Risk of Financing Agriculture in the North-Eastern Hill Region of India with Special Reference to Meghalaya

The study pertains to the economic issues of risk and uncertainties associated with financing hill agriculture from the twin angles of risk of farmers to utilize the credit and of bankers to disburse the agricultural loan. The issues discussed are: first, why the financial institutions are reluctant to lend agricultural advances? Second, whether the farm income or rate of return on equity and non-equity capital is sufficient to repay the loan? Third, what are the major sources and the magnitude of risks and uncertainties associated with hill farming? Fourth, nature of agricultural marketing situation and how it affects the farm income in this region and finally, the possibilities have been explored, where and how the agricultural lending can be stepped up with positive economic return? The study has revealed that agricultural farming in north-east region of India is severely constrained by high risk and uncertainty arising out from various factors. Under the prevailing condition the expectation of a steady and assured income from agriculture is quite limited; hence, the hill farming fails to attract considerable private investment. The prevailing risk and uncertainty situation compels them to operate at low-input and low-output subsistence farming with low volume of marketable surplus. It has been found that the financial institutions face difficulty in financing the hill agriculture in view of low repayment performance and increasing non-performing assets for agricultural loan. Also, the absence/poor performance of crop insurance scheme (presently only Meghalaya and Sikkim are implementing the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme) increases the risk of hill farming considerably. Non-availability of reliable agricultural database (time series as well as cross section) on area, production and yield, cost of cultivation has been found the major impediments for implementing the crop insurance scheme efficiently. The agricultural situation in this region is highly heterogeneous; variability is extremely high even within a few kilometres of area. It has been suggested that suitable methodologies followed by a wide database be developed to estimate the yield and cost of production of horticultural crops which will help policymakers to formulate right policy to protect the interest of farmers as well as smooth functioning of all stakeholders — entrepreneurs, private investors, bankers and crop insurance implementing agencies.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Human Health Risk Assessment For Arsenic: A Critical Review

Millions of people are exposed to arsenic resulting in a range of health implications.This paper provides an up-to-date review of the different sources of arsenic (water, soil and food), indicators of human exposure (biomarker assessment of hair, nail, urine and blood), epidemiological and toxicological studies on carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health outcomes, and risk assessment approaches. The review demonstrates a need for more work evaluating the risks of different arsenic species such as; arsenate, arsenite monomethylarsonic acid, monomethylarsonous acid, dimethylarsinic acid and dimethylarsinous acid as well as a need to better integrate the different exposure sources in risk assessments

Penyakit Infeksi

xii. 301 hal. 23 c

Lecture Notes Penyakit Infeksi

301 hal. : il. ; 24 c

Lecture notes : penyakit infeksi, 6

Bai

Machinability evaluation and desirability function optimization of turning parameters for Cr2O3 doped zirconia toughened alumina (Cr-ZTA) cutting insert in high speed machining of steel

In present study, mechanical properties, microstructure and machining parameter optimization of Cr2O3 doped zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramic insert have been investigated for application in high speed turning of AISI 4340 steel with achieving maximum tool life. The yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) in α-Al2O3 matrix with varying percentage of co-doped chromia (Cr2O3) is prepared to study the phase transformation behaviour. The samples are uniaxially pressed in the form of cutting inserts and subsequently sintered at 1600 °C to evaluate the mechanical properties. Hardness and fracture toughness reaches the highest value i.e. 17.40 GPa and 7.20 MPa m1/2 respectively at 0.6% Cr2O3 doped ZTA due to more metastable tetragonal ZrO2 phase present in the alumina matrix. After 50 min of machining, the flank wear and surface roughness are found well below the tool rejection criteria. The cutting force also does not affect detrimentally on the job–tool interface. Turning experiments have been adopted as per central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) with varying 3 levels of cutting speed (140 m/min, 280 m/min, 420 m/min), feed rate (0.12 mm/rev, 0.18 mm/rev, 0.24 mm/rev) and depth of cut (0.50 mm, 1.00 mm, 1.50 mm). The effect of each input parameter on output responses is investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and modelled using regression analysis. The influence of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut is observed maximum for determination of flank wear, cutting force and surface roughness respectively. Cutting speed of 420 m/min with feed rate of 0.12 mm/rev and depth of cut of 0.5 mm has been shown as optimized condition with 83.32% desirability for minimum tool failure and maximum tool life