Technological Gap in Pineapple Cultivation in Dimapur District of Nagaland

The study was conducted to examine the technological gap in recommended cultivation practices of pineapple in Dimapur district of Nagaland. A total of 120 respondents were personally interviewed by the researcher using a pre-tested interview schedule. The result of technological gap revealed that the highest (100%) technological gap was found in recommended practices like planting time, treatment of planting materials, manure and fertilizers, intercultural operations, growth regulators and Insect Disease Management. And the lowest was found in recommended varieties with 0% technology gap. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2021.v08i8.00

Adoption Behaviour of Improved Sugarcane Cultivation Practices among the Farmers of Gonda District of Uttar Pradesh

The present study is an attempt to assess the socio-economic characteristics and utilization level of source of Information in improved cultivation practices of sugarcane by the farmers of Gonda District in Uttar Pradesh. Sugarcane cultivation is not prominent in this area however a large number of farmers cultivate cash crop, due to availability of information or communication channel about package of practices. Primary data from 120 respondents were collected through face to face interview. Descriptive research design had been followed for the present study. Random and Purposive sampling had been used for the present study. Farmers had a highest utilization of information by friend, neighbor and relatives (83.34%), followed by radio i.e.75%.Majority of (48.33%) farmers had medium level of utilization, followed by 29.16% of farmers had high level utilization about improved cultivation practices of sugarcane. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2021.v08i10.00

Utilization of Soil Health Card in Achieving Surplus Food Production in Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh

Soil serves as a combination of minerals, organic matter, air, water and the countless micro-organisms that together support life on earth. Continued degradation of soils has adversely affected crop productivity in the country. The soil health has been impaired due to emergence of multi nutrient deficiencies and falling carbon levels. Government of India planned to issue Soil Health Cards to all the farmers under the scheme Soil Health card Scheme and launched this scheme in 2015. Soil Health Card Scheme has helped India achieve surplus capacity in food grain production. The study was based on both primary and secondary data. The study was conducted in few selected villages of Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh in which it was found that Soil Health Card scheme is being implemented and the farmers were aware of SHCS and are being motivated to utilize the information given in soil health cards. Andhra Pradesh has issued most number of soil health cards to its farmers. It is concluded that majority of respondents have medium level of knowledge and utilization of SHC. Nearly 50% of respondents were utilizing the information given by SHC and stated that there is increase in production. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2021.v08i10.01

Constraints faced by Progressive Farmers for Effective Utilization of Information through ICT and Suggestions for Better ICT Services in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important source for sharing and receiving of agricultural information. The present study explored the constraints faced by farmers and suggestions for effective utilization of ICT services for agricultural information. The study was conducted in all villages of Nandyal Mandal of Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. 2021. Responses from the 120 farmers were collected through well-structured interview schedule. It was revealed that that lack of knowledge about ICT tools, poor condition of equipment, relevant information not received in time and awareness of new ICT service among farmers about the use of ICTs for the educational and agricultural purpose were the major constraints in ICT use. All these constraints can be overcome by implementing suggestions by farmers like; proper and improved infrastructural facilities at the village level, providing relevant information at a time and skill development updating with training, creating awareness regarding use of ICTs for educational and agricultural purpose. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis in finding relationships between variables. The findings show that most of the farmers in Nandyal Mandal that use ICTs as a source of agricultural information. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2021.v08i8.01

Some biological studies on Hypnea pannosa J. Ag.

The present investigation focused on studying the toxicity, analgesic, behavioral and anti-emetic activities of the ethanol extract of Hypnea pannosa. The ethanol extract caused 100% lethality at the doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg. Significant analgesic and central depressant effects were observed from 150 mg/ kg dose. The extract at 200 mg/kg dose exhibited significant anti-emetic effect, when compared to standard drug.Key words: Hypnea pannosa, toxicity, analgesic, behavioral, anti-emetic activities, crude extract

ADOPTION OF IMPROVED FARM PRACTICES IN MAIZE BY THE FARMERS OF NUAPADA DISTRICT OF ODISHA

Maize (Zea Mays L.) is considered as a unique cereal crop for its diversified use and suitability under various cropping systems. In India it is the third largest cereal crop in terms of acreage. The present study was conducted in Khariar block of Nuapada district of Odisha.  Descriptive research design was followed, since the present study is fact-finding and present description of the respondents as well as the area. There are 117 villages in the selected block out of that 12 villages were selected through Random sampling based on existence of Maize cultivation. From the above analysis, it was concluded that majority (85.00%) of respondents were male. Majority (45.00%) of the respondents belonged to both the age group of (20-35) years and (36-55) years. Majority (80.00%) of respondents were married. Majority (70.00%) of respondents were having annual income more than 51,000. Majority (35.00%) of respondents were having education qualification up to High School. Majority (60.00%) of respondents were having land holding of 1-2 hectare. Majority (75.00%) of respondents were occupation Maize Farming and other crops farming collectively. Majority (80.00%) of respondents were having joint family. Majority (65.00%) of respondents were having family size of more than 5 members. Majority (45.00%) of respondents were having semi-cemented house. Majority (40.00%) of respondents were having social participation in Farmers Society. Majority (65.00%) of respondents daily used mobile. Majority (70.00%) of respondents were having maize farming experience up to 1-20 years. Majority (45.00%) of respondents were having medium level knowledge regarding Maize Cultivation Practices. Majority the adoption of Improved Production Technology of Maize was found to be high that is 75.00 percent. According to the response from the respondents, non-performance of visit by agricultural personnel time to time ranked I for constraints faced by the respondents, Lack of hybrid seed ranked II, Lack of credit facility at time ranked III, Lack of proper resources and capital ranked IV and so on. According to the suggestions received from the respondents, Hybrid seed should be available in time, Credit should be available earlier and timely, Availability of fertilizers and other inputs should be in time, Technical advice and training should be given at right time and so on. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2021.v08i11.00

Threat modeling in smart firefighting systems: aligning MITRE ATT&CK Matrix and NIST security controls

Industrial automation technologies are envisioned as multi-device systems that are constantly interacting with one another and with enterprise systems. In these industrial systems, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) significantly improves system efficiency, scalability, ease of control, and monitoring. These benefits have been achieved at the cost of greater security risks, thus making the system vulnerable to cyberattacks. Historically, industrial networks and systems lacked security features like authentication and encryption due to intended isolation over the Internet. Lately, remote access to these IIoT systems has made an attempt of holistic security alarmingly critical. In this research paper, a threat modeling framework for smart cyber–physical system (CPS) is proposed to get insight of the potential security risks. To carry out this research, the smart firefighting use case based on the MITRE ATT&CK matrix was investigated. The matrix analysis provided structure for attacks detection and mitigation, while system requirement collection (SRC) was applied to gather generic assets’ information related to hardware, software and network. With the help of SRC and MITRE ATT&CK, a threat list for the smart firefighting system was generated. Conclusively, the generated threat list was mapped on the national institute of standards and technology (NIST) security and privacy controls. The results show that these mapped controls can be well-utilized for protection and mitigation of threats in smart firefighting system. In future, critical cyber–physical systems can be modeled upon use case specific threats and can be secured by utilizing the presented framework

Scholarly publishing depends on peer reviewers

The peer-review crisis is posing a risk to the scholarly peer-reviewed journal system. Journals have to ask many potential peer reviewers to obtain a minimum acceptable number of peers accepting reviewing a manuscript. Several solutions have been suggested to overcome this shortage. From reimbursing for the job, to eliminating pre- publication reviews, one cannot predict which is more dangerous for the future of scholarly publishing. And, why not acknowledging their contribution to the final version of the article published? PubMed created two categories of contributors: authors [AU] and collaborators [IR]. Why not a third category for the peer-reviewer