Precision farming technology, adoption decisions and productivity of vegetables in resource-poor environments

‘Precision Farming’ or ‘Precision Agriculture’ aims at increasing productivity, decreasing production costs and minimizing the environmental impact of farming. In this context, the present study has been undertaken to understand the impact of precision farming on resource-poor regions and underprivileged farmers. Specifically, the study has looked into productivity, income, employment, and adoption behaviour of technology in agriculture. The study, conducted in the Dharmapuri district, has collected data on precision and non-precision farmings through the interview schedule during the year 2007. Sources of the productivity difference between the precision and conventional farmings have been identified by decomposing the productivity change. Financial impact of adoption has been studied through a two-stage econometric model. The first stage of the model consists of an adoption decision model that describes the factors which influence the likelihood of adopting precision farming. Results of first stage have provided input for the second stage of the model, which has been used to estimate the impact of precision farming on farm financial performance. The study has revealed that adoption of precision farming has led to 80 per cent increase in yield in tomato and 34 per cent in brinjal production. Increase in gross margin has been found as 165 and 67 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal farming. The contribution of technology for higher yield in precision farming has been 33.71 per cent and 20.48 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal production. The elasticity of 0.39 for the adoption in tomato and 0.28 in brinjal has indicated that as the probability of adoption increases by 10 per cent, net return increases by 39 per cent and 28 per cent in tomato and brinjal cultivation. Lack of finance and credit facilities have been identified as the major constrains in nonadoption of precision farming. The study has suggested that providing of subsidies for water-soluble fertilizers and pump-sets will increase adoption of precision farming.Crop Production/Industries,

Food Security and Efficacy of the Intervention Mechanism in India

Rice and wheat are the two major foodgrains in India and their level of production determines the country self-sufficient. Forecasts on cereals supply range from 250 to over 300 million tones in the country by the year 2020. Mere availability of foodgrains is not a sufficient condition to ensure food security but also necessary that the poor have sufficient means to purchase food. Poor economic access leads to food security and it has been checked by the government mechanism through the operation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and foodgrains are distributed at subsidized prices to the people living Below Poverty Line (BPL). It is a safety net to more than 330 million poor and those nutritionally at risk and an important delivery channel with a network of half million Fair Price Shops (FPS) catering to the needs of 199 million of ration cardholders. Food subsidy amounting to Rs. 25,800 (approximately US$ 5,730 million) was allotted during the period 2004-05, which rose ten times in the past 15 years. Higher level of procurement, revising the Minimum Support Price (MSP), inventory cost for stocking foodgrains and a lower level of issue price together absorb huge subsidy. Monte Carlo Technique was used to examine the implications of several policy options by simulating the 2002-03 base scenario. Optimum or the normative level of procurement, improving offtake from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, private participation, issuing food stamps and food credit cards are the possible options to improve the efficacy of the system and reduce the budgetary burden due to subsidy.Food Security, Targeted Public Distribution System, Fair Price Shops, Minimum Support Price, Monte Carlo Technique, Food Security and Poverty, J21, H4, H5, O2, Q18,

India’s trade potential and export opportunities for spices

Economic growth and development of a country rely on trade as it serves as a driving force with efficient utilization of factor of endowments. Several commodities are traded world-wide, among them spices which has a long history of being one of the highly traded commodity. Developing countries including India are the leading producer and exporter of spices in the world. The demand for Indian spices has gone up in the United States of America, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, etc. The study assess the comparative advantage of major spices exporting countries for pepper, cardamom and turmeric-based on data available in International Trade Centre. To analyse the effect of trade liberalisation, a simulation model (SMART) developed by UNCTAD was used to estimate trade creation, diversion and revenue effect on importing and exporting countries. The result shows that India has a comparative advantage in the export of Turmeric, Guatemala in Cardamom and Vietnam in Pepper. The impact of tariff relief on India has greater advantage, which has trade creation in the export of cardamom and turmeric. Whereas in pepper, comparatively, trade diversion is higher than trade creation, indicating that less efficient countries are given a chance to export to the top importing countries due to a reduction in tariff. Indian spice exporters should focus on promoting or exporting spices to countries like Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, and Germany

Precision farming technology, adoption decisions and productivity of vegetables in resource-poor environments

‘Precision Farming’ or ‘Precision Agriculture’ aims at increasing productivity, decreasing production costs and minimizing the environmental impact of farming. In this context, the present study has been undertaken to understand the impact of precision farming on resource-poor regions and underprivileged farmers. Specifically, the study has looked into productivity, income, employment, and adoption behaviour of technology in agriculture. The study, conducted in the Dharmapuri district, has collected data on precision and non-precision farmings through the interview schedule during the year 2007. Sources of the productivity difference between the precision and conventional farmings have been identified by decomposing the productivity change. Financial impact of adoption has been studied through a two-stage econometric model. The first stage of the model consists of an adoption decision model that describes the factors which influence the likelihood of adopting precision farming. Results of first stage have provided input for the second stage of the model, which has been used to estimate the impact of precision farming on farm financial performance. The study has revealed that adoption of precision farming has led to 80 per cent increase in yield in tomato and 34 per cent in brinjal production. Increase in gross margin has been found as 165 and 67 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal farming. The contribution of technology for higher yield in precision farming has been 33.71 per cent and 20.48 per cent, respectively in tomato and brinjal production. The elasticity of 0.39 for the adoption in tomato and 0.28 in brinjal has indicated that as the probability of adoption increases by 10 per cent, net return increases by 39 per cent and 28 per cent in tomato and brinjal cultivation. Lack of finance and credit facilities have been identified as the major constrains in nonadoption of precision farming. The study has suggested that providing of subsidies for water-soluble fertilizers and pump-sets will increase adoption of precision farming

Food Security and Efficacy of the Intervention Mechanism in India

Rice and wheat are the two major foodgrains in India and their level of production determines the country self-sufficient. Forecasts on cereals supply range from 250 to over 300 million tones in the country by the year 2020. Mere availability of foodgrains is not a sufficient condition to ensure food security but also necessary that the poor have sufficient means to purchase food. Poor economic access leads to food security and it has been checked by the government mechanism through the operation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and foodgrains are distributed at subsidized prices to the people living Below Poverty Line (BPL). It is a safety net to more than 330 million poor and those nutritionally at risk and an important delivery channel with a network of half million Fair Price Shops (FPS) catering to the needs of 199 million of ration cardholders. Food subsidy amounting to Rs. 25,800 (approximately US$ 5,730 million) was allotted during the period 2004-05, which rose ten times in the past 15 years. Higher level of procurement, revising the Minimum Support Price (MSP), inventory cost for stocking foodgrains and a lower level of issue price together absorb huge subsidy. Monte Carlo Technique was used to examine the implications of several policy options by simulating the 2002-03 base scenario. Optimum or the normative level of procurement, improving offtake from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns, private participation, issuing food stamps and food credit cards are the possible options to improve the efficacy of the system and reduce the budgetary burden due to subsidy

Three-dimensional structure of physalis mottle virus: implications for the viral assembly

The structure of the T=3 single stranded RNA tymovirus, physalis mottle virus (PhMV), has been determined to 3.8 Å resolution. PhMV crystals belong to the rhombohedral space group R 3, with one icosahedral particle in the unit cell leading to 20-fold non-crystallographic redundancy. Polyalanine coordinates of the related turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) with which PhMV coat protein shares 32 % amino acid sequence identity were used for obtaining the initial phases. Extensive phase refinement by real space molecular replacement density averaging resulted in an electron density map that revealed density for most of the side-chains and for the 17 residues ordered in PhMV, but not seen in TYMV, at the N terminus of the A subunits. The core secondary and tertiary structures of the subunits have a topology consistent with the capsid proteins of other T=3 plant viruses. The N-terminal arms of the A subunits, which constitute 12 pentamers at the icosahedral 5-fold axes, have a conformation very different from the conformations observed in B and C subunits that constitute hexameric capsomers with near 6-fold symmetry at the icosahedral 3-fold axes. An analysis of the interfacial contacts between protein subunits indicates that the hexamers are held more strongly than pentamers and hexamer-hexamer contacts are more extensive than pentamer-hexamer contacts. These observations suggest a plausible mechanism for the formation of empty capsids, which might be initiated by a change in the conformation of the N-terminal arm of the A subunits. The structure also provides insights into immunological and mutagenesis results. Comparison of PhMV with the sobemovirus, sesbania mosaic virus reveals striking similarities in the overall tertiary fold of the coat protein although the capsid morphologies of these two viruses are very different

Abstracts of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Mathematics and Computer Science 2023

This book presents the abstracts of the selected contributions to the International Conference on Recent Trends in Mathematics and Computer Science 2023 (ICRTMCS-2023), held on 19-21 October 2023 by the Auxilium College of Arts and Science for Women, Regunathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India. ICRTMCS-2023 was a multidisciplinary conference organized with the objective of bringing together eminent academicians, research scholars, and students to exchange ideas, communicate, to discuss research findings and new advances on recent and emerging trends in the field of Mathematics and Computer Science. Moreover, the conference would also enable the participants to explore new fields and gain immense knowledge. Conference Title: International Conference on Recent Trends in Mathematics and Computer Science 2023Conference Acronym: ICRTMCS-2023Conference Date: 19-21 October 2023Conference Venue: Hybrid (Online and Auxilium College of Arts and Science for Women, Regunathapuram, India)Conference Organizer: Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science, Auxilium College of Arts and Science for Women, Regunathapuram, Tamil Nadu, Indi