Institutional Innovations and Models in the Development of Agro-Food Industries in India: Strengths, Weaknesses and Lessons

Agro-industries are given high priority in India particularly because of their great potential for contributing to development. The emphasis on village-based agro-industries was introduced almost a century ago in India by Mahatma Gandhi as an important ideology and corner-stone of the independence movement. The approach has undergone substantial transformation since then, but major challenges to its success in development remain: how to organize sustained production and procurement from large numbers of small farmers, how to ensure adoption of the right technology and practices to generate quantity and quality output at a reasonable cost, how to obtain capital for ensuring good processing technology and meeting the high working capital requirements in a fluctuating business, how to deliver strong marketing efforts to compete and open nascent markets, and how to ensure effective ownership, management and control to ensure performance for its main stakeholders of producers, consumers and investors. To address these challenges, effective institutional frameworks are a must, and a number of innovations and institutional models have emerged in India. These include the HPMC model, the AMUL model, the Pepsi model, the E-choupal model, the Nestle model, the Heritage model, the Suguna model, the Reliance model and more. The paper uses available literature and data to examine the performance of several of these models with respect to the above mentioned challenges. Many findings and lessons emerge which would be useful for business and for guiding supportive policies and practices in developing countries.

Using energy pricing as a tool for efficient, equitable and sustainable use of groundwater for irrigation: evidence from three locations of India

Groundwater irrigationCostsElectrical energyPricingPumpingWater use efficiencyWater productivityMilk productionDairy farmsLivestockWater useFodderCrop management

How serious are groundwater over-exploitation problems in India?: a fresh investigation into an old issue

Groundwater developmentAssessmentRechargeAquifersWater balanceWellsTube wellsPumpingCostsEconomic impact

Wells and ill-fare: impacts of well failures on cultivators in hard rock areas of Madhya Pradesh

WellsDrillingCostsGroundwater depletionWater tableGroundwater irrigationOwnershipEconomic impactSocial impactCrop managementFood security

Frequency Coded Chipless RFID Tag using Spurline Resonators

A novel compact chipless RFID tag using spurline resonators is discussed in this paper. The detection of the tag's ID is using the spectral signature of a spurline resonator circuit. The tag has a data capacity of 8-bits in the range 2.38 to 4.04 GHz. The tag consists of a spurline multiresonating circuit and two cross polarised antennas. The prototype of the tag is fabricated on a substrate C-MET/LK4.3 of dielectric constant 4.3 and loss tangent 0.0018. The measured results show that group delay response can also be used to decode the tag’s identity

Traditional Uses of Plants in Indigenous Folklore of Nizamabad District, Andhra Pradesh, India

The present ethno-botanical explorations conducted in forest areas of Nizamabad resulted in the information about traditional plant uses of 77 plants species belonging to 39 Angiospermic families. Of these, maximum species belongs to Euphorbiaceae with 7 species, 6 species to Asclepiadaceae and Fabaceae each. Information gathered from Nizamabad district indicates that the tribals, and other village people of this region possess good knowledge of herbal drugs, but their continuous and progressive exposure to modernization may result in extinction of the such rich heritage of knowledge in the course of time. Diseases / ailments found prevalent in the area are skin diseases, kidney stone, tooth ache, fever and wounds. Majority of preparation are from leaves and some are of underground parts (like root, rhizome, tuber, etc). Following data includes botanical name of species, vernacular name family, plant part used method of medicine and details about its application. Among the plant parts used in different formulations, leaves are abundantly used which is followed by stem and roots

Timber yielding plants and their utilities in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh

Trees are important to humankind not only economically, environmentally and industrially but also spiritually, historically and aesthetically, for they support human life through various means by providing a wide range of products for survival and prosperity. Trees are mostly used for timber purposes. The present ethno-botanical explorations conducted in forest areas of Nizamabad resulted in the information on the timber yielding plants used for different purposes. Information gathered from Nizamabad district indicates that the tribals and other village people of this region possess good knowledge of plants used for different purposes, but their continuous and progressive exposure to modernization may result in extinction of such rich heritage of knowledge in the course of time. Besides medicine, food, fiber plants which yield timber are extensively used in the region for various purposes. The Present communication deals with 49 species of timber yielding plants which belong to 27 families. &nbsp

Plants used for bone fracture by Indigenous folklore of Nizamabad district, Andhra Pradesh

The present investigation provides information on the therapeutic properties of 17 crude drugs used for treating bone fracture by the natives of Nizamabad District. Of these, 12 species are not reported earlier for the bone fracture in major literature published so far. Information on botanical name, vernacular name, family, part used, mode of medicine preparation and administration is provided