Marketing Efficiency of Green Peas under Different Supply Chains in Punjab

During the year 2007-08, the area under green peas in Punjab was 18.45 thousand hectares with a production of 1.11 lakh tonnes. The total consumption at the farm level being just 2.54 per cent, the marketed surplus was 97.46 per cent. The maximum quantity of green peas was sold by the growers in the wholesale market (about 89%) and the rest was sold at the farm, in the village and in Apni Mandi. The marketing of green peas has been studied by three supply chains, viz. I: Producer → wholesaler (through commission agent) → retailer → consumer; II: Producer → retailer (through commission agent) → consumer; III: Producer → consumer. The net price received by the producer was 67 per cent, 69 per cent and 94 per cent in supply chains I, II and III respectively in the Hoshiarpur market in January, 2009. The producer’s share in supply chain III was the maximum because of direct sale by the producer to the consumer. The supply chain III has been found most efficient because its marketing efficiency was 14.83 as compared to 2.70 in supply chain II and 2.38 in supply chain I. The low marketing efficiency in supply chain I was on account of a higher number of market intermediaries in this chain. The functional analysis of the factors affecting the marketing efficiency has revealed that with one per cent increase in marketing margins and costs, the marketing efficiency declined by 0.45 per cent and 0.44 per cent, respectively. The modern market infrastructure may be built up with the public-private partnership to bring efficiency in the marketing of green peas.Marketing efficiency, Green peas, Supply chains, Punjab, Price spread, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q13, Q12,

Broiler Production in Punjab — An Economic Analysis

The cost and return analysis of different sizes of broiler farms in the Punjab state has been carried out based on the primary data collected from 140 broiler farmers for the period March 2008 to February 2009 in three districts, viz. Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Muktsar. The study has shown that the total fixed investments per bird have been highest on small farms, followed by medium and large farms. The total variable cost per bird has been reported highest on small farms, followed by medium and large farms. The total cost of meat production per bird has been found highest on small broiler farms, followed by medium and large farms. The net returns per bird over the variable costs have been recorded highest on large farms and economies of scale prevail on these farms. The meat-feed price ratio and benefit-cost ratio have been found to increase with increase in farm-size of broiler farms, which indicates better utilization of inputs on large farms. On the basis of net present value, benefit-cost ratio and internal rate of return, investment in broiler farming has been found profitable in all farm-sizes, it being most profitable on large farms, followed by medium and small farms. The small broiler farms have been observed highly sensitive to increase in costs and decrease in net returns. The study has observed that broiler farming is a profitable venture and has a bright future in the Punjab agriculture for improving economic status of the farming communityAgricultural and Food Policy,

Changing behaviour of self help group members: Pathway for sustainable rural livelihoods in Eastern India

The study evaluates the behaviour construct of self help group (SHG) members. Data were solicited from randomly selected 100 SHG members of Patna district, Bihar, India at two point of time (in before and after situation), i e during 2008 and 2013. The behaviour construct developed, consisted of 30 items, for which Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of reliability was observed as 0.82. Data were solicited on three-point continuum, viz. No Change=1, Slightly Changed=2 and Highly Changed=3. The mean values of two situations (before and after situation) were compared (z-statistics) to observe the behavioural change among the SHG members. An improvement of 34.91% between pre (46.09%) and post evaluation (81%) and a significant improvement in behaviour of SHG members was observed, which exemplifies the impact of SHG approach in instilling a positive behavioural orientation. Positive behaviour could play a great role in tackling the issues of rural poverty for improving sustainable livelihood security in eastern India. To achieve this rural livelihoods must assimilate the vital facets like (i) formation and stabilization of SHGs, (ii) pro-poor financial and credit support system, (iii) market-driven and decentralized extension system, (iv) diversification towards high-value enterprises,(v) technological intervention and impact assessment, (vi) media-mix for technology transfer, (vii) frequent educational tour/visits and interaction with other SHGs and research institutes, (viii) developing leadership skills, and (ix) strong political will. Nevertheless, extension system needs to be re-oriented and revitalized with new agricultural knowledge base in emerging technologies and methodologies

Approximate Closed-Form Solution for projectile Trajectory and its Applications to lead Angle Computations

In this paper, an approximate closed-form solution for trajectories of ballistic projectiles is derived. The assumption made in this derivation is to neglect the variation of the elevation angle along the trajectory in a small interval of time. The closed-form solution has been used to develop the 3-logarithm for a lead angle computation as well as faster computation of trajectories. The fact that one of the analytical expressions although complex, is invertible and is made use of in the algorithm

Synthesis and Characterisation of Poly (aminotrinitrophenylene)

Poly(amipotrinitrophenylene) (PATNP), a thermally-stable explosive has been synthesisied by ring amination of polynitropolyphenylene (PNP) using hydroxylamine hydrochloride in dimethyl formamide in the presence of alcoholic KOH. The compound has been characterised by infrared and differential thermal analysis (DTA), which showed an exothermic peak in the range 450-560 °C. Impact and friction sensitivities of PATNP were found to be less than those of PNP. Calorimetric value of the new compound was 3284 J/g

Partition identity

In this short communication, we employed classical formal power series Identity due to Leonard Euler and use the idea of generating function primarily to prove that the number of partitions into parts that occurs at most twice is equal to the number of partitions into parts which are ≠0 3.Keywords: Unrestricted Partition, Generating Function, Identit

Extension of formulas for partition functions

This paper studies the elementary method for finding formulas for some partition functions. The idea dates back to Cayley and Macmahon, using partial fractions decomposition to obtain traceable power series expansions. The ideas are hereby extended with the aid of software called maple package.Keywords: Formula, Integer Partitions, Partition function

Simplified Proof of Kruskal’s Tree Theorem

There are different versions of proof of Kruskal’s tree theorem. In this paper, we provide a simplified version of proof of Kruskal’s tree theorem. The proof is essentially due to Nash-williams. Though, our proof is similar to the Kruskal’s original proof formulated in terms of well-quasi-orders by Gallier.  In our case, we use well-partial-orders and follow the simplified proof of Kruskal’s theorem of Gallier. Kruskal’s tree theorem is the main ingredient to prove well-foundedness of simplification orders for first-order rewriting. It implies that if an order satisfies some simplification property, well-foundedness is obtained for free. This theorem plays a crucial role in computer science, specially, termination of term rewriting systems. Keywords: Kruskal’s Theorem, Simplification order, Term rewriting, well-foundednes

Expansion of Metallic Cylinders under Explosive Loading

The behaviour of expanding metallic cylinders under explosive loading was studied. Using ultra high speed photography, the expansion characteristics of aluminium and copper metallic cylinders have been evaluated with different c/m ratio, and by changing the nature of high explosive. The results obtained are comparable to those predicted by the Gurney's energy and momentum balance equations. A cylinder test has been established for comparative to the metal by octol, TNT, PEK-1, baratol and composition B are calculated. The results are in close agreement with those calculated by Kury et al