The extent of adoption of off-season vegetable cultivation by tribal farmers in Koraput district of Odisha

The study on the “Extent of adoption of off-season vegetable cultivation by tribal farmers in Koraput district of Odisha” was conducted using Ex-Post-Facto research design. The study was conducted in the Koraput and Semiliguda blocks of Koraput district, Odisha, with a sample size of 120. The study used an ex-post facto research approach that combined random and purposeful sampling methods. While the gram panchayats, villages, and respondents were chosen at random, the district and blocks were purposefully chosen. The responses were obtained from each individual respondent through a structured interview schedule. Regarding adoption, the majority (75%) of off-season vegetable growers had medium adoption levels. With mean scores of 2.93, 3.00, 3.00, 2.87, 2.75, and 1.25 in regards to production, management, conservation, marketing, training, and capacity building, as well as supporting data, farmers have more adoption of land suitability, crop rotation, across-slope ploughing, input availability, discussion meetings, and crop insurance, respectively. To augment off-season vegetable production in the state in general and Koraput in particular, the latest proven and viable technology for off-season vegetable production needs to be diffused through various extension activities to accelerate its adoption. Again, the new, tried-and-true vegetable-growing techniques should be disseminated through several extension programmes to speed their adoption

Soil Organic and Enzymatic Properties as Influenced by Green Manuring and Establishment Methods in Rice-rice system

The field study was conducted during kharif and rabi seasons of 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Instructional Farm of College of Agriculture, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar to evaluate the effect of green manuring and establishment methods on growth parameters of rice-rice system. The experimental site was sandy loam in texture, slightly acidic in reaction, low in available nitrogen (198 kg/ha), medium in available phosphorus (18 kg/ha), potassium (193 kg/ha), OC (0.51%) with EC (0.20 dS/m). The rice varieties “Swarna sub-I” and “Lalat” were grown in kharif and rabi seasons, respectively. The experiment was designed with two groups of treatments, one without green manuring and the other with green manuring with Sesbania aculeata in main plot along with sequence of three establishment methods namely, Puddled Transplanted Rice (PTR), Non Puddled Transplanted Rice (NPTR) and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) making it a total of nine establishment methods i.e PTR-PTR, PTR-NPTR, PTR-DSR, NPTR-PTR, NPTR-NPTR, NPTR-DSR, DSR-PTR, DSR-NPTR, DSR-DSR as sub plots in kharif and rabi seasons. From the above experiment, it is observed that the soil organic carbon in green manured plots were superior with respect to soil biological properties as it realized higher soil organic carbon (0.51%), microbial biomass carbon (246.29 μg C/g soil), microbial biomass nitrogen (83.5 μg N/g soil). The enzymatic activities of the soil were also enhanced with green manuring recording higher dehydrogenase and phosphatase activity of 226.40 mg TPF/g soil/24 hrs and 352.81 mg p-nitrophenol/kg soil/1hr respectively, at 0-15 cm after 3 years of rice-rice system. Among the establishment methods, DSR-DSR method of establishment recorded higher soil organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen of 0.58%, 251.33 μg C/g soil and 89.36 μg N/g soil respectively. Similarly, the dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase activities were also enhanced under DSR-DSR method of establishment recording 242.60 mg TPF/g soil/24 hrs and 381.90 mg p-nitrophenol/kg soil/1hr respectively, after 3 years of rice-rice system

Germination and Graft Compatibilty Study of Wild Solanum spp and Brinjal Root Stocks with Tomato Scions

The experiment was conducted at Central Horticultural Experiment Station, ICAR- IIHR, Aiginia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India during kharif seasons of 2018 in collaboration with Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, to study the seed germination, days taken to reach grafting stage and grafting success (percentage) of rootstock and scion seeds used for grafting. The cultivated and wild species of brinjal and tomato were used as rootstocks with tomato Arka Rakshak F1 hybrid as scion. The experiment was conducted with 13 root stocks following statistical design CRD with three replications in pro trays to find out better root stock for grafting. A significant difference was recorded for the rootstock and scion parameters. Utkal Anushree had taken minimum number of days (6.67 days) for germination and the wild Solanum torvum had taken maximum number of days (16.67 days) to germinate, On the other hand, Arka Rakshak took least number of days (34.33 days) to reach grafting stage while the wild Solanum torvum reached to grafting stage within 56 days. The grafting success percentage ranged from 74.67 to 96 percent. Maximum grafting success (%) was recorded in Solanum torvum whereas minimum grafting success (%) was observed in S. sisymbriifolium wild solanum spp. root stock

Influence of Micronutrient Application on Nutrient Content, Uptake and Residual Soil Nutrient Status in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Western Uttar Pradesh Condition

A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of different nutrient treatments on nutrient content, uptake and residual soil fertility in rice crop at Crop Research Centre, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut during kharif 2022 on clay loam soil, low in organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorous, zinc and iron, medium to high in available potassium and slightly alkaline in reaction. The treatments comprising of different combinations (10) of NPK, Zn and Fe with VAM {Control,100% NPK, 100% NPK + 25kg ZnSO4 ,100% NPK+ 25 kg FeSO4, 100% NPK + 25kg ZnSO4+25 kg FeSO4, 100% NPK + 12.5 kg ZnSO4+ 12.5 kg FeSO4+VAM, 100% NPK+ZnEDTA+FeEDTA, 100% NPK + 0.5% ZnSO4 at tillering and panicle initiation, 100% NPK + 0.5% FeSO4 at tillering and panicle initiation and 100% NPK + 0.5% ZnSO4 +0.5% FeSO4 at tillering and panicle initiation}were tested in RBD with 3 replications. Rice variety PB-1637 was transplanted on 23rd July and harvested on 10th November, 2022 with recommended package of practices except the treatments. Nutrient content, uptake and residual soil fertility were significantly affected by different nutrients treatments. Zn, Fe, Zn+Fe and Zn+Fe+VAM application favored nutrient content, uptake and residual soil fertility when compared to 100% NPK. Among the various treatments crop was applied with 100% NPK + 0.5% ZnSO4 + 0.5% FeSO4 registered highest nutrient content in grain (N- 1.33% ,P-0.43%, K-0.39%, Zn-36.5 mg kg-1 and Fe-127.31 mg kg-1), nutrient uptake in grain (N-57.5 kg ha-1,P- 18.6 kg ha-1 K-16.8 kg ha-1 ,Zn- 157.7 g ha-1 and Fe-550.0 g ha-1) and residual soil nutrient status (N-221.1 kg ha-1, P-17.6 kg ha-1, K-214.7 kg ha-1, Organic Carbon-0.47%, Zn-0.98 mg kg-1 and Fe-6.56 mg kg-1)

Nutritional Health Multidimensional Locus of Control (HMLC) Instrument for Farming Community: Confirmatory factor analysis

Not AvailableIndia is self-sufficient country in terms of food production. However, it still suffers from nutritional maladies. A prime aspect to understand the issues is to see how farmer's behavior is affected by their locus of control. Nutritional Health Multidimensional Locus of Control has been derived from the premise of Multidimensional health locus of control and locus of control per se. This can be used as an instrument to know the locus and associated factors that can affect the nutritional behavior change especially in context of appropriate agri-nutri interventions. The study was conducted in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh (nutritionally vulnerable areas) .The sample size was 100 farmers selected by simple random sampling technique. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to find the best among A,B and C forms for farmers. Form A with 18 statements was found to be statistically the best one.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableAgricultural extension services are under pressure to make greater contributions to agricultural development and progress. Agricultural extension services need human resources who arecompetent.As extensionists are aware of training and educational needs of their team members, it is very important to administer extension activities with competent extensionists. For effective and efficient extension, it is important to know thebarriers towards extension to deliver the required services to farmers in order to empower them. Competencies of extensionistsare vital for work as these are associated to their professional development and skills to communicate. Analysisof skill gap(s) is the key to update extensionists as pe rtheir capability in the field. In the present study, a skill gap analysis using 'Borich Need Assessment Model' was used for the extensionists of KVKs of selected districts of two states viz; of UP and Odisha. The total sample size was 200 for astructured interview schedule used to elicit information from the extensionists. A Mean Weighted Discrepancy Score (MWDS) was calculated to find the gap in skill. This study showed, that 'confidence to work without support and guidance' was of the highest level as a skill gap among extensionists, when new methods in extension work were to be introduced, while consideringpros and con of arguments put up to an extensionist, by a farmer. Lowest mean weighted discrepancy score was given to'Conducting survey in operational area, use of PRA tools and evaluating extension program'. Based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process/Method, a lack of upgradation of ICT equipment, emerged as the major institutional barrier. As far as professional barriers are concerned inadequate information about training and training institutes and inadequate funding on emerged as the key barriersto acquire required competencies. Updating skill of extensionists, based on gap(s), owing to the importance of confidence to work without support and guidance in order to deliver required extension information/support to farmers, is very important. As of recent emphasis being given to skill development at the national level, the extensionists must be upgraded in their ICT skill(s). Extensionists with the necessary skills in their job will lead to their better performance which will in turn result in enhanced empowerment of farmers.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableWhile climate change is ravaging our planet, its nutritional health which is going to be hit even harder. Food is going to be more expensive, less nutritious and scarcer. The reduced nutritional quality of important crops could mark the beginning of a looming nutritional health crisis. Climate change is not only reducing yields, but also sapping nutrients from our meals. If climate change is predicted to cut access to nutrients then food and nutritional security is growing concern and we need to understand perceptions and implications of this burning issue for stakeholders especially farmers and extensions. The objective of the study was to develop and validate scales to study these perceptions of farmers and Extensionists regarding impact of climate change on nutrition. The locale selected for the study was from States of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Odisha due to their nutritional vulnerability status. The sample size constituted of100 farmers from these villages and extensionists from Krishi Vigyan Kendras and line departments of the state who were selected by random sampling technique. A total of 69 items were selected from review of literature. These were further reduced to 43 based on expert’s judgments. The items were finally reduced to 16 items for farmers and 24items for extensionists by statistical analysis using Mokken’s Scaling Analysis. Loevinger’s coefficient was calculated for item H (Hi); item pair H (Hij) and for the overall scale (Hs). By this means, and based on the mean scores on items by individuals, a set of items were selected. Items which had Hs>0.4 were selected. These scales can be used by various stakeholders for designing interventions for climate and nutrition smart agriculture. There is a need for agri-nutri education for consumers and farmers, especially the women in India which has a triple burden of malnutrition. Synergies of the climate and nutrition agendas need to be built for human and planet health. The implications are huge. Climate change and agriculture needs to be seen through a nutrition and gender lens for convergence to ensure food and nutritional security.Not Availabl