encroachment have increased during recent past. We studied a pre- and post-monsoon pasture in the Nimbol village of Pali district using Clark’s Animal Tracking System (GPS) and remote sensing techniques. Our objectives were to: 1) understand the changes in pastoral land use management and document grazing land use patterns during the pre-grazing (pre-monsoon) and post-grazing (post-monsoon) periods at a local scale using remote sensing mapping methods, 2) evaluate changes in grazing land use from the pre-grazing and post-grazing period, and 3) assess the effects of land use changes on rangeland vegetation productivity using LISS-IV Mx satellite images

Soret and dufour effects on chemically reacting and viscous dissipating nanofluid flowing past a moving porous plate in the presence of a heat source/sink

This study performed a numerical investigation of the Soret and Dufour effects on unsteady free convective chemically reacting nanofluid flowing past a vertically moving porous plate in the presence of viscous dissipation and a heat source/sink. The equations direct-ing the flow are non-dimensionalised, modified to ordinary differential equations and emerging equations are resolved computationally by using the bvp4c function in MATLAB software. The results obtained from this analysis indicate that the resulting velocity of the nanofluid increases with increasing Grashof number, mass Grashof number and porosity parameter. An increase in the Dufour number increases the fluid temperature, whereas the concentration profile declines with the increase in the Schmidt number. It is also observed that the skin fric-tion coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number increase with increasing magnetic field parameter, Eckert number and Schmidt number, respectively. The present study reveals the impact of Soret and Dufour effects on heat and mass transfer rates in chemically re-acting and viscous dissipating nanofluids

Economic Viability of Henna in Semi-arid Rajasthan

Henna (Lawsonia sp.) is a rainfed plantation crop commercially cultivated in Rajasthan on 32,084 ha (2001-02) for its leaves, which are important source of a natural dye. The present study has assessed the profitability and economic viability of henna cultivation based on the data collected from a sample of 100 farmers during 2003-04 in the Pali district of Rajasthan. Based on the factors like net present value, internal rate of return, benefitcost ratio, henna cultivation practised by the farmers has been found to be a financially viable proposition. The financial viability parameters have been found to be more sensitive to changes in prices than cost