Jute being crop is an important source of income of growers of West Bengal. In jute cultivation requires a considerable amount of cash investment, an average grown has to face a number of socio-economic and technological problems. A study was conducted on adoption of jute production technology in West Bengal. The objective of this study is to measure the knowledge level adoption index to some important jute production technologies and to find out nature of influence of some of the socio-personal characteristics of the jute growers on their knowledge and adoption of modern jute technologies. Villages were selected as progressive and non-progressive with regard to agro-technological criteria of jute cultivation. The members were selected randomly and total numbers of respondents were 112. The data were processed into mean, median, standard deviation and correlation co-efficient. The factors like mass media exposure, personal cosmopolite sources, age, education and extra village contact are found to have influenced to significant extent the knowledge where the investigation was carried out.

India and Nepal are the neighboring countries which have strong trade ties among themselves. More than 43% of total agricultural import of Nepal comes from India. The present study was undertaken to examine the present status and composition of agricultural trade between India and Nepal and impact of treaty on trade. The competitiveness and trade intensities were also analyzed. Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) was measured to find out the comparative advantage of India and Nepal in global market. It was found that after signing the treaty in 1996 India has emerged as a major trading partner of Nepal.The share of India in Nepal’s total export of agricultural commodities went up from 21% in TE 1995 to about 56% in TE 2011 . Comparative advantage was calculated for six agricultural commodities (jute, pulses, spices, wheat, tea and fresh vegetables). Over the years, the comparative advantage of jute exports of Nepal decreased and India outsmarted Nepal. Nepal had high comparative advantage than India in pulses export. Compound annual growth rate of pulse production in Nepal was found negative (-3%). Therefore, the comparative advantage in pulse export was because of export of processed pulses. The agro climatic conditions of Nepal favor tea production which was apparent from the compound growth rate of production (13.7%) and increasing positive values of comparative advantage It was concluded that the treaty has boosted the trade between India and Nepal. Therefore, it was suggested to maintain the treaty in the interest of both countries.

In a country like India where most of the farming communities have low access to the right information sources, extension has so much scope to enter into new vistas like e-learning which can be utilized for virtual education, training and dissemination of information. e- Learning and its promotion carry a number of barriers too along with the favourable factors. In the study undertaken among sixty e-learner farmers of Malappuram district of Kerala state to analyze the various constraints coming in the way of e-learning of agricultural technologies, the most important constraint observed was: technological constraints out of the four groups of constraints. Lack of prompt reply to online queries and information, high cost of establishment, lack of time and relevant information in the website was found to be affecting the e- learner farmers.

Instability in agricultural production has attracted renewed attention due to change in factors that affect instability positively as well as negatively. There is considerable concern about effect of climate change on production trend. Studies on instability found in the literature have not gone beyond mid 2000s after which Indian agriculture witnessed a structural change in growth. In this paper instability analysis is extended to year 2010-11 to capture recent developments. The study covers entire post-Independence period since 1950-51. The analysis is undertaken at the national and state levels. The analysis reveals that the instability in foodgrains production in India has undergone substantial decline whereas oilseeds production showed significant increase over time. The states which are well endowed with irrigation facility are showing more stability in foodgrains production. The increase in crop yield has been a major factor for accelerating production in the country. The better irrigation facilities, use of modern seed varieties, and improved fertilizer consumption helped to improve foodgrains output in the country.

To achieve a satisfactory level of human development, it is imperative for all individuals to enjoy a sense of security. Self-help Groups (SHGs), besides being a microfinance mechanism are a method to implement developmental schemes at the grass root level and also help the marginalized community come together to solve their problems through participatory approach. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of self-help groups in their developmental influences on the livelihood security and gender empowerment. In all 80 SHG members were selected through purposive and random sampling methods. The present study purposively included both women and men, successful and non successful self help groups so as to analyze the effectiveness of SHGs for genders empowerment. Data were collected through personal interview using pre-tested structured interview schedule and focused group discussions. In successful SHGs the upper age was 45 years, in non-successful SHG majority of respondents were in age group of 46 years and above. Among women’s successful group majority of the members (45per cent) were educated up to secondary level and 90% of respondents were educated up to secondary level in men SHGs. In case of non-successful women SHG forty 5% respondents were illiterate while 55% were educated up to primary level. There was a definite improvement on all aspects related to empowerment and livelihood security after joining the SHGs as compared to before joining the SHG as there was positive impact in all types of groups. This may be due to the fact that the group processes improve the human capability of its members to deal with life conditions with confidence in a better way

Livestock is an integral part of the agricultural economy of Assam and its role is particularly significant in the social, economical and environmental system of the tribal society in the state. In recognition of its importance and potential, the development of livestock was viewed as a key strategy for overall development of the tribal economy.

Jammu and Kashmir is a hill state having majority of farmers falling under marginal and small holding categories. Diffusion of modern agricultural techniques and practices to the farmers by way of strengthening and activating the extension machinery can go a long way in improving the situation. This adoption of new technologies depends largely on the state of infrastructure and resources available with the farmers. Therefore credit is an important input for maintaining resources to improve agriculture at local level. However, both the Government and the financial institutions are taking several steps to enhance the credit flow to agriculture. During the past few years significant progressive changes have taken place in banking and financial structure of Jammu and Kashmir. The growth of commercial banks and co-operative credit societies has been really spectacular. The Banks have played a crucial role in the mobilization of savings and Investment. Bank credit to productive sectors of the economy has a critical role in sustaining the growth process. Banking structure in J&K consists of Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks. At the end of December 2008, the state was served by 944 bank branches of all Scheduled Commercial Banks.

This paper is a reflection of the recent status of livestock and poultry sector in the state of Assam. Assam has copious livestock and poultry population in the country, accounting for 3.25% and 8.36% of the country’s total livestock and poultry population. Assam’s pig population is highest in the country (17.96% of the country’s total). In case of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat Assam stood at 11th, 19th, 15th and 13th rank respectively. District wise Nagaon and Dibrugarh district has the largest livestock and poultry population with 3076004 and 2890161 numbers respectively. Livestock and poultry population reveal a good growth trend in terms of all the species except buffalo (-7.33%) during the inter census period; 2003-2007. Despite large population, production, productivity and per capita availability of milk, meat, eggs are minimal in Assam. The total milk, meat and egg production of the state for the year 2008-09 were 827 million litres, 30 thousand tonnes and 4664 lakh number respectively. Assam contributes only 0.67%, 0.8% and 0.78% to the country’s total milk, meat and egg production respectively during 2009-10. There is a decline in production of milk and egg in the state during recent years and growth rate in production of meat is also not satisfactory.

The North East India comprising of eight states namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura has a total geographical area of 262180 km2 which is about 8% of the country’s total area with a population of about 45 million (2011 census). Agriculture and allied sector is the major source of livelihood for the majority of the workforce (around 50-70% across the states). By and large, the region is characterized by frazility, marginality, inaccessibility, cultural heterogeneity, ethnicity and rich in biodiversity. Rural population (82%) is agrarian and depends on agriculture and allied sector for livelihood in the absence of industries, except in the state of Assam. Around 56% of the area is under low altitude, 33% mid altitude and 11% under high altitude. The agricultural production system is characterized by and large CDR (Complex diverse risk prone) type, low cropping intensity, subsistence farming, undulating topography and faulty land use pattern. Under this low investment-low-income farming situation, probably horticulture sector has desirable attributes to accelerate the agricultural growth process in the region. Agriculture and allied sector particularly horticulture sector plays very important role towards sustainable rural livelihoods in all farming system in general and in rainfed and hilly farming system in particular like the north east region. Increase in production can be induced by research, development/extension and infrastructural facilities to take prudent public investment decision through understanding the relative importance of productivity enhancing factors (Thorat et al., 2006).

Globalization has many meanings depending on the context and on the person who is talking about. The term globalization refers to the integration of economies of the world through uninhibited trade and financial flows, as also through mutual exchange of technology and knowledge. Ideally, it also contains free inter-country movement of labour. Globalization has played a major role in export- led growth, leading to the enlargement of the job market in India. Indian economy had experienced major policy changes in early 1990s. The new economic reform, popularly known as, Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG model) aimed at making the Indian economy as fastest growing economy and globally competitive. With the onset of reforms to liberalize the Indian economy in July of 1991, a new chapter has dawned for India and her billion plus population. This period of economic transition has had a tremendous impact on the overall economic development of almost all major sectors of the economy, and its globalization on India. Throughout this paper, there is an underlying focus on the impact of globalization on India’s foreign trade and Indian economy.

The new farm technology has created avenues for contractual arrangements in labour and land markets. Contractual agricultural wage labourers have an incentive for better earnings but it is necessary to supervise them closely which involves cost. Recently, the group contract is emerging in different regions for various agricultural activities. Keeping in view these facts in mind, the present paper is an attempts to study the organization, functioning, pattern of employment and earning of Agricultural Labour under Contractual arrangements in Tarai regions of U.P. and Uttaranchal. Two districts have been selected purposively to represent the whole Tarai belt, namely Udham singh Nagar (Uttaranchal) and Sidharth Nagar (Uttar pradesh). Out of these two selected districts one block from each district has been selected randomly. From these two blocks, three villages from each block have been selected randomly subject to the availability of sufficient numbers of labour households. Thus, 150 labour households have been selected randomly from the lists of labour households prepared from six villages. To study the organisation and functioning of contractual labour, engaged in various activities have been identified .The data is collected from the labour house hold involves in contractual arrangements for the year 1999-2000. The findings of the study reveals that due to more earning in all the agricultural operations performed on contractual basis, the labourers formed a group consisting male and female workers of a family and neighbourers family workers. The group leader usually bargains the terms, conditions and amount of payments for certain activities. However, the wage rates are fixed for most of the piece rate jobs and on that basis, the group of labour is getting employment opportunity. Thus, due to no time limit of work, they have the opportunity to get more employment and earnings by way of engaging themselves in various agricultural activities. It was also observed that they are tempted to engage themselves in contractual arrangements so that they may able to get more employment and income. The possibilities of increasing income of workers are much brighter if they get the employment under contractual arrangements.

This study analyses the changes in Terms of Trade (TOT) in cotton production in major cotton growing states of India during the period 1996-97 to 2010-11. The results revealed that during the initial years of analysis TOT was in favour of the cotton producers, but during the later period it turned against them due to unfavourable price terms. Though the quantity terms were favourable, they showed declining trend during last three years. TOT should be made favourable through improving price received by the cotton farmers and controlling the input prices. Similarly cotton productivity should be improved through proper technological as well as policy interventions to make the terms favourable to the cotton producers.

Rice is regarded as the first cultivated crop in Asia as well as important food crop of India. The cost and return structure and technical efficiency in rice production has been reported in different regions as well as in the state of Manipur to show different regions have adopted the latest technology. Primary data have been collected from the sample rice farms with the help of pre-tested scheduled through personal interview with respondent farmers. Technical efficiency of individual farms has been estimated through stochastic production function analysis. The total cost of cultivation on small farms was much higher than the large farms. Imputed rental value for owned land was the major cost items for all the farms. On an average majority (40%) of the rice growing farmers were operating at the technical efficiency level of (99-100)% in relation to frontier output level. Gross return as well as net return per hectare have been observed to be highest for category I followed by category II. Most of the farms have been observed to be potential to expand production and productivity, increasing technical efficiency as majority has been performing with increasing returns to scale.

To study the economic evaluation of organic of inorganic plant nutrient sources on sweet basil. The results revealed that the maximum fresh herbage yield (3237.25 kg/ha), essential oil percentage (0.44%) and oil yield (14.25 kg/ha) were found in treatment combination T8 (100% NPK i.e. recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers) at 60 DAP i.e. first cutting. Net monetary returns from the crop treated with 100% recommended dose of NPK fertilizer fetched maximum net income of ` 36160/ha whereas the minimum net income recorded (` 7950/ha) in treatment T9 i.e. (control).