The state of Jammu and Kashmir is having 5.6 million poultry which contributes about 63.2 million eggs per annum. Backyard poultry contributes about 60% of total poultry produce in the state. Rajouri district, a hill district, is an agriculture based district of Jammu & Kashmir where the main stay of the population in the district is agriculture, livestock and poultry rearing. Due to the small land holding, it has become imperative for these people to diversify the agricultural activities and go for some viable allied activities like poultry farming. Poultry farming appears to be a key for economic upliftment of poor farmers, landless labourers and unemployed youth in this district of the state. To find out the problematic issues and advantageous prospects related to indigenous poultry rearing a SWOT analysis of indigenous poultry rearing in Rajouri District of Jammu and Kashmir had been taken for the study. The SWOT analysis was done village wise and by discussions with the progressive poultry farmers and experts in the field of poultry. Forty progressive farmers were selected from the two selected blocks Nowshera and Sunderbani on the basis of their experience they were involved in indigenous poultry rearing and the number of birds they kept. Twenty experts were selected randomly from the faculty of veterinary science, R.S Pura, Department of Animal Husbandry and field veterinarians. Thus, a total of 60 respondents were selected in all as the sample. In the present study, majority (81.67%) of the respondents reported self employment and entrepreneurship was the main opportunity, 83.33 percent of the respondents were of the view that indigenous poultry enterprises do not need high start-up cost to establish as a profitable business as the main strength , eighty five percent of the respondents reported that lack of good management practices during disease condition was the main weakness and around 81.67 percent of the respondents reported an outbreak of bird flu and other epidemics as the main threat in the indigenous poultry rearing. The topographical constraints, largely poor and resource poor nature of inhabitants makes indigenous poultry a viable enterprise to meet nutritional requirements in terms of cost effective animal protein through poultry meat and eggs in hilly areas.

Agriculture is the backbone of rural Punjab.Around 70 percent people of the state are involved in agriculture and allied activities and more than 83 per cent of the total land in the state is under agriculture. In 2016-17, agriculture had 23.96 per cent share in State's GDP while livestock had 8.63 percent share (Statistical Abstract Punjab, 2017). In the recent past, the share of livestock GDP in agriculture increased steadily. Livestock economy including fisheries contributed 29.60 per cent of the agricultural GDP in 2000-01 while the share increased to 36.01 per cent in 2016-17. Livestock sub-sector has registered highest growth among all the sub-sectors of agriculture in India while Punjab is rated among the highest for the share of livestock output to agricultural output (Jha et al., 2009). Thus, livestock sector proved to be an important growth engine for the overall development of agricultural sector in the state.

The present study was conducted in Telangana to ascertain the use of ICT tools for information access, sharing and utilization. A total of 40 paravets were selected from three districts of the state. The selection was purposive according to the accessibility of the researcher. Questionnaire and telephonic survey were used for data  ollection. The results showed that the awareness of ICTs i.e. Websites, Social media, software and Mobile apps was high among the para-vets The use of the ICTs showed that use of social media was very high i.e. 85 percent were using social media whereas use of software packages was almost nil. The most serious constraints faced by majority of the paravets in using ICT are ignorance in use of various mobile apps related to veterinary service, unavailability of information through ICTs, technical incompetency, slow functioning of tools and lack of training.

The present study was carried out to analyse the constraints faced by the buffalo dairy entrepreneurs in peri-urban area of major cities in Marathwada region. The study was conducted in peri-urban areas of 4 major cities in Marathwada region by personally interviewing 160 buffalo dairy entrepreneurs. Here, economic constraints were the top ranked, majority of the respondents (97.5%) stated their constraint as high yielding buffaloes are costlier and costly animal treatment. 96.3% as low milk prices, 95.6% as costly concentrate, 95.0% as high cost of veterinary medicine, 88.1% reported no availability of loan, 85.6% as high cost of construction of shed. Referring to capacity constraints of buffaloes, 90% respondents stated their constraint as buffaloes require more ration and 87.5% as long dry period in buffaloes. As regards technical constraints, majority of the

respondents 83.1% have stated their constraint as insufficient knowledge about vaccination and diseases, 80.6% as no veterinary service nearby, 75.6% as no timely veterinary service, 75.0% as unable to detect heat and 74.4% as no skilled labour available. With respect to resources, majority of respondents 79.4% have stated their constraint as no education facilities for dairy farming locally, 78.8% as no grasslands, 76.9% as shortage of clean water, 76.3% as shortage of green fodder and 70.0% as no breeding bull available.

Women farmers handle most of the critical jobs and are considered to be the main actors in livestock rearing. Though women play a significant role in dairy production system but their control over decision making is lesser than men. To have an empirical data, the present study was carried out in mid western plain zone of Uttar Pradesh to understand the decision making pattern of women in dairy production system in gender perspective. Data were collected through interview schedule from 720 respondents taken from 360households. From each household, two members comprising the head of household and its spouse were selected as respondents. The study revealed that share of female respondents was very low in breeding related activities. Decision related to keeping of cross breed/ heifer/young stock was done only by 22.22% female respondents in addition to being a major joint decision while the selection of breed was a male dominated decision. Involvement of women in the joint decisions was found more in feeding of colostrum to newly born calf (36.11%), allowing the newly born calf to suckle its mother within an hour after calving (44.44%), keeping a crossbred heifer (23.89%) and feeding concentrates (21.94%). Timely vaccination of animals was a major decision taken by both the female and male respondents. In most of health care activities, the share of males in joint decision with the spouse was more prominent. The marketing of live animals and selling of products etc

were the activities where major decisions were taken by males independently.