Effects of different fertilizers on the growth and yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) in summer season in Chitwan, Nepal

An experiment was conducted in the Horticulture Farm of Agriculture and Forestry University to demonstrate the effects of different fertilizers on the yield and yield parameters of okra (var. Arka Anamika). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) consisting of seven treatments and three replications. The various treatments used in the experiment were goat manure, sesame cake, mustard cake, synthetic fertilizer (NPK), poultry manure, vermicompost and untreated control. The required dose of nitrogen was fulfilled by the fertilizer itself whereas insufficient amount of phosphorous and potassium was fulfilled by addition of single super phosphate and muriate of potash respectively. The fertilizers were applied on the basis of recommendation given by the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). The effect of poultry manure on number of open flowers and number of fruits at 40 DAS was found superior. The effect of poultry manure on plant height, number of leaves, plant diameter was found superior at 50 DAS. Goat manure produced the superior result on number of open flowers at 50 DAS. Poultry manure on the number of leaves and plant height produced the significant result at 60 DAS. Synthetic fertilizer responded well to number of fruits at 60 DAS. Sesame cake produced the superior results at 70 DAS on number of buds. Poultry manure responded well to all the parameters and produced the yield of 200 qt./ha with the BC ratio of 1.77. This experiment suggests the farmers to use the poultry manure to get the highest economic return. Vermicompost and mustard cake producing the superior and significant yield in this research are not recommended as they have low BC ratio unless effective measures are encouraged to reduce the cost of this fertilizers

Persistence of Water Access Conflicts in Mumbai: Narratives and Politics

Access to adequate, timely, and reliable supply of good quality water is fundamental to survival and well-being of human beings. However, a large part of the global population, including population of megacities of the world, is denied access to water. Conflict over water-access has been a historical phenomenon in Mumbai, one of the global megacities in India. Such conflict still persists in the city especially over denial of access to the formal water supply network to residents of slum colonies, even though the city has abundant water supply and adequate financial resources. This doctoral dissertation investigates persistence of this water-access conflict in the city of Mumbai. While accepting the theoretical lens of political ecology, the dissertation adopts the methodological approach that involves eliciting, re-articulating, and analysing narratives around the issue of water-access of key actors who influence water-access policies. Narratives, here, are normative accounts deployed by actors around a contested issue. Such narratives comprise articulation of positions of these actors on the issue and justification of these positions. Often, these also include criticisms of positions of other actors. The field work for this research involved multi-round and extended semi-structured interviews—conducted over a period of ten months—of sixty-four respondents representing different key actor-groups. The data collected was analysed parallelly using the thematic analysis technique and NVivo, the qualitative data analysis software. Twelve narratives emerging from data have the following central themes: (i) Human Rights, (ii) Right to City, (iii) Legality of Tenements, (iv) Structure and Spatiality of Tenements, (v) Planning Lacunas, (vi) Technical Barriers (vii) Techno-Fixes, (viii) Economic and Financial Barriers, (ix) Commodification and Privatization, (x) Slum-Dwellers as Free-Riders, (xi) Slum-Dwellers as Thieves, (xii) Mafia, Profiteers, and Nexus. These narratives are divided in four substantive groupings, titled: Rights, Tenements, Technology, and Economics. Different actor-groups involved in this conflict strategically deploy these narratives in order to protect and promote their respective interests and values. Based on such strategies, these narratives are divided in four strategic groups called Narratives of Claim, of Denial, of Evasion, and of Excuse. Starting with inequality and the conflict around water-access and using the theoretical lens of political ecology, this dissertation then presents politics, on the plane of narratives, around the water-access conflict. This politics manifests in terms of contestation among values and interests underlying these narratives as well as among strategic positions of different actors. The overall picture that emerges from this politics leads to the finding that the conflict around water-access on the plane of narratives is in the state of gridlock. The lens of political ecology is also used to bring out politics on the ground or on the plane of practice, operating in three different spheres—namely, politics of policy, politics of class, and politics of othering. Further analysis of politics on both these planes leads to the main finding of the dissertation that persistence of the water-access conflict in Mumbai is rooted in the dynamic gridlock in politics around the conflict on both the planes. This dynamic gridlock is outcome, on the narrative plane, of the persisting clash among contending narratives that continuously learn and evolve, and, on the practice plane, of the enduring tussle among actor-groups deploying diverse strategies such as seeking endorsements from powerful institutions and actors as well as building coalitions and social movements

Persistence of Water Access Conflicts in Mumbai: Narratives and Politics

Access to adequate, timely, and reliable supply of good quality water is fundamental to survival and well-being of human beings. However, a large part of the global population, including population of megacities of the world, is denied access to water. Conflict over water-access has been a historical phenomenon in Mumbai, one of the global megacities in India. Such conflict still persists in the city especially over denial of access to the formal water supply network to residents of slum colonies, even though the city has abundant water supply and adequate financial resources. This doctoral dissertation investigates persistence of this water-access conflict in the city of Mumbai. While accepting the theoretical lens of political ecology, the dissertation adopts the methodological approach that involves eliciting, re-articulating, and analysing narratives around the issue of water-access of key actors who influence water-access policies. Narratives, here, are normative accounts deployed by actors around a contested issue. Such narratives comprise articulation of positions of these actors on the issue and justification of these positions. Often, these also include criticisms of positions of other actors. The field work for this research involved multi-round and extended semi-structured interviews—conducted over a period of ten months—of sixty-four respondents representing different key actor-groups. The data collected was analysed parallelly using the thematic analysis technique and NVivo, the qualitative data analysis software. Twelve narratives emerging from data have the following central themes: (i) Human Rights, (ii) Right to City, (iii) Legality of Tenements, (iv) Structure and Spatiality of Tenements, (v) Planning Lacunas, (vi) Technical Barriers (vii) Techno-Fixes, (viii) Economic and Financial Barriers, (ix) Commodification and Privatization, (x) Slum-Dwellers as Free-Riders, (xi) Slum-Dwellers as Thieves, (xii) Mafia, Profiteers, and Nexus. These narratives are divided in four substantive groupings, titled: Rights, Tenements, Technology, and Economics. Different actor-groups involved in this conflict strategically deploy these narratives in order to protect and promote their respective interests and values. Based on such strategies, these narratives are divided in four strategic groups called Narratives of Claim, of Denial, of Evasion, and of Excuse. Starting with inequality and the conflict around water-access and using the theoretical lens of political ecology, this dissertation then presents politics, on the plane of narratives, around the water-access conflict. This politics manifests in terms of contestation among values and interests underlying these narratives as well as among strategic positions of different actors. The overall picture that emerges from this politics leads to the finding that the conflict around water-access on the plane of narratives is in the state of gridlock. The lens of political ecology is also used to bring out politics on the ground or on the plane of practice, operating in three different spheres—namely, politics of policy, politics of class, and politics of othering. Further analysis of politics on both these planes leads to the main finding of the dissertation that persistence of the water-access conflict in Mumbai is rooted in the dynamic gridlock in politics around the conflict on both the planes. This dynamic gridlock is outcome, on the narrative plane, of the persisting clash among contending narratives that continuously learn and evolve, and, on the practice plane, of the enduring tussle among actor-groups deploying diverse strategies such as seeking endorsements from powerful institutions and actors as well as building coalitions and social movements

Exploiting Policy Obscurity for Legalising Water Grabbing in the Era of Economic Reform: The Case of Maharashtra, India

Since the last two decades, economic reform in India is exerting pressure on limited land and water resources. This article argues that sectoral reforms underway in different areas such as water, electricity, and the export sector are giving rise to a new form of water grabbing in the state of Maharashtra, India. This water grabbing is legitimised by the use, application and redefinition of reform instruments such as the sectoral policy statements and laws. Maharashtra, like many other Indian states, has been a theatre for the play of power among different interest groups over control and access to water resources developed through state funding. Dams were built at the cost of depriving the upland riparian communities of their land, water and other resources. The water provided by the dams – which strengthened the political power of the leaders representing the irrigated plains – is now at the core of a shift in regional power equations. Based on case studies of three dams the paper presents these contemporary developments around water allocation and re-appropriation. These developments pertain to the shift from the erstwhile focus on securing water for irrigation to the new focus of securing water to facilitate international and domestic private investments. The paper concludes by arguing that the state is able to legitimise this form of water grabbing due the emergence of a new and grand political coalition and nexus that has emerged at the behest of the ongoing economic reforms

Performance and Development Effectiveness of Sardar Sarovar Project

The Tata institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, was the official agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of Resettlement and Rehabilitation of people displaced in Maharashtra by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) from 1987 to 1994. During this period, the TISS developed baseline data on social, demographic, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of individuals, families and communities in 33 villages in Akkalkuwa and Akrani tehsils of Dhule (now Nandurbar) district, and tracked changes in the habitat and life conditions of people shifted from Manibeli, Dhankhedi, and Chimalkhedi villages to Parveta (one of the earliest resettlement sites in Gujarat)

Caught Between Epistemology and Field-Conditions: Travails of Young Qualitative Policy Researchers in India

The qualitative approach is immensely helpful in policy research as it provides a comprehensive, contextually grounded, and nuanced understanding of policy processes and issues. It is characterized by certain epistemological imperatives that demand the collection of rich, diverse data and a thick description of the context. However, conducting fieldwork to collect data required to fulfill these imperatives poses diverse and stiff challenges, especially for young policy researchers in the Indian context. In this background, this paper argues that, while epistemological principles require qualitative researchers to collect rich and diverse data, the researcher’s social identity and the socio-political ground reality in the field pose significant challenges for young policy researchers in collecting field data. More specifically, the paper discusses the challenges posed by different elements of the researcher’s social identity like economic class, caste, gender, and education. It also discusses the challenges posed by different elements of the socio-political ground reality in the field such as socio-economic inequality, gatekeeping, and by politics played by field-level actors like primary contacts, community leaders, participant groups, and public bureaucrats. It draws from the thematic analysis of fieldwork experiences documented (in the form of fieldnotes and different types of memos) by three Indian researchers (including two females) who were collecting qualitative data for three previous and separate qualitative research projects. This fieldwork was carried out in two different states in India. The discussion in this paper will prove helpful, especially to young qualitative researchers, in planning and executing their fieldwork in developing countries, especially in India

Peri-operative outcomes for pancreatoduodenectomy in India: a multi-centric study

AbstractBackgroundThere have been an increasing number of reports world-wide relating improved outcomes after pancreatic resections to high volumes thereby supporting the idea of centralization of pancreatic resectional surgery. To date there has been no collective attempt from India at addressing this issue. This cohort study analysed peri-operative outcomes after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) at seven major Indian centres.Materials and MethodsBetween January 2005 and December 2007, retrospective data on PDs, including intra-operative and post-operative factors, were obtained from seven major centres for pancreatic surgery in India.ResultsBetween January 2005 and December 2007, a total of 718 PDs were performed in India at the seven centres. The median number of PDs performed per year was 34 (range 9–54). The median number of PDs per surgeon per year was 16 (range 7–38). Ninety-four per cent of surgeries were performed for suspected malignancy in the pancreatic head and periampullary region. The median mortality rate per centre was four (range 2–5%). Wound infections were the commonest complication with a median incidence per centre of 18% (range 9.3–32.2%), and the median post-operative duration of hospital stay was 16 days (range 4–100 days).ConclusionsThis is the first multi-centric report of peri-operative outcomes of PD from India. The results from these specialist centers are very acceptable, and appear to support the thrust towards centralization