Adoption and Impacts of Zero-Tillage in the Rice-Wheat Zone of Irrigated Haryana, India

This study documents the adoption and impacts of zero-tillage (ZT) wheat in the rice-wheat systems of India’s Haryana State primarily drawing on a detailed empirical survey of 400 rice-wheat farmers. Our random stratified sample revealed 34.5% to be ZT wheat adopters and a quarter of the wheat area in the surveyed communities to be under ZT. The study suggests the potential for further diffusion but also flags the issue of disadoption (10%). ZT adopters, non-adopters, and disadopters differ significantly in terms of their resource bases, with adopters typically showing the most favorable values. ZT drastically reduces tractor operations in farmers’ ZT wheat fields from an average of 8 passes to a single pass, implying a saving of 6 tractor hours and 36 liters of diesel per hectare. At 4.4 tons per hectare, ZT achieved the highest wheat yields in the survey year, a significant 4.0% yield increase over conventional tillage. The higher yield and lower water use resulted in significantly higher water productivity indicators for ZT wheat. ZT did not have any significant spillover effect on the subsequent rice crop. The combination of a significant “yield effect” and “cost-saving effect” makes ZT adoption worthwhile and is the driving force behind its rapid spread and widespread acceptance, providing a much needed boost to economic returns to wheat cultivation. Based on these findings, the study provides a number of recommendations for research and development in Haryana’s rice-wheat systems.Wheat, Rice, Agricultural development, Innovation adoption, Drilling equipment, Farming systems, Zero tillage, Production costs, Credit, Income, India, Crop Production/Industries, E16, F08,

Career Counseling in Pakistan

This is a qualitative study that aims to identify and understand the importance, availability and practical implementation of career counseling at different educational levels of Pakistan. The importance of a career counselor and the influence on career choice has also been highlighted in the study. The in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data from 25 participants, belonging to different universities of Pakistan, having different academic and professional background. The collected information was processed after coding the interviews by thematic analysis using the software (N-vivo, ed. 10). The results from thematic analysis showed that a proper career counseling system is not available at any level of education. In fact career counseling does not exist in Pakistan in a true sense.  Most students do not get any counseling at any level of their academic life about their career path.  It was seen that people choose their career under the influence of their family members or due to the availability of the subjects/profession. It was also found that a career counselor must be a professional counselor, equipped with psychological, academic and professional skills and knowledge. As Career counseling plays an important role for the right selection of a person’s career path, the study aims to highlights the information of career counseling to help the educational policy makers in Pakistan. It may enable the regulatory bodies to understand the current level and importance of career counseling to shape up their future policies and practices keeping in view the findings of the study. Keywords: Career Counseling, career counselor, career choice, pre-school, post college, university level, family level, Career Choice Influence

Citizenship Education in Pakistan

The purpose of writing this paper is to assess the importance of citizenship education as a part of curriculum. How we can use citizenship education to make young students good citizens. The study is done in Pakistani context with the comparison of countries having well established system of citizenship education, like Canada and UK. Pakistan is a new country and it has inherited many difficult problems from its former rulers, such as illiteracy poverty, disease and social misery. Citizens should not only take interest in the problems of the country, but also participate in solving them. Citizenship education is the most effective way of making people civil so that they can contribute in the development of their country. Citizenship education is necessary for students to become responsible and active citizens of the country. A right approach is needed to establish a strong citizenship education system in Pakistan. The system must include the understanding of updated economic, social and political happenings of the country especially the democratic system. This can encourage students to effectively participate for the right development of their country. Keywords: Citizenship Education, Curriculum, Democrac

Impact of CNG load shedding on daily routine: a study of Pakistan

People of Pakistan are facing a number of problems due to CNG load shedding. This study investigated the consequences of energy on routines of people and also on social and economic performance of people. Primary data has been collected by conducting video recorded interviews and comment based interviews from twin cities i.e. Islamabad and Rawalpindi of Pakistan. The sample of study includes students, housewives, businessmen and professional workers who are affecting by this CNG shortage. This study focuses on relationship between CNG shortage and its effect on daily routine life and performance of people. It also focuses on psychological issues as well as the economic issues that are caused due to this shortage. This study utilizes in depth semi structured interviews to conduct the qualitative study. N-Vivo 10 is used as tool of data analysis. The CNG shortage in Pakistan caused many critical issues like unemployment, decrease in export contracts and commodities prices are increasing due to this shortage. Less working hours, lack of social and family gathering, increase in work load, depression and anxiety are results caused by CNG shortage. It is concluded that CNG shortage has bad impact on people's lives and on their overall performance

Visualizing Components of Seed Yield to Identify Plant Ideotype in Field Pea (Pisum sativum L.)

The yields of pulse crops in general and fieldpea in particular have stagnated hence a study was undertaken to suggest a model plant type in fieldpea utilizing F4 populations of six crosses. Observations were recorded for nine traits on 120 randomly selected plants in each cross to work out genetic variability and phenotypic correlations which were further utilized for drawing the inferences to shape out an ideal plant type. Based on these, the model fieldpea plant with a combination of characteristics such as leafiness more number of primary branches and pods per plant, longer pods, with higher number of seeds per pod, round and large seed size was envisaged. The effect of different qualitative traits on yield contributing characters revealed that leafy and round seeded plants could be favorable components of high yield

Free Abelian 2-Form Gauge Theory: BRST Approach

We discuss various symmetry properties of the Lagrangian density of a four (3 + 1)-dimensional (4D) free Abelian 2-form gauge theory within the framework of Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) formalism. The present free Abelian gauge theory is endowed with a Curci-Ferrari type condition which happens to be a key signature of the 4D non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory. In fact, it is due to the above condition that the nilpotent BRST and anti-BRST symmetries of the theory are found to be absolutely anticommuting in nature. For our present 2-form gauge theory, we discuss the BRST, anti-BRST, ghost and discrete symmetry properties of the Lagrangian densities and derive the corresponding conserved charges. The algebraic structure, obeyed by the above conserved charges, is deduced and the constraint analysis is performed with the help of the physicality criteria where the conserved and nilpotent (anti-)BRST charges play completely independent roles. These physicality conditions lead to the derivation of the above Curci-Ferrari type restriction, within the framework of BRST formalism, from the constraint analysis.Comment: LaTeX file, 21 pages, journal referenc

Absolutely anticommuting (anti-)BRST symmetry transformations for topologically massive Abelian gauge theory

We demonstrate the existence of the nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) and anti-BRST symmetry transformations for the four (3 + 1)-dimensional (4D) topologically massive Abelian U(1) gauge theory that is described by the coupled Lagrangian densities (which incorporate the celebrated (B \wedge F) term). The absolute anticommutativity of the (anti-) BRST symmetry transformations is ensured by the existence of a Curci-Ferrari type restriction that emerges from the superfield formalism as well as from the equations of motion that are derived from the above coupled Lagrangian densities. We show the invariance of the action from the point of view of the symmetry considerations as well as superfield formulation. We discuss, furthermore, the topological term within the framework of superfield formalism and provide the geometrical meaning of its invariance under the (anti-) BRST symmetry transformations.Comment: LaTeX file, 22 pages, journal versio

Nonlinear superhorizon perturbations of non-canonical scalar field

We develop a theory of non-linear cosmological perturbations at superhorizon scales for a scalar field with a Lagrangian of the form $P(X,\phi)$, where $X=-\partial^{\mu}\phi\partial_{\mu}\phi$ and $\phi$ is the scalar field. We employ the ADM formalism and the spatial gradient expansion approach to obtain general solutions valid up to the second order in the gradient expansion. This formulation can be applied to, for example, DBI inflation models to investigate superhorizon evolution of non-Gaussianities. With slight modification, we also obtain general solutions valid up to the same order for a perfect fluid with a general equation of state $P=P(\rho)$.Comment: 14 page