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Editorial

With the emerging problems owing to mono-cropping of paddy-wheat, diversification and integrated farming systems (IFS) is the need of the hour in Punjab, government of state is making efforts through earmarking budgetary allowances and several remunerative schemes to encourage farmers for its adoption. Hence, this study was taken upto understand the dynamics and the level of integration between the sub-components of widely adopted IFS models of Punjab. More than 80 percent of the farmers adopt the crop + dairy model in the study area therefore this prevalent model was studied as IFS-I model along with its variants of crop + dairy + mushroom (IFS-II) and crop + dairy + beekeeping (IFS-III) models. Leontiefandrsquo;s input-output model (1966) were used to quantify the inter component relationship by considering crop, dairy, mushroom, beekeeping, household, and the market as separate sectors of the farming economy. It was concluded that component enterprises, depended upon each other for input supplies and disposal of output. Forward linkage from crop to dairy enterprise was stronger than backward linkage in all the IFS models and the dairy enterprise was self-sufficient in providing inputs for itself from within the system.

The present study estimated the post-harvest management of selected vegetables in Karnataka. The study was based on primary data collected for the year 2021-22 from 15 farmers for each crop, in both open and protected conditions and from two major vegetable producing districts of the state. The data pertaining to wholesaler and retailer were collected from 15 wholesaler and 15 retailers from each districts who were involved in marketing of vegetables. Descriptive statistics was the analytical tools adopted for the analysis of the data which includes percentages and averages. The reduction in post-harvest loss in protected cultivation was due to controlled environment in protected condition. Similarly, the post-harvest loss was higher in wholesaler against retailer because the huge quantity handling of vegetables found at wholesaler. Results depicted that the difference in post-harvest loss under open cultivation and protected cultivation are 14.13 kg/q, 6.27 kg/q, 14.64 kg/q and 14.93 kg/q of tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber and french beans, respectively. In between wholesaler and retailer, the difference in post-harvest losses are 4.43 kg/q, 2.47 kg/q, 7.40 kg/q and 2.57 kg/q for tomato, capsicum, cucumber and french beans respectively. Findings shows that the post-harvest management practices followed by farmers are harvesting at proper stage, use of crates for transportation, establishing better storage facilities and processing of mechanically damaged products. Similarly, the post-harvest management practices followed by market intermediaries are cold storage, better transportation facilities, procurement of good quality material, usage of cushioning material and other better management practices. The establishment of small sized cold storage units and employing better transportation facilities led to reduction in post-harvest losses which in turn led to additional returns to farmers and market intermediaries.

This paper analyzes resource management and the problems faced by Naga chilli growers in Nagaland. A total of 100 respondents were chosen randomly for the study, comprising of 50 farmers, 20 intermediaries and 30 customers. Findings shows that the growers practiced organic cultivation and the profit earned by chain players per kg of Naga King chillies is comparatively higher than other normal chillies in the study area. The total number of working days required for the production and cultivation of NK chilli was 183 days/ha/year, respectively. The return over cost (2.80) shows that Naga Kingh chilli production is remunerative for the growers of the study area. Major problems faced by the growers in the study area identified were wide fluctuation in price, availability/ supply shortage, handling and storage problems, perishable nature of chilli, etc. Initiating post-harvest handling practices for the tribal farmer, proper/scientific storages (like zero cooling chamber, cold storages,) forming cooperatives / FPOandrsquo;s, trainings could be initiated through KVK, NGOandrsquo;S, state departments, etc. could be used for retaining the shelf life of the chilli.

The market channel choice are the contributing issues which has impact on production and sales of cauliflower crop. Despite their importance, yet adequate research has not been carried out on it, particularly in hill regions of India. Considering this, the present study focuses on the factors affecting cauliflower farmersandrsquo; choice of output marketing channels and what level their market choice influences the market participation in Himachal Pradesh. The field survey was employed on a sample of 200 farmers through field interviews based on a structured questionnaire. The multinomial logistic regression model was employed to determine the factors influencing farmersandrsquo; choice for output marketing channels. The finding of this paper reveals that there are five output marketing channels used by cauliflower growers in the study area, producer-retailer-consumer (1%) followed by producer-retailer-consumer (2.50%) producer-commission agent-retailer-consumer (39%), local trader-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (24%) and producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (33.50%) respectively. Further, the empirical results shows that education, farm income, experience, market distance market information found to be significant at 1%, 5% and 10% significant level which affects farmers choice to choose marketing channel. However, slows sale slow sales of cauliflower crop in marketing Channel-A affects farmers choice to participate in other marketing channels such as Channel-B, D and E. Moreover, the study concluded with the suggestion for development of suitable institutional support programmes, such as publicandndash;private partnerships, to better connect farmers to markets.

The present study was conducted to analyze the growth rates and instability in the area, production, and productivity of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh for the last 71 years from 1950-51 to 2020-21. A Semi-log regression model was used to assess the growth rates and trend, while instability was determined by an adjusted coefficient of variation and the Cuddy Della Vella Instability Index. The results of the growth analysis revealed that area, production and productivity accounted to be positive and statistically significant, whereas the highest growth rate was registered for sugarcane production i.e. 2.25 percent per annum rather than area (1.19% per annum) and productivity (1.05% per annum). In case of instability for the entire study period, the area, production and productivity of this crop accounted to be 24.01, 44.82 and 23.64 percent respectively. It shows that the variation in sugarcane production is higher compared with crop acreage and productivity. It implies that farmers should need to pay adequate attention to adopting improved production technologies and advanced management to address the problems of fluctuation in sugarcane production. Moreover, the higher stability of productivity and area implies a low risk in the supply of raw sugarcane to the sugar industries.

This study explores the intensity and inequality of multidimensional deprivation (MD)across the districts of West Bengal, a north-eastern state in India. The measure of MD covers the dimensions of Knowledge, Health and Living condition with the respective indicators. We have clustered the districts in accordance with the selected indicators. An attempt has also been taken to gauge the inequality for deprivation indicators and for multidimensional deprivation index (MDI) applying the class of Atkinson measures. This study has used the data published by Directorate of Population Census of India 2011. It is reported that value of MDI ranges from 0.013 to 0.675 across the districts in West Bengal. Purulia is the most deprived district followed by Jalpaiguri, Maldah. On the other hand, Kolkata is the least deprived among the districts preceded by North 24 Parganas, Purba Mendinipur. The cluster analysis reveals that Kolkata is the distinct from the other districts of West Bengal. It is found that Darjeeling district and Jalpaiguri district form two separate clusters. The districts of Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Uttar Dinajpur, Maldah, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia are similar in terms of the indicators of multidimensional deprivation. The districts of West Bengal are, of course, not highly diverse in terms of multidimensional deprivation. However, inequality for MDI is higher than that for HDI of the districts.