Demand for vegetables has increased many fold for the last few years as people are now health conscious and are consuming vegetables regularly for getting health benefits as well. These vegetables are grown on high scale in various belts of Udhampur district. The present study was conducted in Chenani block of Udhampur district as the selected area is hub of quality vegetable production. Four vegetable growing villages were selected randomly and from each village 20 farmers were selected randomly to constitute a sample of 80 farmers in all. The results of the study revealed that the most of the respondents were facing the problem of lack of irrigation facilities, high labour cost and non-availability of labour during peak

period. Low prices of agricultural goods, pest disease insect problem, drought and lack of credit facilities were other problems faced by the farmers. Few of the farmers were of the opinion that latest technical knowledge and availability of good quality seedlings in sufficient quantity is lacking in the area. High cost of pesticides was the other production problem. Farmers of Bashat area in particular were facing a specific problem that is road connectivity from their fields to roadside. The fields were not well connected to the road and the link was in dilapidated conditions which force them to transport the produce through human labour which in turn increases their marketing cost resulting in decline in their profit.

A field study was conducted during rabi season of consecutive two years i.e. 2014-15 and 2015-16 at university farm at Bihar Agricultural University, to assess the effect of resources conservation practices and nutrient management on yield, yield attributes and economics under wheat crop. The experiment was laid out in split plot design, replicated thrice with three main plot viz. Conventional tillage, Conventional tillage + 30% rice residue incorporation, Zero tillage + 30% rice residue retention and four sub plot viz. 100% of Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) through inorganic sources, 75% of RDF through inorganic sources + 25% of RDF through organic sources (vermicompost), 50% of RDF through inorganic sources + 50% of RDF through organic sources (vermicompost) and 100% of RDF through inorganic sources + mungbean as green manuring. A preferential influence was found with the resources conservation practices. The results clearly indicated that the wheat crop under zero tillage +30% residue retention (M3) produced significantly higher grain (47.44 q ha-1) and straw yield (63.55 qha-1). Among the sub plot treatments 100% RDF + green manuring (S4) recorded more grain yield (46.33q ha-1) as compared to other treatments. It was statistically at par with 100% RDF through inorganic sources. Besides this, the superiority of resource conservation practices was observed over conventional practices in terms of cost saving (` 37565 ha-1) and more efficient use of inputs. Hence, zero tillage with 30% residue retention could be an economically viable option for wheat cultivation.

Indian agriculture is dominated by small and marginal farmers whose education is weak and majority of are often unable to access information that could increase yield for their crop. The government has a huge research and development infrastructure in the form of institutions such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVKs) and other institutes, but today these institutions are facing many constraints in mobility of technological staffs for transfer of technological information at the village level. There has been no significant technology innovation, which could give a fresh impetus to agricultural productivity. Insufficient extension services and poor access to information further widen the gap in the adoption of technology and lead to poor productivity levels; in fact information is critical to the social and economic activities that comprise the development process and right information at right time will play a crucial role for development of Indian agriculture. Here comes the role of ICTs, which are powerful and productive with new ideas, methods of the technology dissemination and further improving the knowledge and information among the society. In recent years, there is visible shift from the old ways to the modern ways of information delivery system. (ICT) has become a powerful tool for improving the delivery service and enhancing local development opportunities. The study was taken up in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu. A total sample size of 120 farm youth were selected. The collected data were analysed with the help of SPSS software. The results indicated that majority of the farm youth (56.67 per cent) were aware the ICT tools. The remaining (43.33 per cent) were not aware the ICT tools.

Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (MAPs) are botanical raw materials, also known as herbal drugs that are primarily used for therapeutic, aromatic and/or culinary purposes as components of cosmetics, medicinal products, health foods and other natural health products. They are also the starting materials for valueadded processed natural ingredients such as essential oils, dry and liquid extracts and oleoresins. There is a clear industrial demand for MAPs. The global market for botanical and plant-derived drugs is therefore expected to increase from $19.5 billion in 2008 to $32.9 billion in 2013, an annual growth rate of 11.0%, according to a 2009 study by BCC Research. National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB) is working to promote cultivation of medicinal plants and supported in a Mission mode under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of “National Mission on Medicinal Plants (NMMP)” since 2008-09 and now continuing under National AYUSH Mission (NAM), a flagship program launched by the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India

during XII Plan period. The program is being implemented in the country through State Government designated agencies. Smartphone mobile apps in agriculture as a ICT tool of intervention in agriculture is becoming increasingly popular. Smartphone penetration enhances the multi-dimensional positive impact on sustainable poverty reduction and identifies accessibility as the main challenge in harnessing the full potential in agricultural space. The reach of smart phone even in rural areas extended the ICT services beyond simple voice or text messages. Several smart phone apps are available for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and farm machinery. Similarly, National Medicinal Plant Board, New Delhi (India) has launched an online virtual platform www.e-charak.in and a mobile application e-charak apps to provide an online market portal for the trade of medicinal plants and their produce.

Farming is not considered as profitable occupation even though India has an Agrarian economy. An attempt has been made to explain the astounding difference in the productivity of the agriculture and livestock products depends not only on socio-economic profile characteristics but also major part of it depends on the awareness and recent information that the farmers collect from extension personnel,village level workers and from other farmers. Under Indian context due to less number of extension agents despite of consistent efforts has been made by the Government, in strengthening the extension set up but a gap still exists. Therefore, social media has emerged as an effective information delivery tool because of its high media richness, high penetration level which could surely boost the scope of traditional extension system. This article observes that it seems pertinent to rely on social media like Whatsapp as there is the dire need to decrease the knowledge gap amongst the marginal farmers by providing easy access to information and platform for discussion which can be done by involving social media in their farming practices for collecting a pool of knowledge easily at one place.

Blended learning is a pedagogical approach of incorporating the advantages of both online learning and face- to face learning. In the modern times, when technology is advancing with much greater pace, there is a need to make use of these online platform in the best possible way. But, the use of online mode alone will not serve the purpose of meaningful learning, especially when we look into the nature of different disciplines being very different. It is in this context, that we can make use of a combination of online

and face- to face learning in our teaching- learning process. With the invent of various online tools and software, there is a wide scope for incorporating online learning along with face- to face learning. The present paper is based on the development of a Reaction scale for pre- service teachers towards their usage of blended learning strategy in their internship programme (teaching practice). The paper presents an elaborate description on the steps followed for developing a Reaction scale towards blended learning along with the various dimensions taken for developing the Reaction scale and also the validity and reliability process followed for standardization of the scale.