Contract Farming in Potato Production: An Alternative for Managing Risk and Uncertainty

The cost of potato cultivation has been found 17 to 24 per cent higher under contract farming over various costs than under non-contract system, mainly due to high investments on seeds, fertilizers and machine power. Yield has been found 255.78 quintals per ha in the contract farms, which is 8.84 per cent higher over the potato yield obtained from the non-contract farms. Gross income has been Rs 99753 per ha in the contract farms as against Rs 41572 per ha in non-contract system. The sale price of potato has been found much higher (Rs 390/q) for contract than non-contract farms (Rs 177 /q). The net return over operational cost (cost ‘A1’) has been found as Rs 11882 per ha in non-contract farms, which increased more than five-times under contract farming system, it being Rs 62982 per ha. Similarly, the net return has been found five-and-a-half times more in contract than non-contract system over cost C1 (without rental value of the land). The net return over cost C2 has been observed as Rs 51866 per ha for contract farms and only Rs 800 per ha under non-contract system. Benefit-cost ratio on various costs has been found to vary from 1.40 to 1.02 for without contract and from 2.71 and 2.08 for contract farming. The impact of contract farming has been quite visible and remarkably favourable on yield and profitability of potato production at the existing pattern of resource-use and production technology prevalent in the Haryana farming system. The regression analysis has indicated significant influence of manure and fertilizers and human labour on the return of potatoes grown under contract farming situation. MVP-MFC ratios of plant protection, manure-fertilizers and human labour have been found much higher, indicating tremendous scope to increase the profitability in potato production under contract farming situation whereas in the case of non-contract system, irrigation and plant protection have shown sufficient scope to raise the crop income. The yield uncertainty has been less in contract than non-contract potato production. There has been no price uncertainty in the contract farming of potato whereas in the non-contract system, it exits to a large extent due variations in the price of potatoes sold in the market. These findings have clearly underlined the superiority of contract farming over non-contract farming system in potato production.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Accounting for Impact of Environmental Degradation in Agriculture of Indian Punjab

Having witnessed a fast growth, the agriculture in Punjab has reached a plateau. To sustain even the existing level, the costs are increasing and natural resources are being depleted due to overuse. This study has examined the use of certain resources and its impact on the cost of production. The data have been collected from different primary and secondary sources. The fast increase in area under rice and wheat appears to be unsustainable due to the fast decline in water table. Therefore, the cost of pumping out water with electricity has been going up, shortage of electric power has resulted in increase in the number of electric and diesel tubewells, further escalating the cost of production. The replenishment of soil health due to depleting macro and micronutrients and increased pesticide-use have also been observed to increase the cost. Thus, the cost on account of these factors together has gone up by Rs 63/t in wheat and Rs 189/t in rice. The varietal diversity of wheat has decreased and that of rice crop has increased during the past two and a half decades. The policy measures to minimize excessive use of natural resources requires suitable input pricing, particularly for water resource, improving input-use efficiency and revamping market forces to encourage diversification of state agriculture from rice to alternative crops.Agricultural and Food Policy,

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,

Incentives for Soil and Water Conservation on Farm in Ravines of Gujarat: Policy Implications for Future Adoption

The issue of incentives has been studied for the adoption of soil and water conservation in the ravines of Gujarat in the context of holistic development of small and marginal farms and their profitability. It is hypothesized that poor economic condition of farmers impedes their ability to make large-scale investment in conservation agriculture, in general and improvement of land, in particular. The study is based on two groups of farms- with and without conservation history. The results have substantiated the argument that under the present price scenario, farm profitability makes the marginal farms susceptible to a vicious poverty circle. The input and output prices prevailing in the region do not favour the farming enterprise. Thus, this policy variable would have little impact on farm profitability and the incentive to adopt conservation on farm. Hence, such farms need an initial dose of state help. This fact has been clearly brought out in the study area. The farms benefiting from past conservation programme of the state government have done better than those who were deprived of it. The former group of farms has been able to lease-in better piece of land and take cash crop to raise their profit level. This has positively affected their investment decisions. While land tenure has shown weak relation with decision of farm investment, farmers’ credit worthiness might play a greater role in helping adoption of conservation on farm. Thus, financial inclusion of these marginal farms could be an important incentive policy variable for adoption of conservation measures in this region.Soil and water conservation, conservation agriculture, credit worthiness, land tenure, farm investment, Gujarat ravines, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q25, Q28,

Supply Chain Analysis of Onion and Cauliflower in Punjab

The present study was conducted in Rajpura block of Patiala district in Punjab with a sample of 50 vegetables growers. The total cost of cultivation was estimated at Rs 49563/ha for onion and Rs 34840/ha for cauliflower. The net returns were found higher for onion (Rs 74597/ha) as compared to that from cauliflower (Rs 38072/ha). Majority of these vegetables were being disposed off through commission agent/wholesaler (more than 90 per cent) followed by retailer and directly to the consumer. The efficiency of the these market channels can be enhanced through competition by organized retail chains and modernizing the vegetable market system in the state. The wholesale markets of Pune, Ludhiana and Patiala for onion and that of Shimla, Ludhiana and Patiala for cauliflower have been found integrated with price of onion and cauliflower transmitting quickly from the independent to the dependent markets. The highest elasticity of price transmission in onion has been observed between Ludhiana and Patiala markets with almost 90 per cent of the price change in Ludhiana getting transmitted to the Patiala market. Such transmission has been 100 per cent for cauliflower between Shimla and Patiala markets. The price transmission has been observed faster in cauliflower than onion. Though a long-term equilibrium relationship exists between all the studied markets in terms of weekly price of the two vegetables crops, there also exists a short-run disequilibrium between some of the market pairs with almost 15 to 25 per cent of the fluctuations usually getting corrected within a week. Greater integration in these markets may help the farmers as well as consumers of the vegetables through better price signals.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Performance Modelling of Electro-optical Devicesfor Military Target Acquisition

Accurate predictions of electro-optical imager performance are important for defence decision-making. The predictions serve as a guide for system development and are used in war game,simulations that directly influence engagement tactics. In the present study, mathematical modelshave been developed which involves detection of different military targets using their opto-electronics properties in different environmental conditions. The method first calculates thesignal-to-noise ratio received by the observing sensors reflected from the target by quantifyingthe light energy in terms of photons, which is used for evaluating the detection probability

Nitramine-Based High Energy Propellant Compositions for Tank Guns

Six different RDX-based gun propellant compositions have been formulated and studied to select the most suitable composition for tank gun ammunition in terms of higher force constant at relatively lower flame temperature (T). Ballistic'performance of the compositions was evaluated on the basis of closed vessel test. JIea(energy was determined using a bomb calorimeter. Sensitivity, thermal characteristics, stability and mechanical properties of the compositions were studied for assessing their suitabilitY for application. The composition containing 65 per cent RDX and 28 per cent nitrocellulose was found to provide higher level of force constant at relatively lower T f ' reasonably good burning rate characteristics and mechanical properties

Advanced Concepts of the Propulsion System for the Futuristic Gun Ammunition

This review paper reports various concepts of the gun propulsion system to meet the goal of the futuristic hypervelocity projectiles. The nonconventional concepts, such as liquid gun propellant, rail gun, coil gun, electrothermal gun, electrothermal chemical gun along with conventional energetic solid gun propellant have been discussed. Even though muzzle velocity around 2000 m/s has been claimed to be achieved using such nonconventional propulsion systems, it will take quite some time before such systems are in regular use in the battlefield. Hence, solid gun propellants containing novel energetic ingredients (binders, plasticisers, and oxidisers) would continue to be used in the near future and are expected to meet the requirements of the futuristic gun ammunition

Evaluation of Energetic Plasticisers for Solid Gun Propellant

This paper reports the evaluation of four different energetic plasticisers, viz., glycidyl azidepolymer (GAP, MW = 390), 1,5-diazido-3-nitrazapentane (DANPE), ethylene-glycol-bis-azido-acetate (EGBAA) and N-n-butyl-N-(2 nitroxyethyl) nitramine (n-Bu-NENA) separately into highenergy gun propellant containing 28 per cent NC (13.1 N %), 65 per cent RDX, 6 per cent di-octyl-phthahate (DOP) and 1 per cent carbamite.  Four different propellant compositions based on theenergetic plasticiser have been formulated separately with the replacement of non-energeticplasticiser, DOP. The propellants were processed by standard solvent method and evaluatedexperimentally along with the control composition to determine the ballistic parameters, cal-val,sensitivity, thermal characterisation, thermal stability and mechanical properties. The performanceof the propellants containing the energetic plasticiser has  been compared with that of thecontrol composition containing the non-energetic plasticiser, DOP so as to assess the suitabilityof the energetic plasticiser for the futuristic gun propellant formulations. It has been found outthat n-Bu-NENA is the superior plasticiser among the four energetic plasticisers evaluated inthis study.Defence Science Journal, 2008, 58(1), pp.86-93, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.58.162

Management of sheath blight in rice through application of Validamycin, Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescence

Eleven different combinations of Trichoderma harzianum, Psedumonas fluorescens and Validamycin 3L, were applied at different crop stages viz. seed, seedling, tillering and symptoms initiation along with one application of Carbendazim as standard control to test their efficacy against sheath blight of rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani under field condition. One application of Carbendazim @ 0.1% at the time of symptoms initiation (with 81.36 percent reduction of disease incidence, 83.17 percent reduction in disease severity and 62.92 percent inhancement in yield) and seed treatment with Trichoderma harzianum and seedling root dipping with Pseudomonas fluorescens and two spraying of Validamycin i.e. at tillering and symptoms initiation stages (with 69.10 percent reduction of disease incidence,83.17 percent reduction in disease severity and 62.49 percent inhancement in yield) were found to be equally and highly effective in reducing the sheath blight severity and in increasing rice grain yield also. One spraying of Validamycin at symptoms initiation stage was comparatively less effective (29.54 per cent reduction in disease incidence,53.46 per cent reduction in disease severity and 47.76 per cent enhancement in yield ) than one spraying of Carbendazim at symptoms initiation stage