The study has been conducted in Nadia district of West Bengal. Two villages have been purposively selected for the study. Out of 50 marginal farmers 17 (34% of the total) have reported to have taken loan from various sources like nationalised banks, moneylenders and churches. The marginal farmers have been grouped into three on the basis of level of annual income. Tabular method of analysis has been extensively employed in this study. Simple correlation analysis has been exercised between use of credit in productive purpose and each of the variables like size of operational holding, income from off farm sources, gross cropped area under non-cereal crops, per capita income and number of crops grown. No significant correlation has been found in any case. The study also reveals that the highest percentage of the borrowing households exist in medium income group. As a whole percentage ofborrowing marginal agricultural households (farm) taking loan from non-institutional sources is considerably higher than the percentage of households taking loan from institutional sources. Nationalised banks are the only institutional source of credit. No wide difference has been found in the amount of loan taking from institutional and non-institutional sources. No agricultural household in high income group has taken loan from non-institutional sources. Amount of credit per household is the largest in high income group and smallest in low income group. In low and high income groups of borrowing marginal households, amounts of loan in productive purposes are higher than those used in non-productive purposes. But use of higher amount of loan has been recorded for non-productive purposes in medium income group. Irrespective of income groups amount of loan used in non-productive purposes has been recorded to be higher than in productive purposes. Concerned to the productive activities, loan has been used only in crop production across all the income groups of borrowing agricultural households. In case of non-productive activities majority of loan has been used in building houses. The other uses of loan in non-productive purposes are related to ceremony, consumption and health

The present study is based on empirical survey (2013-14) on hundred sample onion growers from Nadia and Hooghly districts of West Bengal in an attempt to characterise them into different classes in terms of several indicators covering both categorical and continuous variables and examining the factors discriminating them. The goal of this research article is to advocate intervention measures for augmenting onion production in a deficit state of West Bengal. K-means cluster analysis, Group characterization technique and Linear Discriminant Analysis tools have been used for the study. It has been found that the causes of poor performance among low-yield group emanate from cultural practices, technology adoption and managerial lapses. Institutional linkages, developing and restructuring farmers’ oriented bodies, promoting SHGs and building up Onion Producers Company and providing marketing infrastructure and provision of cold storages may change the status of poor onion growers.

Alongside making considerable progress in the production of food grains and oilseeds especially during the last three decades, the Indian agriculture has simultaneously been indicative of growing instability in the production front for several reasons. It was in this backdrop, an attempt was made through the present study to examine the growth and instability of sesame over five of the six sesame growing states of North-Eastern Hill Region of the country by way of analyzing the time series data of 20 years. The growth rate of area and production found to be highest in Nagaland state but in terms of productivity it was highest in Manipur state. The instability which was highest observed in case of area and productivity for Manipur was observed lowest in Nagaland state. Hence, the study highly recommends the use and adoption of site specific scientific package of practices of the crop to avoid the prevailed instability.

Over the last three decades the role of export in the process of economic growth has been the subject of debate among economists. The recent policy of liberalization, privatization and globalization and growth process of developed and developing countries further helped fuel this debate. The main questions in this debate are whether an outward oriented trade policy is preferable to an inward oriented trade policy in stimulating economic growth. There are two types of hypothesis that are build up in this debate: Export-led Growth (ELG) hypothesis and Growth-led Export (GLE) hypothesis. This paper investigates the relationship between GDP and exports in India for the period of 1980-2009. To achieve the objective of this study, Granger Causality Test has been applied. The test results support that there is bilateral causality between GDP and exports. This study suggests that export promotion policy is pursued consistently with an emphasis on inclusive and sustainable growth. This study supports the view that export is an engine of growth.

Financial literacy is knowledge about finance. The importance of financial education has improved in recent years due to developments in financial markets as well as demographic, economic and policy changes in India. Financial literacy is an important adjunct for the promotion of financial inclusion and ultimately financial stability. The main objective of the study is to assess the financial literacy in the villages of Kanyakumari district. The study conducted in ten villages belonging to three blocks of Kanyakumari district. Financial literacy relates to educational status, income and frequency of operation (transaction) in positive sense. The overall satisfaction level of financial services of the customers lies in educating rural people clearly about the financial services available, how to use them and its benefits is inevitable. This would improve their usage and satisfaction level on these financial services.

The present study was carried out in five districts of Haryana during 2011-12. All the 200 farmers selected for the study had heard about privatization of agricultural extension services(PAES), gathered information regarding PAES, knew name and location of PAES and utilized PAES for agricultural purposes. They also knew that PAES provided different kinds of inputs like HYV, seedlings, fertilizers, crop protection, spray pumps, infrastructure facilities and value addition to crop produce. More than three-fourth (82.50%) of farmers had high level of knowledge towards PAES. Extension contact (0.198) and education (0.179) were highly significant and positively associated with the knowledge of farmers towards privatization of agricultural extension services. While other important variables like age, family type, occupation, land holding, cropping intensity, irrigation facilities, social participation, socio-economic status, mass media participation,economic motivation, risk preferenceand scientific orientation were positively associated but found non significant.

Soybean is the principle oil seed crop in India. Blanket recommendation of fertilizers for soybean over large area irrespective of soil type has lead to indiscriminate use of costly inputs. This has also resulted in imbalanced use of fertilizers and environment related problems. Hence to economize the fertilizer use soil testing should play important role. Therefore, a study on the soil test for improving soybean productivity was performed as a part of mandatory program of Agriculture Science Center, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh (MP) of India. Soils of study area had pH 6.8 to 7.4, EC 0.17 to 0.23 dSm-1, organic carbon 0.33 to 0.71%, available nitrogen 105 to 214 kg /ha, phosphorus 7.30 to 16.80 kg/ha and potassium 173 to 325 kg/ha. Experiment were conducted in rainy season of 2009-10 with two treatments, farmers practice -T1 (50 kg DAP/ha only) and application of fertilizer on the basis of soil test value -T2. Higher grain yield was observed in T2 (1830 kg/ha) than T1 (1180 kg/ha). The maximum increase in soybean yield was noted due to applied fertilizers on the basis of soil test values in T2. The highest Benefit Cost ratio (B:C ratio) 4.05 was registered in T2.

The study was conducted in Kakdwip block of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Primary data were collected from 56 agricultural households belonging to two villages by the technique of Simple Random Sampling without Replacement. The reference years of the study are 2001-02 and 2011-12 agril years. The study aimed at finding change in income of the agricultural households earned from crop production in a period from 2001-02 and 2011-12 agricultural years owing to changes in price of inputs and agricultural commodities. The study also attempted to find capabilities of agricultural households in maintaining food security with their income earned from crop production at two points in time. Requirement of food commodities of agricultural households was estimated on the basis of dietary guidelines regarding balanced diet for people given by National Institute of Nutrition under the aegis of Indian Council of Medical Research. Results of the study revealed that agricultural land was allocated to a number of crops like aman paddy, lathyrus, vegetables boro paddy and betelvine. Cropping intensity was found to decrease with the higher size classes of farms. Percentage of irrigated land was noted to be the highest in marginal size class. Cost per farm was found to escalate by 139 per cent due to increase in prices of inputs. Gross return per farm went up by 122 per cent. Net income earned from crop production could meet only 26% of expenditure on food materials in 2001-02. In 2011-12 only 21 percent of the food security was insured by this income.

Benchmark survey of Rajapanichandra in Rani Block of Kamrup district was undertaken during the month of August and September, 2013 with the purpose of adopting as a KVK village with emphases on popularizing poultry enterprise (Vanraja breed). To fulfill the objectives of the study, primary data was collected by personally interviewing the households along with a general survey of the entire village. The findings of the survey revealed that the farming system prevailing in the area was crop based with livestock and homestead as secondary activities. Moreover, the farming system practices were traditional and on subsistence basis and thus the output mostly fulfilled the domestic needs. About 98 percent of the households belonged to the Bodo (tribal) community and as a part of their socio-cultural and religious tradition were interested for rearing of poultry on a commercial basis.

In this paper an attempt has been made to estimate the impact of women labour and its utilization undertaken based on different agro-climatic zones with reference to different farm size group in the state of Assam, study further reveals that out of the total population in the sampled households, 48.27 per cent are female, out of that 23.07 per cent were comprising between the age group of 15-59 years, 16.42 per cent were below 15 years and it was least with 8.78 per cent were above 59 years. The availability of human labour was found to be 763.61 mandays (out of that 733.79 mandays are of family and 29.8 mandays attached labour) per farm of which 50.58 per cent was female labour. On the other hand, per hectare availability was recorded to be 515.8 mandays. The above study brought out the fact that in Assam, women participation was substantial in crop production activities. The utilization of female labour in rice cultivation, especially in HYV rice, is most noteworthy, respectively.

The study was carried out to find the profitability and resource use efficiency of two fish production system i.e. wastewater and freshwater in West Bengal, India. The study revealed that though the productivity of freshwater fish production system was higher by 74.5 kg/acre over the other system but the freshwater fish production farmers realized lower net returns of ` 1933.53/acre as compared to the wastewater fish production farmers. This was due to mainly two facts, firstly, higher rent of leased-in freshwater fish ponds and secondly, the locational advantage of wastewater fish ponds (proximity to the megacity Kolkata) which fetched higher price of the produce. The results of the study indicated that under both the system of fish production, fish seeds, area, and labour has greater influence on gross returns. Further, it was found that, fish seeds and labour were under-utilized in freshwater fish production system whereas fish seeds, labour and area were under used in wastewater fish production system. Theft and pilferages, non availability of quality fish seeds, lack of government support, lack of capital, lack of natural feed, labour crisis etc. were some of the major identified problems and constraints encountered during production of fish.

Spices are an important horticultural crop of India as it adds substantially to the agriculture GDP. It has been seen that there is high fluctuations in the export of spices to other countries. To, this end, we employ the concept of Markov chain (MC) to analyze the dynamics of spices export to different countries of the world. It was observed that the countries which were stable destination for Indian spices export were Canada for black pepper, UK for chilli, Bangladesh for turmeric, UAE for cumin and Malaysia for coriander. The transitional probability matrix obtained using MC indicated that most of the traditional importers have shown low retention probability which may be due to tough competition arising in spices trade and trade related barriers in the developed nations. So, policies may be framed by planners for export towards these countries. Though in most of the spices, India has managed to retain one of its original markets, but it should not have high dependency on one market alone to avoid trade risk in the long-run. New markets also need to be explored and more stress has to be given to the traditional buyers for maintaining present status of export and market share in future.

Agricultural marketing information is an essential input for boosting agricultural growth in rural areas. An attempt has been made to identify the various pattern of awareness, sources, utilization and its benefits, constraint, and expectations to agricultural marketing information(AMI) among the traders in the study area of two regulated markets namely, Mawiong Regulated Market in Mylliem Block of East Khasi Hills and Garobadha Regulated Market in Selsella Block of West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya.The sample size consisted of 40tradersfrom both selected regulated market areas were selected for the study based on purposive and random sampling technique.From the findings of the research study, It was revealed that the degree of awareness on prices in local markets placed the I Rank (first) followed by arrivals in local markets, arrivals and prices in reference markets (III Rank). It was observed that traders were always relied on contacts in other market (90%) and fellow traders (75%) for market information. Newspaper placed the III rank on degree of awareness of AMI sources among the traders. It was clearly seen that the agricultural market information was utilized by traders in deciding price to be quoted (I Rank), followed by the quantity to be purchased (II Rank) and the quantity to be store (III Rank). It was observed that traders were most benefited by changing time of sale (90%), followed by mode of storage (85%). About 75 per cent of traders expressed that AMI was not available in required form.The expectation aspects of traders on AMI indicated that the prices in other nearby markets (95%), future price projections (87.5%) and quality wise prices (75%) were given more priority by traders in the study area. It is necessary toensured flow of regular and reliable data to producers, traders and consumers to derive maximum benefit of their sales and purchases.Emphasis should be given on delivery mechanism of information, so that market information reaches timely to the end users in the hilly regions of Meghalaya.

Institutional constraints play a significant role in diversification of agriculture in backward regions of the country. The present study was conducted in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh with an objective to examining constraints that affect diversification. Using data from a primary survey in Mirzapur, it was found that lack of skill in modern agriculture, poor access to financial services, and lack of marketing facilities played a decisive role in agricultural diversification. Providing institutional support in the form of access to formal sources of finance and making farmers organizations will help in promoting diversification and reducing livelihood risks.

Gherkin (Cucumis anguria L.) is popularly known as “pickling cucumber” belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. The present study was conducted to assess the level of inputs use, economics and employment generating potential of gherkin cultivation in Karnataka state. Multi-stage sampling design was followed to collect primary data from Gherkin growers. Descriptive statisticsand Economic indicators like gross return,net return, B:C ratio and breakeven yield were assessed. The results revealed that, there was an inverse relationship between size of the gherkin area and output per acre. The champion farmers realized higher yields and income compared to other farmers and it was mainly due to better soil dressing and adopting appropriate cultural practices(crop rotation and border crop). Champion farmers realized positive and higher gross profit per acre (` 20490), whereas medium farmers realized (` 2076). The Low yield farmer incurred loss to a tune of ` 10427 per acre. The loss among low yield farmers could be attributed to the reduced crop cycle (75.33 days), harvesting days (35.63 days) and low yield (2511.20 kg/ac). The rate of return per rupee of expenditure was highest among champion farmers (1.41), followed by medium (1.03) and low yield low yield farmers (0.67).The employment generation especially for harvesting was highest among champion farmers (274 mandays) followed by medium (110 mandays) and low yield farmers (71 mandays).From the results it could be inferred that, the gherkin cultivation is not profitable always. The crop requires intensive management throughout the year and any divergence in management practices results in the huge loss to the farmers and it is difficult even to recover the variable cost of cultivation. Hence, appropriate training should be imparted to increase yield and income.

Serving the Indian society since 1904; the cooperative credit structure has proved itself to be the life blood of the Indian economy and the mechanism as well as the booster for many a developmental programs especially in agriculture dominated rural sector by playing a pivotal role in triggering the welfare of common individual, financing his business and other personal needs. The paper is an effort to provide an overview of the two tier co-operative credit structure, of Manipur of NEHR in order to reveal its performance with special reference to operation, recovery performance, financial performance and loan delinquency rate for last 12 years (2000-01 to 2011-12). The co-operative structure in the state shown satisfactory its growth but at the same time the loan delinquency of MSCB was observed to be in higher side which shows poor recovery of the loan from the farmers. Further, to strengthen the co-operative system study suggests opening more branches of co-operative for more outreach of loan to the remotely located villages in the state. Campaign of awareness programmes should be initiated to reduce the delinquency of loans in the state.

The present paper focuses on the work environment, which is the core of employment relationship, faced by the migrant labourers that work in the industrial units of Ludhiana, also known as ‘Manchester of India’. Despite their unquestionable vital role in the economic growth of the city, especially the secondary sector, many of the migrant labourersinhospitable work environment as they are made to work for more than the stipulated time, not paid for the overtime work, not provided with safe work environment, face health issues due hazardous work, do not get work according to choice, employed as temporary labour, and discriminated during the routine work and at the time of payment of wages. Though dissatisfied with the workplace, these labourers are change averse for they put up with the existing work conditions and prefer to get employed again at the same place of work. This clearly points to the fact that these labourers are helpless, neglected, exploited and discriminated to which they wilfully accept for being financially depressed. There is a dire need to preserve the interests of the migrants to ensure aflourishing homogeneoussocial and economic environment.

This study uses the non parametric data envelopment technique to investigate the impact of economic reforms on Total Factor Productivity Growth in Selected 20 Indian Organised Manufacturing Industries by classifying them into Labour Intensive and Capital Intensive industries; by using non parametric DEA technique to four-digit panel data for the period 1990 to 2011. The study reveals that the Labour Intensive Industries have negative Total Factor Productivity Growth as -6.1% deteriorated mainly due to Technological Change which is -4%. Meanwhile, the Capital Intensive Industries have positive Total Factor Productivity Growth of 6.7%, mainly contributed by Efficiency Change of 1.6% and Technological Change of 5.0%. Eight out of ten Organised Manufacturing Capital Intensive Industries have shown positive Total Factor Productivity Growth during the economic reform period, whereas seven out of ten Organised Manufacturing Labour Intensive Industries showed negative Total Factor Productivity Growth due to lack of technological change.

Kupwara district lies in the extreme Northern of  Jammu and Kashmir valley and is situated at an average altitude of 5300 feet from the mean sea level.   The geographical area of the district is 2379 km2 which comprises of367 villages and 11 community blocks. The district is divided into three agro- ecological situations, based on soil and topography i.e., high altitude 2000m: mid altitude 1800-2000m and low altitude1500-1800m above mean sea level (amsl). Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kupwara formulated technical action plan based on the priories of the farmers.The study entillted:Technological interventions for improving livelihood security was conductedin KVK Kupwara the two villages of block langatewere selected for its activities like Front Line Demonstration; ON–Farm Testing and trainings. .In this back drop SKUAST-K released varieties with high yield potential were introduced and performed better in terms of quantity as well as quality. Paddy variety Shalimar rice-1 resulted in 36% increase in the yield over the local varieties. Maize particularly composites tried in hilly areas also recorded double yield than the land races. Seeing the performance of variety KS-101, the cultivation of the crop in the district had increased besides improving the cropping intensity.

The study has been conducted in five districts of Jammu region to discuss the income and livelihood issues of farmers. The overall household income from agriculture has been estimated to be ` 56034.24 with highest of ` 97876.02 from Kathua district and lowest of `34491.78 earned by the farmers in the Doda district.It has been found that the large farmers earn only 33.04 per cent of income from agriculture followed by 29.26 per cent, 25.30 per cent and 25.24 per cent by medium, small and marginal farmers, respectively. Livestock contributes highest of 11.03 per cent in case of marginal farmers followed by 10.86 per cent, 8.51 per cent and 5.63 per cent in case of small, medium and large farmers. The per day per capita income from agriculture has been found to be ` 15.43, ` 17.77, ` 26.42 and ` 36.12 for marginal, small, medium and large farmers, respectively, with an overall average of ` 20.55. As the poverty line fixed by the government is `22.00 which shows that only medium and large farmers fall above the poverty line whereas marginal and small farmers are below poverty line if they depend exclusively on agricultural income. Service sector has been found the important one as it contributes 34.59 per cent of to the total household income of all the farmers. Therefore the farmers of Jammu region have to develop livelihood strategy for their existence.

The present study was conducted in six villages from three blocks of three districts (Sangrur,Amritsar and Hoshiarpur of Malwa, Majha and Doaba regions of Punjab respectively) to find the constraints perceived by dairy farmers in availing and repayment of dairy loans).A sample of 150 dairy farmers was selected on the basis of multistage random sampling technique.and categorized as small(less than 10 animals),medium(10 to 20 animals) and large (more than20animals).High rate of interest,too many intermediaries,lengthy complicated loan procedure,problem of financial guarantor and attitude of the loan officer were the main constraints in availing dairy loans. Low price of milk,costly feed and fodder,shortage of quality breed animals,low milk productivity,expensive animals and exploitation by animal traders and milk vendors were the main constraints in repayment of dairy loans.

The various production and marketing constraints faced by the Citrus growers of various districts of Jammu region were studied by selecting a sample of 192 citrus growers from four districts of Jammu region and suggestions were also made to overcome the said constraints. The data revealed that in Jammu region as a whole it was observed that in the cultivation of citrus several constraints such as lack of finance and credit facilities, inadequate irrigation facilities, non availability of good quality seedlings, farmyard manure, educated members of their family go outside and lack of latest technical knowledge were predominant and expressed by most of the farmers. In the process of marketing, lack of processing units and marketing societies was the major constraint as expressed by almost all the respondents. Moreover, not getting remunerative price for the produce, un-organized marketing, low price paid to farmers, less demand of fruits, lack of market information and cheating in marketing by the middlemen in the form of malpractices, high and undue marketing margins and deductions in the market were the other major problems expressed by the farmers. To overcome the constraints the 100 per cent respondents suggested that government should take initiative to establish fruit processing units in rural areas. There were other large number of respondents who demanded the bank loan facility at nominal interest rates and at proper time. The majority of the farmers also expressed that adequate provision for obtaining remunerative prices be made available and market information regarding market prices by opening of information centre at village level should be made available to them were also few suggestions given by them.

The total export of agricultural products from India has touched $45 billion during 2013-14 from about $18 billion during 2009-10. In present context non tariff barriers are playing greater role as compared to tariff in the international trade. This study was conducted to analyze the growth of major fruit (Mango, Grapes, Banana) export, changes in the direction of export and various SPS issues related to export of fruits. Mangoes export has showed significant growth rate of 6.5 per cent per annum in terms of quantity. Export value showed significant growth rate of 8.75 per cent per annum while export price showed significant growth rate of 2.25 per cent per annum. Bananas export has also shown significant positive growth rate of 21.91 per cent per annum. At the same time export value and export price showed significant growth of 25.8 per cent per annum and 3.89 per cent per annum respectively. Growth rate in export quantity, value and price of Grapes was found 12.7, 16.77 and 4.08 per cent respectively during 1990-91 to 2011-12. UAE was found more stable market in case of Grapes and in case of mangoes; Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh were more stable market. Bahrain, Iran and UAE were stable market for banana, therefore it was suggested that the attention should be focused on the market requirement and specifications of those stable markets.

Soybean is one of the most important oilseed crops in Madhya Pradesh where it is grown 5.56 million ha area with the annual production of 6.67 million tones. It cultivation is pre dominantly done in Mandsaur district. The study finds that the total cost increased with the increase in the farm size. All costs increased with increase in farm size. The net income, family labour income, farm business income and farm investment income is increases with increase in farm size. Output input ratio indicates that which indicates that the return to every rupee of investment in soybean cultivation increased with increase in farm size. Manure, chemical fertilizer and machine works have significantly influenced the production of soybean in the study area. The agencies working in this area should plan their future course of action regarding soybean cultivation technology for enhanced production