Mahesh Chander

Organic Agriculture 3.0 is innovation with research

Organic agriculture can and should play an important role in solving future challenges in producing food. The low level of external inputs combined with knowledge on sustainablity minimizes environmental contamination and can help to produce more food for more people without negatively impacting our environment. Organic agriculture not only includes farming as a production practice but it also includes processing, trade and consumption. Nevertheless, Organic agriculture must always evolve to overcome emerging challenges. Science-based knowledge attained through dedicated research is required to strengthen organic food and farming as a means to solve future challenges. In 2010, a global discussion about Organic 3.0 was initiated to address current problems our agri-food systems are facing. Many scientifically and practically proven results are already available to make organic agriculture a strong tool to solve some of these challenges. However, the organic agri-food system has to be developed further to fulfill its potential. The contribution of organic agriculture to help solve current problems linked to food security and environmental quality was discussed during the International Society of Organic Agricultural Research (ISOFAR) Symposium “Organic 3.0 is Innovation with Research”, held September 20–22, 2015, in conjunction with the first ISOFAR International Organic Expo, in Goesan County, Republic of Korea. Some of the world’s most active scientists in organic agriculture attended the symposium. This paper is a result of their discussions and aims to give an overview of research conducted and required to strengthen organic agriculture in its ambitions to overcome agronomic challenges, contribute to food security and protect our common environment.

Privatization of veterinary services in developing countries: a review.

Increasing fiscal constraints on the government, a lackadaisical performance by public sector animal health and breeding services and pressure from donor partners have prompted the governments of various developing countries to rethink the role of the public sector in the provision of veterinary services. Various countries have started to implement, or have already implemented, privatization of some veterinary services. The results are mixed. It is established that private provision alone is not optimal, and a blend of private and public sector veterinary services is required to utilize the virtues of both.The privatization process has also begun in India. Certain state governments in India are pursuing a cost recovery approach and are encouraging private practitioners to cope with the financial constraints and to deliver broad and effective animal health and breeding services. This paper considers the global aspects of the privatization of veterinary services as well as the scenario in India, so as to gain an insight into the very complex and debatable issue of privatization of veterinary services.

Willingness to pay for cattle and buffalo insurance: an analysis of dairy farmers in central India

In India, insurance market especially in agricultural sector is usually underdeveloped. The idea of livestock insurance emerged in India before three decades, yet, it has not operated in a significant way till date. It is well noted that livestock insurance scheme is the relevant strategy in managing different risks related to livestock farming but very little attention has been paid to address the livestock insurance needs of the dairy farmers. This study, therefore, addresses the basic question that how many people and to what extent they are willing to pay for livestock insurance and determine the main factors which influence insurance participation of dairy farmers. The data was collected from Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh in India with a sample survey of 120 cattle and buffalo farmers. For eliciting willingness to pay, a contingent valuation scenario was presented to dairy animal owners in the group of five to six. A logit discrete binary regression model was used to know the factors influencing adoption of livestock insurance. The results suggest that most of the farmers were willing to participate in cattle and buffalo insurance. The amount of premium varies across different breeds of dairy animals. The low level of education of many dairy farmers have negatively influenced the decision to purchase livestock insurance. Farmers having more experience in rearing dairy animals are more likely to be willing to pay for cattle and buffalo insurance.

Adoption status of artificial insemination in Indian dairy sector: application of multinomial logit model

ABSTRACT India is blessed with the highest population of dairy animals, but has very poor productivity per se, which may be due to various factors such as lack of improved breeding and feeding services, access to markets, capital, inputs and technology. Although professionals have pointed out artificial insemination (AI) as an emerging technology of socio-economic importance, the ground realities or practices about AI is entirely different. With this theoretical background, an attempt was made to study the adoption status of AI and also to identify factors affecting adoption of AI in India by both qualitative and quantitative methods from 360 dairy farmers in four states of North India. The adoption status of AI pointed out that majority of the respondents had adopted AI since more than 9 years, which was mostly partial in nature. Multinomial logit model depicted the Chi-square value of 113.97, indicating that the model was highly significant (p < .001). Two variables (‘distance to veterinary institution’ and ‘education’) significantly influenced the probability of partial and full adoption of AI. In case of full adoption, in addition to the above variables, ‘size of livestock holding’ and ‘scientific orientation’ also emerged as significant variables. Since majority of the dairy farmers were in partial adoption category, scientists have to analyse the problems of dairy farmers and find suitable solutions for higher diffusion and adoption at field conditions by participatory technology generation and transfer approach in India.

Adoption Status and Influencing Factors of Mobile Telephony in Dairy Sector: A Study in Four States of India

The study has analysed the adoption status of mobile telephones in dairying, and enlisted the constraints as perceived by the dairy farmers. It has also identified the factors affecting adoption of mobile telephones in India through the primary data collected from 360 dairy farmers of four states of north India, viz. Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The adoption status has revealed that the majority of respondents have been using mobile phones partially in dairying since 3–6 years, followed by adoption since 0–3 years. A significant difference (p < 0.001) has been observed among the respondents across the states with regard to adoption of mobile phones in dairying. The application of multinomial logit model has revealed that the model was highly significant and fit for explanation. The variables ‘distance to veterinary institution’ or ‘animal healthcare centre’, ‘landholding size’ and ‘scientific-orientation’ were significantly associated with the probability that the respondent will be a full adopter of mobile phone in dairying. The study has recommended that appropriate measures need be adopted for effective use of mobile phones in dissemination of livestock-related information in general and dairying in particular to the farming community.

Perceived constraints among veterinary livestock development assistants while delivering livestock services in Haryana

The present study was conducted to assess different constraints faced by Veterinary Livestock Development Assistants (VLDAs) of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Haryana while providing livestock services to the farmers of the state. Thirty two independent constraints were taken for the study, which were later classified under nine set of constraints. Asymptotic significance obtained from the Friedman test was 0.0 (p<0.01) with chi-square value of 168.689 and 8 degrees of freedom. Significance value showed, Monte Carlo value was significant at 99 per cent degree of confidence interval and hence, it could be interpreted that there was significant difference among the nine set of constraints. The most severe set of constraints perceived by the respondents was financial followed by situational, technological, motivational, administration and human resource development constraints, policies, system and regulation constraints, social constraints and infrastructural constraints. The study concluded that adequate financial powers should be delegated to VLDAs to deal with the contingent situation at the villages, regular recruitment of VLDAs to fill vacant position, fair provision of awards, incentives, promotion and other emoluments as compared to veterinarians and other officers.

Adoption of T&D pig breed innovation in eastern region of India

A survey was conducted over 240 pig farmers’ purposively selected from four states, viz., Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and one district was selected from each state, based on the population of pig farmers with the assistance of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in these states. Research paper highlights the innovativeness and three types of innovation-decisions viz., optional, collective and authority decisions. Results reveal that majority of respondents (86.70%) had high innovativeness. A large number of the respondents (42.90%) had taken individual decision to adopt ‘T&D’ pig innovation followed by (37.50%) authoritative decision and 21.2 per cent of the respondents took decision in consultation with the scientists of Agricultural University and Krishi Vigyan Kendra for adoption of ‘T&D’ pig innovation.

Effectiveness of whatsapp for sharing agricultural information among farmers of Himachal Pradesh

Social media tools such as whatsapp offer new form of disseminating farm extension information. Empirical studies on its specific utilisation for agricultural information are currently lacking. Present study attempted to evaluate effectiveness of whatsapp to bring change in attitude about sharing agricultural information among farmers, in eight districts of Himachal Pradesh. Pre and post intervention (whatsapp group was created and relevant information was shared for a period of six months) data were collected on randomly selected 96 respondents, through personal interview on pre-tested interview schedule. Results revealed that most of the whatsapp user farmers were young, educated, male respondents owning crossbred cows. Purposively driven whatsapp use for sharing agricultural information under the study led to significant level of favourable attitude among users. Correlation analysis suggested perceived ease of use, usefulness, previous internet/social media use in agriculture, number of posts shared were factors significantly related to favourable attitude towards use of whatsapp application. Regression analysis further showed that gender, number of posts shared and perceived usefulness of whatsapp were main contributing factors in attitude towards its use in agriculture.

Accessibility and Utilization of Information on Scientific Goat Husbandry among Goat Rearers

Accurate and relevant information along with its easy accessibility and proper utilization is an important pre-requisite for scientific goat farming. An ex-post-facto study was carried out among goat keepers of Mathura district (UP) to review the accessibility and utilization of information on scientific goat rearing. For data collection, 160 goat keepers, randomly selected from four highest goat populated blocks of district were personally interviewed. Accessibility of information was assessed in term of frequency of (yes/no) responses, while, extent of utilization of accessed information was measured on three point continuum i.e. frequently, sometimes and never. Respondents were also asked for three most preferred accessible information sources in terms of personal-localite, personal-cosmopolite and mass- media. Results revealed that 85 percent of goat keepers had no accessibility of relevant information. Respondents utilizing the accessed information frequently, were even less than 20 percent, while, more than 30 percent of them had never used it. Primary source of information was personal-localite followed by personal-cosmopolite. Mass-media sources, due to very less coverage on goat specific information were completely inaccessible. Investigation concludes that goat farmers had low accessibility and further low utilization of relevant information.

Goals of livestock innovation related activities of scientists and extensionists in veterinary and animal science universities.

The present study was carried out to identify different goals of livestock innovation related activities of four veterinary and animal science universities in North India. Further, the study also made an attempt to know the perceived satisfaction level of the respondents with regards to the activities performed in the universities. The data was collected from scientists and extensionists of four Universities and Institutes in North India through questionnaire and discussion. The study indicated that, majority of the scientists perceived that their university aimed to generate own income and reduce the labour costs and also responded that they were more satisfied with the goal of increasing commodity quality and generate own income compared to other activities. Further, majority of the extension experts perceived that their organization aimed to provide knowledge and information and generate own income, while they also reported that goal of providing knowledge and information and introducing new products or processes was considered more satisfactory than other activities. Although, all the goals of activities were equally important, only few of the activities were highly performed in the universities. Hence, there is a need to analyse the importance of each activities and perform them for suitable impact to the farming community. There is also an urgent need to improve upon the quality of these activities performed in the universities by scientists and extensionists so that farming community can be satisfied accordingly.