Advanced Farming

Abhinav Kumar, Atul Yadav, Ram Lakhan, Ajeet Kumar, Kiran Abasaheb More

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Abhinav Kumar, Atul Yadav, Ram Lakhan, Ajeet Kumar, Kiran Abasaheb More. Advanced Farming. 1 (1), pp.1-256, 2021, 978-81-953069-5-4. hal-04982893

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Advanced
Farming

Abhinav Kumar

Atul Yadav

Ram Lakhan Singh

Ajeet Kumar

Kiran Abasaheb More

2021

Advanced Farming

Learning Media
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Dr. Abhinav Kumar : Presently working as an work as a Assistant Professor, Department of Horticulture in Bhagwant University, Ajmer. Rajsathan He has qualified National Eligibility Test (NET-ASRB) in Floriculture and Landscaping in 2017. Dr. Kumar has 22 Research papers, 6 books, 17 book chapters, 14 popular articles go to his credit, which have been published in various reputed journals and magazines.

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Dr. Atul Yadav : Present time he work as a Assistant Professor, Horticulture in Rama University, Kanpur., U.P. He qualified National Eligibility Test (NET-ASRB) in Fruit Sciences in 2019. He has published 2 National Awards, 10 Research papers, 6 Books, 5 popular articles and solo author or co-author in reputed journals and magazines.

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Dr. Ram Lakhan Singh: Presently working as SMS/Associate Professor, Agronomy at Krishi Vgyan Kendra Mankapur, Gonda affiliated with A.N.D.U.A.&T., Ayodhya . Dr. Singh have done B.Sc. (Ag.&AH), M.Sc. (Ag) Agronomy and Ph.D. Agronomy from C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, kanpur.

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Dr. Ajeet Kumar: Presently working as an Assistant Professor-cum-Scientist, Department of Soil Science, S.R.I., Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University Pusa (Samastipur)-848125, Bihar, India, has 13 years of teaching, research and extension experiences. Dr. Kumar, Ph.D. (B.H.U., Varanasi.), FHAS; He has 186 scientific contributions, 65 research papers, 52 popular articles, 08 chapters in books, 04 books, 24 research/extension bulletins and 02 edited publications.

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Dr. Kiran Abasaheb More: Presently working as Assistant Professor, department of Botany, Yashwantrao Chavan Arts and Science Mahavidyalaya, Mangrulpir. He born in Bhogaon (Devi) Tahsil Jintur of Parbhani district of Maharashtra, India in 1978, completed M.Sc in Botany, at S. S. College Parbhani, Maharashtra. The author also completed his Ph.D in 2010 in field of Taxonomy of Angiosperme. He is the Chief Editor of Research Journal Multilogic in science (Journal for Applied science), He edited more than 35 issues of research journals and authored 25 research papers.

Published By:-

Learning Media Publication

Learning Media Publication
A-16, Aman Vihar, Mawana Road,
Opp. J.P. Academy, Meerut-250001
Contact No. +918791976106
E-mail:learningmediapublicationmeerut@gmail.com
Website: www-learningmedia.in

2021

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978-81-953069-5-4

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Advanced Farming

First Edition: 2021

ISBN: 978-81-953069-5-4

Copyright © Authors

**Disclaimer:** The authors are solely responsible for the contents of the book chapters compiled in this book. The editors or publisher do not take any, responsibility for same in any manner. Errors, if any, are purely unintentional and readers are requested to communicate such errors to the editors or publisher to avoid discrepancies in future.

Printed & Published by:

Learning Media Publication
A-16, Aman Vihar, Mawana Road,
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Contact No. +918791976106
E-mail: learningmediapublicationmeerut@gmail.com
Website: www-learningmedia.in
## Editors

**Dr. Abhinav Kumar**

Assistant Professor,
Department of Horticulture,
Faculty of Agriculture Sciences,
Bhagwant University, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India

**Dr. Atul Yadav**

Assistant Professor,
Department of Horticulture,
Rama University, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

**Dr. Ram Lakhan Singh**

SMS/ Associate Professor,
Department of Agronomy,
KVK, Mankapur, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh

**Dr. Ajeet Kumar**

Assistant Professor-cum-Scientist,
Department of Soil Science, Sugarcane Research Institute,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University Pusa, Bihar, India

**Dr. Kiran Abasaheb**

Assistant Professor,
Department of Botany,
Y.C.A. & S. Mahavidyalaya, Mangrulpir

**Learning Media Publication**

Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
Content

<table><thead><tr><td>S. No.</td><td>Title with Author Name</td><td>Page No.</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1.</td><td>Organic Horticulture: Current & Future Aspects, Challenges and Its Products in India<br><b>Author:</b> Harendra and Abhinav Kumar</td><td>5-8</td></tr><tr><td>2.</td><td>Micro- and Nano-Plastics in Fruits and Vegetables: Serious Health Hazard<br><b>Author:</b> Vartika Singh and Abhinav Kumar</td><td>9-15</td></tr><tr><td>3.</td><td>Extension of Shelf Life of Loquat by The Application of Various Postharvest Chemicals<br><b>Author:</b> Dilkiranpreet Singh and Amarjeet Kaur</td><td>16-40</td></tr><tr><td>4.</td><td>Agriculture Extension for Climate Smart Agriculture<br><b>Author:</b> Manobharathi K. et al.</td><td>41-56</td></tr><tr><td>5.</td><td>Farm Efficiency Measure to Gauge the Profitability Situation of The Farms<br><b>Author:</b> Anurooddha Pratap Singh Yadav and Navin Kumar</td><td>57-63</td></tr><tr><td>6.</td><td>Change Scenario in Agricultural Extension<br><b>Author:</b> Girijesh Yadav, et al.</td><td>64-71</td></tr><tr><td>7.</td><td>Effect of Climatic Change on Fruits and Ornamental Crops<br><b>Author:</b> Dr. Ashok Kumar and Abhinav Kumar</td><td>72-81</td></tr><tr><td>8.</td><td>A Critical Analysis of Different Approaches of Agricultural Extension and an Overview of Government Schemes<br><b>Author:</b> B. Srishailam et al.</td><td>82-102</td></tr><tr><td>9.</td><td>Participatory Action Research in Agricultural Extension Education<br><b>Author:</b> Akanksha Singh and Girijesh Yadav</td><td>103-113</td></tr><tr><td>10.</td><td>Quality Planting Material Production of Spine/Teasle Gourd<br><b>Author:</b> Dr. Gulab Chand Yadav et al.</td><td>114-123</td></tr><tr><td>11.</td><td>Organic Vegetable Production in India: Principles and Practices<br><b>Author:</b> Amit Kumar et al.</td><td>124-137</td></tr><tr><td>12.</td><td>Integrated Farming System - A Scientific Approach Towards Doubling Farm Income and Nutritional Security of Small and Marginal Farmers<br><b>Author:</b> Monika Menia and Ranjeet Singh Bochalya</td><td>138-150</td></tr><tr><td>13.</td><td>Biotechnology and Its Applications<br><b>Author:</b> Poonam W. Nawalkar et al.</td><td>151-159</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>14.</td><td>Mitigation of Abiotic Stresses in Agricultural Crops by Rhizobacteria<br/>Author: Adesh Kumar et al.</td><td>160-168</td></tr><tr><td>15.</td><td>Role of Beneficial Rhizospheric Bacteria in Plant Growth<br/>Author: Adesh Kumar et al.</td><td>169-182</td></tr><tr><td>16.</td><td>Plant Nutrients<br/>Author: Rahul Sharma et al.</td><td>182-189</td></tr><tr><td>17.</td><td>Pre-Harvest Bagging in Different Fruit Crops<br/>Author: Harvindra Pal et al.</td><td>190-200</td></tr><tr><td>18.</td><td>Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Weather Forecasting<br/>Author: Siddhant Gupta et al.</td><td>201-208</td></tr><tr><td>19.</td><td>Use of Biofertilizers in Agriculture<br/>Author: Shivam Kumar Verma et al.</td><td>209-214</td></tr><tr><td>20.</td><td>INM of Fruit Crop Production<br/>Author: Rohit Kumar</td><td>215-220</td></tr><tr><td>21.</td><td>Status of Grain Storage in India and Storage Models<br/>Author: Sachina, Mukesh Kumar Garga, Vijay Kumar Singha, Sushant Bhardwaja, Parveen and Ajay Kumara</td><td>221-234</td></tr><tr><td>22.</td><td>Farm Mechanization<br/>Author: Er. Harish D. Nahate</td><td>235-238</td></tr><tr><td>23.</td><td>Immunity and Immune Boosting Foods<br/>Author: Jharana Panda</td><td>239-242</td></tr><tr><td>24.</td><td>Newer Approaches in Food Packaging Technology<br/>Author: Anjali Yadav¹ and Usha Singh</td><td>243-247</td></tr><tr><td>25.</td><td>Male Sterility- The Genetic Mechanisms and Its Types<br/>Author: Aman Singh and Juhi Pandey</td><td>248-256</td></tr></table>
# ORGANIC HORTICULTURE:
## CURRENT & FUTURE ASPECTS, CHALLENGES AND ITS PRODUCTS IN INDIA

Harendra¹ and Abhinav Kumar²

Ph.D. Scholar¹, Ph.D. ², Horticulture, College of Horticulture and Forestry, ¹Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya-U.P.

Organic Horticulture refers to the practice of cultivation of fruits, flowers and/or vegetables but naturally, that means with minimal usage of chemical fertilizers or any other artificial pesticides. Horticulture mainly involves the application of eco-friendly practices of soil building and pest management like the application of organic manures, compost and biological pest control agents etc. The term “Horticultural farming” means growing of plants like fruits, flowers, vegetables, medicinal plants, spices and aromatic etc. The horticultural crops grown organically such as cashew nut, spices, pineapple, passion fruit, vegetables, walnut, tea, coffee, banana, strawberry, tuberose, marigold, coriander, turnip and mango. Institutional support for organic exports from India was created by the launch of the National Program for Organic Production (NPOP) by the Agriculture and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce. The NPOP supports promotional initiatives, accreditation by inspection and certification agencies, and offers support to agri-business enterprises to facilitate export. India now has 26 accredited certification agencies to facilitate the certification of growers.

### Soil Management in Organic Horticultural Farming:

Soil not only serves as a principal growth medium but also helps in sustainable horticultural crop production, environment quality sustainment and also ensures human, animal, and plant health. Soil can be mainly considered as a primal basal component of any organic horticultural crop production system. The success of any organic horticultural crop production is based on soil health. It has been proved that the organic manures such as FYM, mulches can be improving the soil health and its quality as well. Soil quality improvement and sustainability for a longer period are important and major management objectives of organic horticultural crop farming.

### Water Management in Organic Horticulture Farming:

In organic horticultural crop production, water management is vital for weed control which could be germinated due to water application or due to the occurrence of rain. Drip irrigation below planting bed surface will ensure the provision of moisture to
organic crops only and will reduce available moisture to the weeds near the surface.
Hence, in organic farming drip irrigation should be considered.

## Constraint or challenges in organic horticulture in India:

1. Lack of awareness.

2. Lack of financial approaches.

3. Shortage of biomass.

4. Lack of govt. policies.

5. Lack of proper marketing for organic production.

6. Low yield.

7. Most time consumed method.

8. Lack of standard organic manures.

## Present and Future aspects of Organic Horticulture in India:

Due to climate changes, organic horticulture farming has made an important place around the globe. Organic Horticulture farming has been found to be an indigenous practice of India including countless rural and farming communities over the millennium. The arrival of modern techniques and increased burden of population led to a propensity towards conventional farming that involves the use of synthetic fertilizer, chemical pesticides, application of genetic modification techniques, etc. Even in developing countries like India, the demand for organically grown produce is more as people are more aware now about the safety and quality of food, and the organic process has a massive influence on soil health, which devoid of chemical pesticides. The soil in India is bestowed with various types of naturally available organic nutrient resources that aid in organic farming.

Indian traditional farmers possess a deep insight based on their knowledge, extensive observation, perseverance and practices for maintaining soil fertility, and pest management which are found effective in strengthening organic production and subsequent economic growth in India. The progress in organic horticulture is quite commendable. Currently, India has become the largest organic producer in the globe. Various newer technologies have been invented in the field of organic farming such as integration of mycorrhizal fungi and nano biostimulants, mapping cultivation areas more consciously through sensor technology and spatial geodata, 3D printers (to help the country's smallholder), production from side streams and waste along with main commodities, promotion and improvement of sustainable agriculture through innovation in drip irrigation, precision agriculture, and agro-ecological practices. Advancement in the development of organic horticulture farming is Bee Scanning App, through which beekeepers can fight the *Varroa destructor* parasite mite and also forms a basis for population modelling and breeding programmes. Inhana Rational Farming Technology developed on the principle 'Element Energy Activation' is a comprehensive organic method for ensuring ecologically and economically sustainable crop production and it is based on ancient Indian philosophy and modern scientific knowledge. Organic horticulture farming keeps soil healthy and maintains environment integrity thereby, promoting the health of consumers. Moreover, the organic produce
market is now the fastest growing market all over the world including India. Organic horticulture promotes the health of consumers of a nation, the ecological health of a nation, and the economic growth of a nation by income generation holistically. India, at present, is the world's largest organic and with this vision, we can conclude that encouraging organic farming in India can build a nutritionally, ecologically, and economically healthy nation in near future. India has been self-sufficient in food staples for over a decade now. Organic agriculture will prosper in India and will contribute in feeding 1.5 billion people by 2030. Organic farming is rapidly growing in India and investors agree that challenges do exist in this sector but as soon as awareness and educational training about the benefits and the set-up of organic farming is spread to the farmers, a positive economic outcome will follow.

## Organic horticultural products in India:

Food quality and food safety are the two important factors that have gained ever-increasing attention in general consumers. India has the largest number of organic producers in the world. Major destinations for organic products from India were the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asian countries, West Asia, and South Africa. Organic farming is growing rapidly among Indian farmers and entrepreneurs, especially in low productivity areas, rain-fed zones, hilly areas, and the North-Eastern states, where fertilizer consumption is less than 25 kg/ha/year. Nine states in India have promoted policies and programs on organic farming. Uttrakhand has made organic a thrust for improving its mountain agriculture farm economy and livelihood. Mizoram and Sikkim declared their intentions to move to total organic farming. Karnataka has formulated organic policies, and Maharashtra, TamilNadu, and Kerala have supported public-private partnerships for the promotion of organic farming. India produced around 2.75 million MT (2019-20) of certified organic products which includes all varieties of food products namely Aromatic & Medicinal Plants, Tea, Coffee, Fruits, Spices, Dry Fruits, Vegetables, Processed foods etc. The production is not limited to the edible sector but also produces organic functional food products. Among different states Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The total volume of export during 2019-20 was 6.389 lakh MT. The organic food export realization was around INR 4,686 crore (689 million USD). Organic products are exported to USA, European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Israel, UAE, New Zealand, Vietnam etc. In terms of export value realization processed foods including Plantation crop products such as Tea and Coffee (9.61%), Spices and condiments (5.20%), Dry fruits (4.98%), Sugar (3.91), Medicinal plants (3.84%) and many more.

## Some Organic Horticultural Products in India:

### 1. Vegetable crops

The organic produce mostly has the exposure of humans rather than the toxic chemicals and fertilizers that are why they are hand weeded and densely planted. Organic Vegetables with 70% consumption top the table. Vegetables like Turnip,
Advanced Farming

Onion, Garlic, Turmeric, Coriander, Pea, Spinach, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Brinjal, Potato, Bitter-gourd, Carrot, Capsicum, Green chili; Cauliflower and Cabbage comprise a significant part of the offered organic vegetable option.

2. Fruit crops

Organic Fruits comprise a 50% of consumption of organic food products in India and stand second position. Fruits like Apple, Banana, Mangoes, Pomegranates, Strawberry, Blueberry, Pear, Plum, Citrus and Peaches are the most bought organic plant products. The Quality of organic fruits is so fine that you can feel the consistent sweetness up to the core of the fruit, unlike chemically ripened fruits.

3. Flower crops

Some flower crops such as tuberose, marigold, zinnia, gladiolus, and chrysanthemum etc. are rapidly grown through organic medium at commercial level.

4. Fruit Juices

Organic fruit juices are now being popularly bought and consumed by Indian peoples with 52% consumption. This category includes Coconut water, Orange juice, Kagzi lime juice, Apple juice, Pineapple juice, Aloe vera juice, Ginger juice, Gooseberry juice, Strawberry juice, Phalsa juice, Mango juice, Karonda juice, Jackfruit juice and Aonla juice.

5. Beverages

Organic Beverages that are consumed include jamun RTS, ginger RTS, Aloe vera RTS, phalsa squash, lemon squash, coffee, Tulsi Green Tea, Jaljeera, Aam panna, Nimbupani, Sugarcan juice, toddy, mango RTS, Strawberry RTS, karonda squash, mulberry RTS and squash and kokum juice. Food Brands like Amira, Patanjali, Organic India, 24 Mantra, Down to Earth, Green Sense, Genera, The Organic Kitchen, Devbhumi, Aum Fresh, Assamica Agro are actively promoting the organic food trend in India.

References

* www.iuemag.com/OrganicProducts-2021.

* www.maiervidorno.com/organicfarming-2021.

* www.APEDA.com/organicproducts-2021.

* Mitra, S. and Devi, H. (2016). Organic Horticulture in India. *Horticulturae*, 2(17): 2-6.

* Organic Horticulture Farming- Principles & Cultivation in India by Reddy.

* Das, S.; Chatterjee, A. and Pal, T.K. (2020). Organic farming in India: a vision towards a healthy nation. *Food quality and Safety*, 4(2): 69-76.
# MICRO- AND NANO-PLASTICS IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES: SERIOUS HEALTH HAZARD

Vartika Singh¹ and Abhinav Kumar ²

¹Ph.D Scholar, Fruit Science and ²Ph.D, Floriculture and Landscaping,
Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology,
Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh

Corresponding author- [vartika815@gmail.com](mailto:vartika815@gmail.com)

## 1. Introduction

Plastic pollution represents a current newest factor in agricultural system. Microplastics (MPs), is one of the consequences of plastic pollution which emerged as a global environmental concern since they are stable and non-biodegradable. Recent researches have confirmed that MPs can be detected in several fruits and vegetables which is actual serious human health concern. However, its toxicity has not yet fully investigated. MPs can be found in most of the environmental factors such as soil, sediments, atmosphere, groundwater, marine water, sea and lakes (Miranda et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2019a). Also, an experiment conducted on macro and micro-plastics by Weinstein et al., 2016, suggested that domestic and industrial factors are direct source of MPs. Moreover, (Fadare et al., 2020 and Hernandez et al., 2019) reported that plastic products used for water bottles and food packaging are also one of the direct sources. Plastic pollution has negative impact on environment as well as on human health (Bucci et al., 2019). Hence it is well established fact that most of the organisms (worms, fish, mammals etc.) on earth are exposed to plastic pollution either directly or indirectly (Toussaint et al., 2019).

Another study on micro- and nano- plastics in edible fruits and vegetables reported that pollution of MPs of range 52,050 to 2333,000 particles per gram was detected in fruits and vegetables depending on its types, with fruits being more contamination compare to vegetables. Among fruits, **apple** represent the most contaminated while in vegetables **carrot** is the most contaminated and **lettuce** was the least polluted. Content of micro-plastics is present more in fruits as compare to vegetables because of high vascularization of the fruit pulp and due to the greater size and complex root system and also the age of the tree (several years) compared to the vegetables where 60-75 days only for the root crop like carrot. Along with this, microscopic
small hairs are also present on the outside of the epidermis of central root in carrot and these serve to increase the surface area of the root system. This micro-plastics pollution seems to be arising from soil pollution leading to root absorption and translocation in tissues (Oliveri Conti et al., 2020). The main function of Xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves. However, it also reported to transports nano-palstics in plants. Based on size and types, MPs have capacity of penetrating into root, seeds, leaves, culm and fruit plant cells. (Dietz and Hertz, 2011). Difficulties and complexities occurrence during separation or during measurement of quantity of plastic particles from soil because micro-plastics on surface of soil develop biofilms that absorb impurities (mineral particles and organic matter) results in huge gathering of plastics in soil overtime which ultimately enter into human food chain. Range of nano-particles are reported to be taken by horticultural crops and consequently it is more likely that MPs can enter into the human food chain. (Jassby et al., 2019). Li et al. (2019a, b) conducted an experiment and concluded that polystyrene microplastics of 0.2 mm size can be absorbed and rise into the roots of raw vegetables, and also transport from the root system to shoot system.

Plastics can consist of a broad range of additives which can enhance their ecological toxicity in considerable amount (Koelmans et al., 2019). For example, plasticizers (substance added as solvent to promote plasticity and flexibility such as phthalic acid esters (PAEs) present a main additive of plastic films which are commonly used in agricultural system and is responsible for contamination of fruits and vegetables (He et al., 2014; Kong et al., 2012).

Since, the comprehensive knowledge of understanding is lacking regarding micro- and nano-plastics and its effect in agricultural system. Therefore, Nano-biotechnology applications can provide better scope for amelioration of plant science assessment with more correction in human's health risk assessment too. The evaluation of quality of the fruits and vegetables in context of presence of MPs content besides the classical method of monitoring of pollutants can act as a useful approach in diet risk assessment. It permits the assessment of the Estimated Daily Intakes (EDI) of total MPs ingested or consumed through the agricultural food products.

## 2. Micro-plastics (MPs) and its types

Micro-plastics (MPs) can be defined as particles smaller than 5 milimeter in size. These MPs chiefly originate from tiny particles of plastic particles (such as materials used in detergents and cosmetics) that can released directly into the environment, or may be indirectly after the degradation of large pieces of plastics such as household garbage, plastic film, atmospheric deposition etc. (Andrady, 2011; Cole et al., 2011; Gesamp, 2015).
Micro-plastics can be classified into two types on the basis of actual manufactured particles size

(a.) Primary micro-plastics and

(b.) Secondary micro-plastics

Primary micro-plastics are of microscopic size and particularly consist of plastic micro-beads (exfoliating cleansers) and nano-particles directly and widely used in a variety of industrial manufacturing products especially industrial detergents and cosmetics industries. These MPs can enter in soil (Allen et al., 2019).

Secondary micro-plastics refer to the tiny fragments of plastic which can arise from large plastic products (such as agricultural plastic film residues, household garbage) that have broken down in situ. This breakdown of plastics may occur at the soil surface as a result of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that causes photo-degradation (oxidation of the polymer matrix, leading to bond cleavage (Andrady, 2011; Barnes et al., 2009; Moore, 2008; Rios et al., 2007) or due to biological attack or also due to physical abrasion (abiotic) within the soil profile. (Cole et al., 2011; Gesamp, 2015). Moreover, final termination of physical, biological as well as chemical processes result in reduction of the structural integrity of debris of plastic which produces fragmentation (Browne et al., 2007).

**NOTE:** **Nano-plastics** refers to the plastics having sizes ranges of 1–1000 mm whereas **Pico plastics** refers to the plastics of <1 mm in size.

**3. Sources of MPs in Agricultural System**

In agricultural System, soil has become a major sink for microplastics (Browne *et al*., 2011; Mahon *et al*., 2017; Nizzetto *et al*., 2016a; Nizzett *et al*., 2016b; Rillig, 2012; Zubris and Richards, 2005). The main sources of macro as well as micro-plastics in our agricultural soils are- plastic-coated fertilizers, use of plastic mulch films etc. These micro-plastics degrade the physical (loss of soil structure which decreases the infiltration of water, soil aeration,); chemical (negative effect on soil organic carbon and nitrogen); and biological (negative impact on soil fauna such as earthworm) qualities of soil. These MPs in soil can be carried by soil organisms and act as vector for other soil pollutants. However, these MPs can also be carried or dispersed by soil animals and either through ingestion and defecation or attaching to the outside of the organism (Cao *et al*., 2017; Rillig *et al*., 2017b). Although plastic mulch has numerous economic advantages while it has negative impacts on soil too after harvesting of crops. Every year new plastic residues are added in soil and this continuous gradual gathering coupled with traditional tillage practices in soil upshot in huge accumulation of macro and
Advanced Farming

micro-plastics (Changrong *et al.*, 2014; Moreno *et al.*, 2017; Ren, 2003; Yang *et al.*, 2014). Global consumption of plastics by agriculture sector is 8 million tonnes per year (Scarascia-Mugnozza *et al.*, 2011). This accumulation of plastics may cause serious threat to agricultural soil qualities potentially.

4. Separation and detection of micro-plastics in soil

The analysis of micro-plastics in components of the Earth system remains complex and challenging because no unified standard methods exist for separation and detection of micro-plastics (Song *et al.*, 2015; Tagg *et al.*, 2015). Techniques involved in analysis, detection and extraction of MPs from soil media is still infancy. Extraction of MPs using density suspension method and the removal of organic matter on microplastics surface using a suitable oxidizer solution are recommended methods for separation of microplastics from soil. (Nuelle *et al.*, 2014; Qiu *et al.*, 2016; Zhang *et al.*, 2018b).

Micro- and Nano-plastics in Horticultural crops

For the first time, Gea Oliveri Conti and others in 2020 conducted an experiment for the detection of presence of micro and nano-plastics in edible fruits and vegetables and they found presence of micro-plastics in fruits and vegetables (apple, pear, carrots, broccoli, lettuces and potato). Moreover, they evaluated the more concentration of plastic participles in fruits as compare to vegetables. They also concluded that potential effects of micro-plastics on agricultural food products is still need to be investigated through further researches. Similarly, Husen and Siddiqi, 2014 and Bosker *et al.*, 2019 reported that uptake of nano-particles by plant system is inversely proportional to its size which affect the growth of plants and fruits. It means particles with a larger size are prohibited to get into plant cell and finally get adsorbed on surface. Carbon nano-materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers can be absorbed through root system but, in seeds it may penetrate and translocated to shoot also by endocytosis. (Husen and Siddiqi, 2014). In this way accumulation of nano-paricles in plant tissues can be transferred to human food diet.

Discussion

It is very clear from the foregoing review that plastic pollution either macro, micro or
nano degrade the quality of soil in terms of physical, chemical and biological. Accumulation
of micro and nano-plastics in soil for longer period gets absorbed by root system of crops which
eventually enter into food chain of human. Presence of micro and nano-plastics is also reported
in edible fruits and vegetables particularly in apple, pear and carrot. Ingestion of MPs can create
variety of health problems such as they contain various harmful chemicals such as styrene,
bisphenol etc. However, the degree of toxicity of MPs pollution on human health is still need
to be investigated more. Efforts have been made in the last few years to check its toxicity level
in vitro models of human digestive system. There is an urgent need to conduct more researches
for analysis, detection and separation of micro-plastics from soil in order to prevent numerous
environmental and health hazards.

References

* Andrady, A.L., 2011. Microplastics in the marine environment. *Mar. Pollut. Bull.* 62, 1596-1605.

* Andrés Rodríguez-Seijo, R.P., 2018. Microplastics in agricultural soils are they a real environmental hazard? Chapter 3. Bioremediation of Agricultural Soils. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

* Allen, S., Allen, D., Phoenix, V.R., Le Roux, G., Jiménez, P.D., Simonneau, A., Binet, S., Galop, D., 2019. Atmospheric transport and deposition of microplastics in a remote mountain catchment. *Nat. Geosci.* 12 (5), 339.

* Browne, M.A., Galloway, T., Thompson, R., 2007. Microplastic - an emerging contaminant of potential concern? *Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management.* 3, 559-561.

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# EXTENSION OF SHELF LIFE OF LOQUAT BY THE APPLICATION OF VARIOUS POSTHARVEST CHEMICALS

Dilkiranpreet Singh¹ and Amarjeet Kaur*

Department of Horticulture,
Khalsa College Amritsar, 143005, Punjab, India

Corresponding author: dr.amarjitkaur30@gmail.com

## ABSTRACT

Loquat fruits are packed with higher nutritional contents attributed with various health benefits. The limited storage ability of fruits negatively affects its marketability and consumption. To evaluate an effective postharvest treatment the application of chitosan @ 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 per cent, CaCl₂ 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 per cent and salicylic acid 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 mM were investigated on loquat fruits cv. Sufeda. The results of the study revealed that the treatment of CaCl₂ @ 1.5 proved to be effective in reducing the physiological loss in weight, spoilage percentage, increased the total soluble solids, prevented the degradation of titratable acidity and retained the acceptable palatability throughout the storage period with the prolongation of shelf life of 20 days under cold storage conditions.

**Key words:** CaCl₂, Chitosan, Palatability, Salicylic acid, Spoilage

## 1.Introduction

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) also known as Japanese medlar, Japanese plum and Chinese plum is a fruit which contains nearly all the essential nutrients, being particularly rich in minerals and carotenoids with the kernel very rich in protein (22.5%) and carbohydrates (71.2%). Its fruit has been considered to possess anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, antioxidant, antitumor, antiviral, cytotoxic, antimutagenic and hypolipidemic activities. The beneficial effects of loquat have been suggested against chronic bronchitis and nephropathy. Due to its medicinal properties, even loquat seeds are considered as 'Good for health' in traditional Japanese core. Loquat is grown mainly to produce fruits; however, its leaves have also been used since ancient times in the Chinese traditional medicine and have been suggested to prevent skin abnormalities, diabetes, chronic bronchitis, coughs, phlegm, ulcers and cancer (Ito et al., 2000). Loquat
is a non-climacteric fruit which ripens in late spring and early summer with hot and rainy season. Loquat fruits are highly perishable and their quality deteriorates rapidly after harvest through mechanical injury and microbial decay (Pareek et al., 2014). The postharvest application of calcium to the fruits help in maintaining cell turgour, membrane integrity, tissue firmness by delaying the membrane lipid catabolism that extending the storage life of fresh fruit (Garcia et al., 1996 and Picchioni et al., 1998). Pre- and postharvest application of calcium may delay the senescence in fruits without any detrimental effect on consumer acceptance (Lester and Grusak 2004). Moreover, salicylic acid (a group of phenolic compounds) is now widely distributed in plants, which plays an important role in regulating a large variety of physiological processes (Zavala et al., 2004). Recently it has been observed that salicylic acid treatments could be used to reduce the deterioration and chilling injury symptoms in some fruits (Wang et al., 2006 and Sayyari et al., 2009) and also used for quality improvement in number of crops (Tareen et al., 2012). The chitosan (Polycationic biopolymer) coating has been considered as an eco-friendly coating with antimicrobial action that can extend the shelf life of various fruits (Ghasemnezhad et al., 2011 and Dhall 2013) by reducing the moisture transfer, respiration rate and browning appearance (Li and Yu 2000). Chitosan coating had been successfully applied to prolong the storage life and to control the decay of many fruits (Shi et al., 2013). Hence the present studies were carried out to evaluate the influence of various chemicals on the storage life of loquat fruits under cold storage.

## 2. Materials and Methods

### 2.1 Experimental site

The present investigation was carried out in the laboratory of Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Khalsa College Amritsar during the year 2019 and 2020.

### 2.2 Collection of fruit sample

The material used for the present experiment was freshly harvested mature loquat fruits of cv. Sufeda. The fruits of uniform size, disease and bruise free were picked randomly from all the four directions of the plants with the help of secateurs at physiological mature stage from the orchard of PAU Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur and were transferred to the laboratory of Department of Horticulture, Khalsa College Amritsar. In the laboratory, the fruits were sorted, graded and washed with water. Thereafter fruits were divided into requisite lot for further handling.

### 2.3 Sample preparation

The post-harvest dipping of chitosan@ 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 per cent, CaCl₂ 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 per cent and salicylic acid 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 mM was given for 5 minutes while the fruits under control were dipped in distilled water. A sample of 2 kg of fruit from each replication of each treatment was packed in corrugated fibre board (CFB)boxes
Advanced Farming

(5% perforation) with paper lining and placed at cold storage conditions at 4°C. The physico-chemical changes in loquat fruits were investigated on 0, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 20th day of storage.

2.4 Physiological loss in weight

The PLW of fruits was calculated by WL during storage was measured by weighing initial fruit weight (W1) and at subsequent storage intervals (W2). The WL in terms of percentage was calculated by using the following equation

$$
WL(\%) = \frac{W_1 - W_2}{W_1} \times 100
$$

2.5 Spoilage percentage

The spoilage percentage of fruits was calculated on number basis by counting
the spoiled fruits in each replication and then the spoilage percentage was worked out
with the help of following formula:

$$
\text{Spoilage percentage} = \frac{\text{Number of spoiled fruits}}{\text{Total number of fruits}} \times 100
$$

**2.6. Sensory quality**

All the samples were assessed by a panel of 5 judges. Panellists evaluated the
fruit on the basis of freshness, colour, aroma, texture, taste and overall acceptance
according to 9-point hedonic scale described by Amerine et al. (1965).

2.7 TSS and TA

TSS content was measured with the digital hand refractometer (ATAGO) and expressed in terms of per cent (AOAC, 1990). TA was determined with 2 ml juice adding 2 drops of phenolphthalein as an indicator and titration with 0.1 NaOH. The results are expressed as percent of malic acid (Ranganna, 2007).

$$
\text{TA (\%)} = \frac{0.0067 \times 0.1 \, \text{N NaOH (ml)}}{\text{Volume of juice taken(ml)}} \times 100
$$

2.8 Total sugars

The total sugars were determined by the method given by A O A C (1990). To
the 10 ml of juice, 1 g of lead acetate was added and kept for half an hour. Then 1 g of
potassium oxalate was added and the volume was made to 100 ml. The solution was
then filtered and this filtrate was taken in a burette. 25 ml of filtrate was taken in to 100
ml measuring flask and 25 ml of distilled water and then 5 ml of HCL (60% by volume)
was added to it. It was left overnight for 24 hours at room temperature for acid
hydrolysis followed by neutralization of excess acid with 10 per cent NaOH in the initial
stage and with 0.1 N NaOH near the neutralization point. Subsequently the solution
titrated against boiling standard Fehling solution by using methylene blue as an indicator. The results were expressed in percentage of sugars.

$$ \text{Total sugars (\%)} = \text{Fehling factor} \times \frac{\text{Stock Solution}}{\text{Weight of Sample}} \times \frac{\text{Second Stock Solution}}{\text{Vol. of filtrate taken} \times \text{Vol. of filtrate used}} \times 100 $$

$$ = 0.05 \times \frac{100}{10} \times \frac{100}{25 \times A} \times 100 $$

## 2.9 Reducing sugars (%)

The reducing sugars were determined by the method given by A O A C (1990). To the 10 ml of juice, 1 g of lead acetate was added and kept for half an hour. Then 1 g potassium oxalate was added and volume was made 100 ml. The solution was then filtered and this filtrate was taken in a burette. 5 ml of each Fehlings solution A and B was pipette out in a flask and kept on hot plate and was titrated with the filtrate. 3-4 drops of methylene blue indicator were added to a solution in a flask before titrating. Titration was then started and continued till appearance of permanent brick red color and volume of the filtrate was noted as A. Reducing Sugar was calculated by using the following formula:

$$ \text{Reducing Sugar (\%)} = \text{Fehling factor} \times \frac{\text{Stock Solution}}{\text{Weight of Sample} \times \text{Vol. of filtrate used}} \times 100 $$

$$ = 0.05 \times \frac{100}{10 \times A} \times 100 $$

## 3.0 Ascorbic acid

Ascorbic acid was estimated by indophenol dye method.

**Reagent No. 1: Meta phosphoric acid solution:** 15g of glacial Meta phosphoric acid (HPO₃) was dissolved in 40 ml acetic acid and 200 ml H₂O. The volume was made 500 ml with distilled water.
**Reagent No. 2: Indophenol dye (standard solution):** 50 mg of dye 2, 6-dichloro indophenol was dissolved in 50 ml H₂O to which 42 mg of NaHCO₃ had been added. It was diluted to 200 ml. Then filtered rapidly and stored in refrigerator.

**Reagent No. 3: Ascorbic acid (standard solution):** 100 mg of standard ascorbic acid was weighed and transferred to a 100 ml volumetric flask and diluted to mark with reagent no.1.

## Procedure

10 ml of the sample was taken and the volume was made 100 ml with reagent no. 1. It was centrifuged to have a clear solution. This solution was then filtered and volume made to 100 ml. 10 ml of this aliquot was taken in the flask and titrated with the standard dye prepared above. A light pink colour persisting for few seconds was the end point.

## Standardization of indophenol solution

Indophenol solution was standardized by taking 5 ml of reagent no. 3 and to which 5 ml of reagent no.1 was added. Then a micro burette was filled with dye solution and titration was done with this dye solution to a pink color, which persisted for few seconds. Dye factor was determined in mg of ascorbic acid/ml of dye using the following formula:

$$ \text{Dye factor} = \frac{0.5}{\text{Titre}} $$

$$ \text{Mg. of ascorbic acid / 100 g of fresh juice} = \frac{\text{Titre} \times \text{dye factor} \times \text{vol.made}}{\text{Aliquot taken} \times \text{Wt.or Vol.of Sample}} \times 100 $$

## 3.2 Experimental design and statistical analysis

The experiment was conducted during the year 2019 and 2020 and laid out in Completely Randomized Design with four replicates. The data were pooled and analyzed. Differences were considered statistically significant at the level p≤0.05 using statistical software SAS (version 9.3 for windows).

# 3. Results

## 3.1 Physiological loss in weight

The fruits applied with the post-harvest treatments showed significantly less physiological loss in weight as compared to untreated fruits. An increase in weight loss was noticed from the day of treatment to prolonged storage of loquat fruits (Table- 1). Minimum mean PLW (9.04 %) was observed in fruits after 4 days of storage which was increased to 40.92 per cent at 20th day of storage. The treatment of CaCl₂ depicted a significant reduction in weight loss at the end of storage. The fruits coated with (CaCl₂1.5 %) registered minimum mean PLW (12.22 %), while maximum mean PLW (45.81 %) was recorded under control. Significant interaction was noted between days of storage and treatments. The minimum PLW (2.79%) was found under treatment of
CaCl₂ @1.5 per cent after 4 days of storage. However, maximum PLW (79.11%) was recorded in untreated fruits under control after 20 days of storage.

## 3.2 Spoilage

An increase in spoilage was in the loquat fruits with the increment of storage interval. It is depicted in the Table- 2 that minimum spoilage (3.11%) was observed in fruits after 4 days of storage, which was followed by 8th and 12th day of storage with the spoilage percentage of 8.09 and 17.01 per cent respectively. The spoilage percentage was reported to increase significantly to 38.77 per cent after 20 days of storage. Up to 8th day of storage fruits treated with CaCl₂ recorded no spoilage while control fruit recorded 6.43 per cent of spoilage. Spoilage was significantly (p≤0.05) increased during further storage and all the fruits showed spoilage on 16th and 20th day of storage, whereas CaCl₂ 1.5 per cent exhibited minimum mean spoilage percentage during cold storage with the value of 8.36 per cent. While the maximum (40.19 %) was recorded in untreated fruits at the end of the storage. However, significant interaction was noticed between treatments and storage intervals during cold storage conditions. The minimum spoilage percentage was found in fruits under treatments (CaCl₂ 0.5, 1 and 1.5 per cent after 4 days of storage. However, maximum spoilage percentage was observed in fruits under control after 20 days of storage with the value of 81.33 per cent.

## 3.3 Sensory Quality

Sensory quality elucidated the application of various treatments on extension of shelf life of loquat fruits. (Table-3) The changes in SQ attributes were significantly (p≤0.05) affected by CaCl₂ treatments. The highest SQ score (8.73) was given to loquat fruits at the 8th day of storage which was significantly reduced throughout the storage period with minimum score (5.15) after 20 days of storage. The given data also revealed that the post-harvest treatments significantly influenced the sensory quality of loquat fruits during cold storage. The fruits treated with CaCl₂ 1.5 % scored maximum SQ (8.38). However, the minimum organoleptic score (4.84) was found under control. Moreover, the interaction between days of storage and treatments were found to be non-significant

## 3.4 TSS and TA

The data presented in Table- 4 elicited that the TSS content gradually increased from 8.85 °Brix to 9.07 °Brix after eight days of storage, thereafter TSS content was sharply declined to 5.68 °Brix after twenty days of storage. The given data showed that the TSS content of loquat fruits was significantly increased by the use of different postharvest treatments throughout the storage period. The maximum mean TSS (8.99 °Brix) was noted in fruits under the treatment of CaCl₂ 1.5 per cent which was followed by CaCl₂ 1 per cent with TSS content of 8.90 °Brix. Whereas, the minimum TSS (5.39
°Brix) were registered in the fruits under control. The acidic content in fruits significantly decreased with the advancement of storage period. The maximum mean titratable acidity (0.93 %) was recorded at the time of storage, which considerably decreased to 0.65 per cent after 20 days of storage. From the data, it has been observed that the acidic content of loquat fruits was significantly affected by the various post-harvest treatments. However, the maximum mean titratable acidity (0.87 %) was recorded under treatment (CaCl₂ 1.5 %) and was closely followed by (CaCl₂ 1 %), but minimum titratable acidity (0.53) was reported in untreated fruits (control) (Table-5). Moreover, significant interaction was noticed between the treatments and storage intervals. Maximum acid content (0.97 %) was recorded in fruits under treatments T₀ and T₃ at 20 days of storage, while minimum mean acidity (0.67 %) was observed after 12 days of storage.

## 3.5 Reducing sugars

The presented data in Table-6 revealed that reducing sugars increased significantly with an increase in storage period from 0 to 8 days of storage with reducing sugars of 3.85 to 4.26 per cent respectively and after that the trend of reducing sugar declined to 2.15 per cent after 20 days of storage. It has also been observed that the post-harvest treatments had a significant influence on reducing sugars of loquat fruits. The maximum mean reducing sugars (4.09%) were recorded in fruits treated with CaCl₂ 1.5 %. However, the minimum mean reducing sugars 2.54 % were recorded under control. The interaction between treatments and storage intervals was observed to be non-significant.

## 3.6 Total sugars

The total sugars first increased from 6.53 to 7.16 per cent during 0 to 8 days of storage, after that total sugars suddenly declined to 4.36 per cent after 20 days of storage. The maximum mean total sugars (7.10 %) were recorded in fruits under treatment of CaCl₂ 1.5 per cent respectively. The minimum total sugars (4.26 %) were recorded under control (Table-7).

## 3.7 Ascorbic acid

The post-harvest application of calcium chloride to the loquat fruits significantly improved the ascorbic acid content in comparison to other treatments (Table-8). The maximum mean ascorbic acid (11.54 mg/100 gm) was obtained in fruits treated with CaCl₂ 1.5 per cent. However, minimum mean ascorbic acid (6.53 mg) was observed under control. From the data, it is clear that the ascorbic acid decreased with the advancement of storage intervals. Maximum ascorbic acid content i.e. 11.85 mg per 100 gm was recorded at the time of storage, which was found to be gradually declined to 6.75 mg per 100gm after 20 days of storage.
<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Plate 1: Fruit under treatment T<sub>6</sub> (CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5%) after 16 days of storage.</figcaption></figure>

4. Discussion

The transpiration and exchange of water between internal and external
atmosphere due to the breakdown of the cells led to loss in physiological loss in weight
of the fruits during storage which resulted in the shrinkage of the fruits (Woods,
1990). The reason for the lower weight loss found in calcium treated fruits might be due
to calcium applications which have known to be effective in terms of membrane
functionality and integrity maintenance (Lester and Grusak 1999) and have delayed
senescence, reduced the rate of respiration and transpiration. The similar effect of
calcium chloride in lowering the loss in weight with CaCl<sub>2</sub> treatments have also been
reported by (Antunes et al., 2003) in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Mahajan and Dhatt
(2004) in pear, (Akhtar et al., 2010) in loquat cv. Surkh and (Bagheri et al., 2015) in
persimmon fruits (Diospyros kakithunb.) cv. ‘Karaj’.

The application of calcium chloride on the loquat fruits had a significant
influence in reducing the spoilage loss during storage which might be due to the
prevention of microbial attack. The minimum spoilage percentage in CaCl2 might also
be due to the fact that calcium promoted the synthesis of phytoalexins and phenolic
compounds involved in resisting the fungal attack and might have minimized the risk
of micro cracks in the cuticle which is known as the direct site for fungal infection
(Elmer et al., 2000). The present results are supported by the earlier findings of (Sandhu
et al., 2004) who also reported a reduction in the weight loss by the application of calcium in pear fruits, (Chen et al., 2007) in peach and (Kaur et al., 2015) in plum fruits.

The increase in TSS content of fruits with the storage period might be due to the conversion of complex substances into soluble sugars with an increase in the activity of glycolytic enzymes during storage (Shahid et al., 2011), which in turn increased the TSS content, however, in the later stages of storage, the rate of conversion of insoluble polysaccharides into mono and di-saccharides, resulted in noticeable decrease in TSS content of the fruits. The effect of calcium might be ascribed to the low level of rate of respiration, production of ethylene and delay in the ripening process. An initial increase followed by loss of TSS in loquat has also been reported by (Ding et al., 1998) which is in agreement with the results of the present study. The major substrates for respiration in the fruits are the organic acids especially malic acid. An increased rate of the respiration after harvest led to a concomitant reduction in acid content of fruit (Valero and Serrano, 2010). Exogenous application of calcium delayed the respiration rate and reduced the ethylene production during storage. Throughout the whole findings, titratable acidity in loquat fruits decreased in all the treatments during storage, however CaCl2 treated fruits registered minimum reduction and retained higher TA during the storage (Ball 1997).

The increase in sugars during storage might be due to the hydrolysis of starch to mono- and disaccharides, but with complete hydrolysis of starch, no further increment in sugar content was noticed with the enhancement of storage period (Wills et al. 1980). The reason for the increase in reducing sugars initially and the decline thereafter during storage might be due to the conversion of starch, other organic acids and amino acids into sugars, however on complete hydrolysis of starch, no further increase in sugars occurred (Kahlon 2007). The research findings of (Ali et al., 2013) in Apricot cv. Habi, (Kaur et al., 2013) in pear cv. Punjab Beauty, (Mahajan and Dhatt 2004) in pear and (Sajid et al., 2014) in pear cv. LeConte. These results show that CaCl2 treatments had a significant effect on retaining ascorbic acid content in loquat fruit. This decreasing trend of ascorbic acid might be due to the oxidation of ascorbic acid during the storage (Veltman et al., 2000). The present results are in support with the earlier findings of (Ruoyi et al., 2005) in peach and (Akhtar et al., 2010) in loquat.
<table><caption>Table 1:Influence of postharvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on PLW (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="6">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>15.71</td><td>26.45</td><td>35.67</td><td>42.59</td><td>65.51</td><td>37.18</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>13.83</td><td>24.30</td><td>33.66</td><td>40.66</td><td>48.41</td><td>32.17</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>12.26</td><td>21.48</td><td>26.85</td><td>29.37</td><td>32.74</td><td>24.54</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>5.17</td><td>12.90</td><td>19.58</td><td>24.81</td><td>31.01</td><td>18.70</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>4.25</td><td>10.88</td><td>16.44</td><td>23.17</td><td>29.86</td><td>16.92</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>2.79</td><td>7.16</td><td>11.30</td><td>17.51</td><td>22.32</td><td>12.22</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>9.27</td><td>17.86</td><td>21.60</td><td>27.02</td><td>33.42</td><td>21.83</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>7.33</td><td>14.37</td><td>23.49</td><td>27.45</td><td>31.07</td><td>20.74</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>6.70</td><td>12.86</td><td>21.74</td><td>29.39</td><td>35.78</td><td>21.29</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>13.08</td><td>28.46</td><td>41.06</td><td>67.32</td><td>79.11</td><td>45.81</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>9.04</td><td>17.67</td><td>25.14</td><td>32.93</td><td>40.92</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5% level of significance

Treatment = 1.51

Days = 1.07

Interaction = 3.38
<table><caption>Table 2: Influence of postharvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on spoilage percentage in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="6">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>5.92</td><td>14.80</td><td>26.19</td><td>34.07</td><td>57.31</td><td>27.66</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>8.07</td><td>12.32</td><td>22.29</td><td>31.06</td><td>49.25</td><td>24.60</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>4.85</td><td>11.28</td><td>19.48</td><td>29.14</td><td>51.45</td><td>23.24</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>0.00</td><td>3.61</td><td>9.24</td><td>17.54</td><td>26.24</td><td>11.33</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>0.00</td><td>2.78</td><td>8.08</td><td>14.10</td><td>22.05</td><td>9.40</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>0.00</td><td>2.18</td><td>7.60</td><td>12.85</td><td>19.14</td><td>8.36</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>1.80</td><td>6.01</td><td>13.10</td><td>23.52</td><td>25.94</td><td>14.07</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>2.18</td><td>4.85</td><td>10.92</td><td>19.27</td><td>28.42</td><td>13.13</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>1.84</td><td>6.64</td><td>13.58</td><td>21.18</td><td>26.56</td><td>13.96</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>6.43</td><td>16.46</td><td>39.61</td><td>57.11</td><td>81.33</td><td>40.19</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>3.11</td><td>8.09</td><td>17.01</td><td>25.98</td><td>38.77</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 1.34

Days = 0.95

Interaction = 3.00
<table><caption>Table 3: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on organoleptic rating in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>6.70</td><td>7.06</td><td>8.71</td><td>6.90</td><td>5.41</td><td>0.00</td><td>5.80</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>7.32</td><td>7.10</td><td>8.36</td><td>7.64</td><td>6.57</td><td>5.99</td><td>7.16</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>7.47</td><td>8.00</td><td>8.27</td><td>7.83</td><td>6.83</td><td>6.11</td><td>7.42</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>7.60</td><td>8.63</td><td>8.65</td><td>8.01</td><td>7.30</td><td>6.83</td><td>7.84</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>8.13</td><td>8.81</td><td>9.00</td><td>8.32</td><td>7.56</td><td>7.03</td><td>8.14</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>8.43</td><td>8.92</td><td>9.00</td><td>8.60</td><td>8.01</td><td>7.32</td><td>8.38</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>7.50</td><td>8.11</td><td>8.76</td><td>7.55</td><td>6.22</td><td>5.80</td><td>7.32</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>7.53</td><td>8.55</td><td>9.00</td><td>7.91</td><td>6.61</td><td>6.19</td><td>7.63</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>7.94</td><td>8.71</td><td>8.90</td><td>8.15</td><td>7.32</td><td>6.27</td><td>7.88</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>6.42</td><td>7.22</td><td>8.58</td><td>6.84</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td>4.84</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>7.50</td><td>8.11</td><td>8.73</td><td>7.77</td><td>6.18</td><td>5.15</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 0.91

Days = 0.71

Interaction = NS
<table><caption>**Table 4:** Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on TSS (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>8.50</td><td>8.80</td><td>8.57</td><td>7.93</td><td>6.37</td><td>0.00</td><td>6.69</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>8.90</td><td>9.20</td><td>8.90</td><td>8.17</td><td>6.91</td><td>5.85</td><td>7.99</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>9.10</td><td>9.15</td><td>8.97</td><td>8.00</td><td>7.18</td><td>5.91</td><td>8.05</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>8.75</td><td>9.09</td><td>9.48</td><td>8.80</td><td>8.41</td><td>7.83</td><td>8.73</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>9.00</td><td>9.15</td><td>9.40</td><td>9.10</td><td>8.70</td><td>8.03</td><td>8.90</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>9.10</td><td>9.33</td><td>9.61</td><td>9.40</td><td>8.60</td><td>7.91</td><td>8.99</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>8.80</td><td>8.95</td><td>9.10</td><td>8.85</td><td>7.81</td><td>6.93</td><td>8.41</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>8.76</td><td>8.81</td><td>9.21</td><td>8.31</td><td>7.91</td><td>7.12</td><td>8.35</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>9.00</td><td>9.18</td><td>9.33</td><td>8.91</td><td>8.03</td><td>7.21</td><td>8.61</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>8.60</td><td>8.78</td><td>8.15</td><td>6.81</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td>5.39</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>8.85</td><td>9.04</td><td>9.07</td><td>8.43</td><td>6.99</td><td>5.68</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 0.89

Days = 0.69

Interaction = NS
<table><caption>Table 5: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on titratable acidity (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>0.95</td><td>0.92</td><td>0.88</td><td>0.81</td><td>0.69</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.71</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>0.89</td><td>0.84</td><td>0.80</td><td>0.74</td><td>0.77</td><td>0.81</td><td>0.81</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>0.97</td><td>0.88</td><td>0.81</td><td>0.76</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.82</td><td>0.84</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>0.88</td><td>0.86</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.68</td><td>0.75</td><td>0.80</td><td>0.79</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>0.93</td><td>0.90</td><td>0.86</td><td>0.72</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.83</td><td>0.84</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>0.97</td><td>0.94</td><td>0.89</td><td>0.78</td><td>0.83</td><td>0.81</td><td>0.87</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>0.92</td><td>0.86</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.71</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.83</td><td>0.82</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>0.94</td><td>0.89</td><td>0.80</td><td>0.69</td><td>0.75</td><td>0.81</td><td>0.82</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>0.96</td><td>0.90</td><td>0.85</td><td>0.73</td><td>0.79</td><td>0.80</td><td>0.84</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>0.91</td><td>0.84</td><td>0.78</td><td>0.67</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.53</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>0.93</td><td>0.88</td><td>0.83</td><td>0.73</td><td>0.70</td><td>0.65</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 0.03

Days = 0.02

Interaction = 0.07
<table><caption>**Table 6:** Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on reducing sugars (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>3.36</td><td>3.67</td><td>4.27</td><td>3.84</td><td>3.69</td><td>0.00</td><td><strong>3.14</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>3.92</td><td>3.82</td><td>4.16</td><td>3.31</td><td>2.65</td><td>2.15</td><td><strong>3.33</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>4.06</td><td>4.14</td><td>3.77</td><td>3.22</td><td>2.51</td><td>2.06</td><td><strong>3.29</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>3.85</td><td>3.93</td><td>4.20</td><td>3.73</td><td>3.48</td><td>3.23</td><td><strong>3.74</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>3.70</td><td>3.90</td><td>4.38</td><td>4.00</td><td>3.57</td><td>3.42</td><td><strong>3.83</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>4.08</td><td>4.25</td><td>4.51</td><td>4.28</td><td>3.91</td><td>3.48</td><td><strong>4.09</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>3.75</td><td>3.79</td><td>4.10</td><td>3.71</td><td>2.80</td><td>2.11</td><td><strong>3.38</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>4.21</td><td>4.38</td><td>4.62</td><td>3.67</td><td>3.24</td><td>2.46</td><td><strong>3.76</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>3.96</td><td>4.21</td><td>4.40</td><td>3.98</td><td>3.03</td><td>2.62</td><td><strong>3.70</strong></td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>3.65</td><td>3.86</td><td>4.19</td><td>3.55</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td><strong>2.54</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td><strong>3.85</strong></td><td><strong>3.99</strong></td><td><strong>4.26</strong></td><td><strong>3.73</strong></td><td><strong>2.89</strong></td><td><strong>2.15</strong></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 0.63

Days = 0.49

Interaction = NS
<table><caption>Table 7: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on total sugars (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>6.00</td><td>6.59</td><td>7.12</td><td>6.28</td><td>5.44</td><td>0.00</td><td>5.24</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>6.57</td><td>6.77</td><td>7.10</td><td>6.35</td><td>5.56</td><td>4.82</td><td>6.20</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>6.77</td><td>7.14</td><td>6.89</td><td>6.33</td><td>5.59</td><td>4.77</td><td>6.25</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>6.51</td><td>6.85</td><td>7.10</td><td>6.56</td><td>6.33</td><td>6.21</td><td>6.59</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>6.40</td><td>6.58</td><td>7.15</td><td>6.89</td><td>6.55</td><td>6.32</td><td>6.65</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>6.76</td><td>7.22</td><td>8.23</td><td>7.17</td><td>6.80</td><td>6.42</td><td>7.10</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>6.44</td><td>6.60</td><td>6.85</td><td>6.50</td><td>5.61</td><td>4.73</td><td>6.12</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>6.86</td><td>6.94</td><td>7.33</td><td>6.41</td><td>5.98</td><td>5.15</td><td>6.45</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>6.59</td><td>6.81</td><td>6.97</td><td>6.55</td><td>5.62</td><td>5.18</td><td>6.29</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>6.35</td><td>6.53</td><td>6.91</td><td>5.75</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td>4.26</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>6.53</td><td>6.80</td><td>7.16</td><td>6.48</td><td>5.35</td><td>4.36</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5% level of significance

Treatment = 0.79

Days = 0.61

Interaction = NS
<table><caption>**Table 8:** Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on ascorbic acid (mg/100g pulp) in loquat cv. Sufeda</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Treatments</th><th colspan="7">Storage interval (days)</th></tr><tr><th>0</th><th>4</th><th>8</th><th>12</th><th>16</th><th>20</th><th>Mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>T<sub>1</sub> - Chitosan 0.5 %</td><td>10.00</td><td>9.55</td><td>10.33</td><td>9.80</td><td>9.17</td><td>0.00</td><td>8.14</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>2</sub> - Chitosan 0.75 %</td><td>13.10</td><td>12.50</td><td>12.00</td><td>9.20</td><td>9.50</td><td>8.43</td><td>10.79</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>3</sub> - Chitosan 1 %</td><td>11.41</td><td>11.85</td><td>11.86</td><td>10.00</td><td>9.88</td><td>7.97</td><td>10.50</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>4</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 0.5 %</td><td>12.67</td><td>10.50</td><td>11.17</td><td>10.20</td><td>8.98</td><td>8.33</td><td>10.31</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>5</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1 %</td><td>12.33</td><td>11.98</td><td>10.20</td><td>9.17</td><td>9.67</td><td>8.90</td><td>10.38</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>6</sub> - CaCl<sub>2</sub> 1.5 %</td><td>13.00</td><td>12.33</td><td>12.50</td><td>11.33</td><td>11.00</td><td>9.05</td><td>11.54</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>7</sub> - SA 0.5 mM</td><td>11.59</td><td>11.50</td><td>10.33</td><td>11.12</td><td>9.92</td><td>8.50</td><td>10.49</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>8</sub> - SA 0.75 mM</td><td>12.08</td><td>11.33</td><td>11.50</td><td>11.08</td><td>9.73</td><td>8.00</td><td>10.62</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>9</sub> - SA 1 mM</td><td>12.07</td><td>12.80</td><td>10.83</td><td>11.27</td><td>8.73</td><td>8.33</td><td>10.67</td></tr><tr><td>T<sub>10</sub> - Control</td><td>10.27</td><td>10.80</td><td>9.35</td><td>8.77</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.00</td><td>6.53</td></tr><tr><td>Mean</td><td>11.85</td><td>11.51</td><td>11.01</td><td>10.19</td><td>8.66</td><td>6.75</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

CD at 5 % level of significance

Treatment = 1.21

Days = 0.93

Interaction = NS
<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1: Influence of postharvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on PLW (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_12.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 2: Influence of postharvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on spoilage percentage in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 3: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on organoleptic rating in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 4: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on TSS (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 5: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on titratable acidity (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_16.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 4.6: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on TSS acid ratio in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 6: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on reducing sugars (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_18.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 7: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on total sugars (%) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 8: Influence of post-harvest application of chemicals and growth regulator on ascorbic acid (mg/100g pulp) in loquat cv. Sufeda</figcaption></figure>
**5.Conclusion**

The present investigation demonstrates that the application of various chemicals and growth regulator improved the quality and post harvest life of fruits. The results of the study concluded that the treatment of loquat fruits with CaCl2@ 1.5 per cent and stored in cold storage conditions had minimum physiological loss in weight, spoilage percentage and better organoleptic quality as compared to control and other treatments. Hence the application of CaCl2 seems to hold promise and considered the most benefit tested one in extending the shelf life and quality of loquat under cold storage conditions.

**Acknowledgment**

The authors are thankful to Khalsa College Amritsar for providing the necessary facilities which helped to carry out the research study.

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AGRICULTURE EXTENSION FOR CLIMATE
SMART AGRICULTURE

Manobharathi K<sup>1*</sup>, Kethavath Naresh<sup>2</sup> and Shijaatt Hussain Bhat<sup>3</sup>

<sup>1</sup>Department of Agricultural Extension, Bidhan Chandra Krishi

Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia (Dist), West Bengal-741252, India

<sup>2, 3</sup>Department of Agriculture Extension and Communication, Sher-e-Kashmir

University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Jammu and
Kashmir-193201, India

ABSTRACT

Agriculture is the foundation of most countries' economic structures. Agricultural production has been closely related with variations in weather. It is expected that climate change will have a major effect on conditions affecting agriculture including temperature, carbon dioxide etc. Agriculture extension is a out of school education involves out stretching of skills, knowledge to farm people. It also includes transfer of information regarding Climate smart agriculture. In general aspect, CSA is one that increases the socio-economic background of farmers economically by adopting farming with suitable climatic conditions. By utilizing extension approaches such as FFS, ICT networks, F2F strategy etc., CSA is getting adopted by most of the people. Gender-specific consequences in the sense of climate smart farming vary by the degree to which women can equally access resources such as land or livestock, business opportunities etc. Institutions like NGOs, Research stations, other civil societies etc. also promote CSA by sharing knowledge and various collaborative actions. Reforming Governance in supply, demand, administration, structure and legally are necessary for effective Extension delivery. Some of the climate related financing agents worldwide and in national side were involved in sponsering climate related services. Various schemes for sustainable livelihood, for developing watershed and for improving credit facilities were initiated nationwide which further promotes climate smart agriculture. Thus, Agriculture Extension is playing a crucial part in supporting and improving new innovative technologies introduced in agriculture. Future role of Agriculture Extension is vitally important for developing every farmers livelihood and their socio-economic conditions in the society. Farmers also need to initiate using new innovative ideas like CSA in order to lead a sustainable life.

**Key words:** Climate Smart Agriculture, Agricultural Extension, Information and Communication Technology.
# I. Introduction

Agriculture is the foundation of most countries' economic structures. In addition to food resources, agriculture also provides vast communities with better job opportunities. As this sector is inherently susceptible to climate conditions and considered as a vulnerable sector at risk and effects of global climate change, climate change directly affects agricultural production (Parry et al., 2005). Agricultural production has always been closely linked with variations in weather. It is expected that climate change will have a substantial effect on agricultural conditions including temperature, precipitation etc. and association of these factors.

In agriculture, knowledge and decision-making capacity determine how production factors - soil, water and capital - are utilized. In the formulation and distribution of information, and in teaching farm people to be professional decision makers, agricultural extension is essential. Therefore, agriculture extension plays the essential role in most of agricultural development projects.

Maunder (1973) described extension as a service that helps farmers in improving farming methods and techniques through educational procedures, increasing production efficiency and income, raising their living standards and raising their social and educational standards through educational procedures and policies. It is called agricultural extension when it is extended to agriculture.

The key objective of agriculture extension is to help farming families to shift their development and marketing strategies to rapidly evolving social, political and economic circumstances in order to change their lives based on their personal and community preferences in the long term.

Agriculture Extension is generally described as a process and a system in which knowledge, skills, attitudes relating to farming practices are transmitted through various channels and methods to its clients.

## Agricultural Extension is mainly consisting of following main aims:

I. Transfer of useful agricultural knowledge that includes improved seeds, fertilisers, tools and implements, pesticides, information related to dairy, poultry, climate change etc.

II. The practical application of acquired knowledge in farm and home.

III. Ultimately developing all ways of life of rural people in the particular framework of national, economic and social policies involving the population as a whole.

To meet the aim of Agriculture Extension, Agricultural Extension Functionaries are needed. Agriculture Extension Functionaries are responsible for the technology transfer and information dissemination. Today meaning and use of extension is beyond transfer of technology to facilitation and to help farmers in grouped way in order to deal with marketing issues and maintaining partnering with service dealers and various agencies.
More recently, extension began to be seen as a bridge between research and farmers -a bridge between newly developed agricultural technologies and policy directives which are going to be utilized by farmers. The role of Agricultural extension functionaries is to translate these technologies and advisories from research system to farmers into an understandable form so that farmers could understand easily and extension personnel also provides a technological feedback to research system to improve a particular technology.

## Climate smart agriculture (CSA) and its objectives

CSA is characterized as an approach to transform and reorient agricultural production (Lipper et al., 2014). It is defined as “farming that sustainably increasing productivity, improving resilience, reducing effect of Green House Gases and improving the achievement of food security of nation and developmental goals” (FAO, 2013). Productivity, adaptation and mitigation are three interrelated pillars in the development of CSAs food security and growth.

### Objectives:

1. Sustainable improvement in agricultural productivity to encourage equitable rises in farm income, food security and better personal growth;

2. Adapting and constructing multi level resilience of agricultural and food security systems to climate change;

3. Reducing agricultural (including crops, poultry, livestock, fisheries etc.) green house gas emissions.

## II. EXTENSION APPROACHES FOR CSA

There are several ways in which CSA can be contributed by extension systems. The philosophy used, however, (e.g., demand vs supply led, individual vs mass contact) and specialized methods that fits different types of farmers' messages and offer various possibilities for collecting information from the fields of farmers. Mass media also suits simplistic messages, while intense interactions can be more successful for complex information through farmers' field schools. The suitability and choice of approach combinations can influence the ability of extension services to contribute to food security and income, adaptation and resilience, and climate change mitigation.
<figure><img src="image_20.png" /><figcaption>Fig 1: Impact of Extension Approaches (Sala et al., 2016)</figcaption></figure>

As shown in above Fig.1, Sala et al., (2016) concluded that two different indicators (reach and impact potential) were negatively correlated and they differ for various Extension approaches. If reach potential is higher, impact potential is lower and vice-versa.

Various Extension approaches used for CSA were:

**a. Campaigns, Exhibitions and Awareness programmes for CSA**

The campaign is an intensive educational activity to inspire and organize a society to take action, to solve an issue or to fulfill a need that it desperately feels. It is used to create mass awareness about an important problem or felt need of the community and encourage them to solve it. Exhibition is a systematic show of models, specimens, posters etc. in a series around a theme to build awareness and interest in the group (Ray G.L. 1991).

As we know, the major constraints of national extension systems are availability of a smaller number of extension functionaries and limited resources to reach wide range of farm people spread across geographical areas. To tackle these constraints, extension can be more efficiently performed using mass media. A participatory mass extension campaign in Malawi, for example, has shown positive impact of radio messages on farmers' understanding of climate change along with its effects, about producing better quality compost or essentiality of compost in constructing resilience and adaptation (Mloza Banda, 2014). The above model clearly shows that extension approaches which are suited for awareness raising have the potential to contribute to
climate mitigation, adaptation and increase food security.

**b. Trainings, Clinics and Rallies for promoting CSA**

Training of extension functionaries is very essential for updating their awareness related to climate change, impacts and implications on various adaptation and mitigation strategies. As we know, climate-smart agriculture is a new and emerging issue so extension functionaries should be trained on this. The major component in which training can be given is agro-meteorology, and extension officials should be well versed with local climatic conditions and local terms and well versed in reading the scientific data or interpret it. Extension intermediaries should be closest to farm people and operate exclusively at field level.

Farm clinic is a facility developed and extended to the farmers for diagnosis and treatment of farm problems and to provide some specialist advice to individual farmers (Ray G.L. 1991).

Plant clinics are the medium to facilitate face-to-face exchange and two-way flow of information between farmers and extension functionaries and linking of all other components of plant system (Boa *et al*., 2015). Different type of plant issues that brought to clinics can be either abiotic or biotic factors. Crop doctors should be well versed and knowledgeable about specific farm people and farm conditions and local dialects should be well known and understandable. Plant doctors are usually trained extension workers and remain employed by their current organizations.

**c. Farmer Field Schools**

Farmer Field School (FFS) is non-formal educational activity. It is a group activity and field based. Empowers farmers to solve their field problems by themselves. It includes fosters participation, interaction and joint decision making. In FFS, farmers learn by carrying out activities through constant observation. FFS is a type of adult education that developed from concept in which farm people learn directly from the field observation and through field experience. FFS was initially developed in order to help farmers to learn about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices for varied ecological and climatic conditions. Initially it was started in 1989 in Indonesia to promote IPM in rice. (Anonymous 2015). Climate Field Schools in Indonesia raised climatic change awareness and promoted solutions to cope with changing rainfall patterns, such as recording and interpretation of on-farm rainfall measurements and in-field water harvesting (Winarto *et al*., 2008).

**d. Contingency Crop Planning**

It is a document that includes the recommendations across the key aspects of crop management and cultural practices. This form of calendar is very useful in terms of crop planting, irrigation scheduling and plant protection measures for farmers. It is done on the bases of local weather conditions for the local crops grown in that particular
area. It is participatory in nature because the local knowledge of farmers about the crops or various agricultural practices and scientific knowledge of scientist both plays important role in crop planning. It is developed along with the support of agro-meteorological department.

**e. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) networks**

ICT stands for "Information and communication technology". ICT is defined as technologies which provide access to information connected through telecommunication. ICT includes internet, mobile phones, wireless networks and other mediums of communication. ICT can be used in teacher training programmes effectively to improve educational quality.

The term ICT played a vital role as a medium of information as well as communication in climate change awareness, adaptation and mitigation strategies. Usage of mobiles, radios etc. addressed the problem of change in climate by creating awareness among the farmers about the availability of different adaptation and mitigation strategies.

E-Arik was an ICT related project initiated in 2007 in Arunachal Pradesh of India, disseminating 'Climate smart agriculture practices' and at achieving food security. The e-Arik project used variety of different ICTs in different ways. Thus, mobile technologies were used to record from the field. Radio and TV were used as a channel for raising general awareness about climate and agricultural issues but not for specific guidance. Videos were sometimes shown via laptop actually in the field in order to communicate specific details of adopting new agricultural technologies. Physical publications were kept in a village library for use when power outages prevented ICTs from being used. Finally, physical display of organic farm inputs at the village knowledge centre was used to stimulate interest and awareness with 90% of visitors recorded as having enquired about availability of the input. The project was successful in demonstrating application of ICTs in promoting climate-smart agriculture practices, new approaches to farming that require few external inputs and which are organic. Such projects must necessarily be driven by the needs and interests of the farmer beneficiaries. For them, climate is an important issue and they identify the keys of change in climate. However, their overriding priority and the main aspect that will contribute to the resilience in aspect of change in climate is increased incomes. (Source-Saravanan, 2014).

**f. Farmer-to-Farmer Extension Approach (F2FE)**

F2FF is a provision of farmers' training to farmers, mostly through the establishment of a farmer-promoter and farmer-trainer structure (Scarborough *et al*., 1997). F2FF also provides a great promise to extend climate smart agriculture effectively. The approach empowers farmers as change agents and helps to increase adoption because farmers are highly willing to learn from their colleagues than from
extension staff (Franzel *et al.*, 2015).

### g. Climate Smart Villages

Climate smart villages are established villages or local action models which guarantee food security, foster adaptation and create resilience to climatic stress. The four essential components of CSV are village development plans, climate smart technology, climate information services and local knowledge and institutions. Based on its risk profile of climate and the willingness of farmers and local governments to participate in project, location of CSV is chosen. No standardized package of treatments or a one-size-fits-all approach is available. The emphasis is on customizing the portfolio of strategies that complement each other and fit local circumstances.

## III. GENDER ISSUES IN CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE

Understanding gender issues is crucial to effectively deal with climate change and achieve climate-smart agriculture. Due to different gender roles and the related constraints, both women and men may have various perspectives and awareness about the climate risk, how it may affect their livelihoods and how to respond to this challenge. They have different access to the resources and services needed to adopt climate-smart practices.

Gender productivity gaps exist in agriculture. Due to traditional gender-based discrimination, women have fewer privileges, entitlements and endowments. Generally, women face more challenges than men nowadays in accessing, using and controlling productive resources and services, such as land, water, credit, inputs, technologies, information, knowledge, education, extension and other rural advisory services, markets and weather and climate information. This affects their adaptive capacity to climate threats. Gender-specific consequences in the sense of climate smart farming vary by the degree to which women can equally access resources such as land or livestock, services, employment and business opportunities (World Bank, FAO and IFAD, 2015). It is reported that closeness of gender gap in farming is expected to reduce hungry people by 100-150 million (FAO, 2011). However, climate change exacerbates the existing barriers that women face.

## IV. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TO PROMOTE CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE

Strong institutional support is required to improve the dissemination of information, provide financial support and access to markets, and coordinate the work of a large number of farmers over a wide area. In order to effectively develop the requisite CSA partnerships, needs, goals and drivers of individual organizations must be identified and handled appropriately. Institutional synergies and knowledge sharing networks are essential to CSA programmes being developed, sustained and scaled up. The innovations needed to enforce the CSA can seem daunting to smallholder farmers
without adequate institutional frameworks in place. Some of the improvements
expected by CSA from institutional support include:

Adapting management practices

Competition for natural resources will grow as populations increase. Moreover, environmental and climatic variables are starting to degrade these services. For this purpose, CSA is based on seeking new approaches for soil, water and land management. In several areas, water tables drop drastically (e.g., in parts of India). The techniques of water harvesting and water conservation need to be able to cope with the possibility of rising fluctuations in rainfall. Land loss and soil fertility decreases are widespread concerns. To improve soil quality and restore dreaded land property, adoption of new strategies and approaches is important.

Climate-smart crop varieties

One major CSA approach to adjusting to new circumstances is to change crops as climatic change alters rainfall patterns. The switch to new crops may entail planting varieties with a shorter growing period that can withstand saline soils and severe weather events better (droughts and floods) are more resistant to pests and diseases.

Changing farming schedules

Climate change is pushing farmers to change the pace of their normal agricultural operations. For example, in East Africa, many farmers have already started planting sooner than they have historically done because of changing rainfall patterns (Kristjanson *et al.*, 2012).

Mitigating while adapting to climate change

Planting trees on farms and enhancing livestock and rangeland management will also be essential CSA practices as the need to reduce cabon emissions increases (FOA, 2010). These activities are typically followed by farmers mainly because they help to increase and diversify incomes, not because they reduce emissions. An additional advantage is combating climatic change.

When establishing CSA, local organizations and institutions can play positive roles in three areas:

a. Production and transfer of technical knowledge

* Identify the key problems and most vulnerable households in the local agriculture and food systems.

* Consider and pick from collection of possible climatic smart practices the most locally relevant technologies (both institutional and technical).

* New and recent information on weather, environment and agricultural options is rapidly relayed throughout nation.

* Improve the consistency and relevance of CSA research by local involvement.
**b. Providing credit services and access to markets**

* To kick-start new practices, innovations and behaviours among farmers, channel micro-finance effectively.

* Provide credit, insurance, social protection nets, and environmental service payments or incentives.

* Stimulating local markets, building ties with national and international markets, and improving smallholder farmers' market literacy.

**c. Supporting coordination of collaborative action**

* Foster new cultural standards for agriculture, food production and household food management activities.

* Shift the emphasis of agricultural extension from providing technology to working to establish solutions in collaboration with local farmers.

* Include especially disadvantaged social groups in benefit of climate smart agriculture, such as women, youth or immigrants.

**i). Public sector institutions**

The institutional structures through which such assistance is delivered stretch from national ministries (primarily Ministries of Agriculture) and Department of Agriculture in national to regional, subregional and local offices. Public sector institutions are generally top-down in structure whereas in formulating needs of specific regional farmers, Public sector institutions make use of bottom-up idea. National Adaptation Prorammes of Actions (NAPAs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), are intended to provide national frameworks to guide government actions on mitigation and adaptation under a future international climate agreement. These voluntary proposals for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are still being created, with the result that their particular functions are still developing.

**ii). Civil societies**

Civil society organizations include non-governmental organizations (NGOs). They also include trade unions, professional associations, research and educational faculties, private foundations, religious organizations, issue groups, the media and similar organizations reflecting civic interests, values and concerns. Such institutions, acting independently of the state.

**iii). Non-Governmental Organizations**

NGOs are typically strong in providing social services, especially when supporting poor communities (Swanson and Rajalahti, 2010). For example, building social capital by organizing farmer groups to articulate their own needs and formulate solutions collaboratively, brings immediate positive effects at the local level. NGOs can
also be valuable partners for implementing projects, conducting research and carrying
out outreach activities.

iv). Universities and Research centers

Universities and research institutes are good providers of pre-training and in-
service training for extension workers. As faculty members often conduct agricultural
research of their own, they are obvious focal points for field staff in need of technical
and management backstopping (Swanson and Rajalahti, 2010).

v). Private foundations

Private foundations rarely aim to organize popular movements. However the funding they offer and the expertise they provide in specific activities are usually not influenced by the public sector and for this reason they often have scope for greater innovation (Uphoff and Krishna, 2004).

vi). The Media

Mass media can reach large audiences with messages about CSA. Broadcast and electronic media include radio, television, film and the internet; print media includes newspapers, journals, magazines; outdoor media includes posters placed in public view. An important channel for disseminating informative and educational contents, media can both reflect public opinion and shape it. In recent years, more and more people, even in rural areas have gained access to media hardware such as radios, televisions, computers and smart phones.

vii). Religious communities and institutions

An awareness of public opinions and values is therefore important when formulating a CSA strategy. While religious institutions or issue groups are unlikely to provide CSA-related advisory services, they can offer indispensable insights into prevailing beliefs and values.

In addition to these institutions, some other institutions include private sector
institutions, individual farmer support, producer cooperatives, commercial
consultancies, national and international aribusinesses, banks, credit and saving
institutions and other local stakeholders are also responsible and playing a key role for
promoting Climate Smart Agriculture.

V. REFORMING GOVERNANCE TO IMPROVE EXTENSION SERVICE DELIVERY

One of the major problems worldwide is enhancing public service delivery. It is considered to be a core feature of government to coordinate public service provision. World Bank (2002) defined governance as "the way in which power is exercised in management of the country's social and economic resources for the development". It is the brain that creates various aspects of society and identifies functions, whereas
administration is the act of implementing the result of governance. Extension is a public
service in most developing countries and its failure to effectively support rural
producers has led to its reform.

When we refer to reforms, it is evident that there are both supply side reforms as
well as demand side reforms.

a. **Supply side reforms** related in provision and funding of public, private and third sector services, administrative and fiscal decentralization, capacity development and budgeting.

b. **Demand side reforms** related in participatory planning and implementation principles. Proper reforms relating to institutional reforms, structural reforms and legal reforms need to be implemented to ensure good governance.

c. **Administrative reforms** seek to focus on issues related to people and systems / processes. Administrative reforms are defined as comprising reforms in three important elements, viz. Human Resources Development and Personnel Management; Internal Systems and Processes; and Citizen Interface Systems and Processes.

d. **Structural reforms:** As a consequence of economic or technological changes, structural reforms refer to changes in the structure and operation of organizations.

e. **Legal reforms** refer to changes in role of institutions as a consequence of changes in policy or law or legislation.

# VI. CLIMATE FINANCING OPTIONS FOR CSA

Financing options specifically targeting CSA are still limited, necessitating a strategic use and combination of existing funding sources. The basis for any CSA activity should be the identification of a country's opportunities and vulnerabilities, corresponding needs and preferred options for CSA activities. After national priorities have been defined, a strategic approach to sources of international finance based on an understanding of available channels will not only increase the chances for approval, but also enhance the fit between the finance option and the country's overall approach to climate change in agriculture.

List of categories of important climate finance options at international level provided by:

1. Financing mechanisms directly under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);

2. United Nations (UN) organizations or programmes;

3. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs);

4. Bilateral public financing channels;

5. Compliance and voluntary carbon markets; and

6. Private sector actors and philanthropy.
On 30 June 2008, the Government of India unveiled the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), outlining eight national climate change missions. These include:

I. National Water Mission

II. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-system

III. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture

IV. National Solar Mission

V. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

VI. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climatic Change

VII. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat

VIII. National Mission for a Green India

It was assigned to the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, to manage two of these eight national climate change missions. These are:

I. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC) and

II. National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE)

Programmes related to Climate Smart Agriculture promotion in India

## 1. For Sustainable livelihoods

i) **National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA):** NICRA was launched by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in February 2011, with funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Government of India.

## Objectives

* To improve Indian agriculture's resilience to change in climate by designing and implementing enhanced development and risk management technologies covering crops, livestock and fisheries.

* To demonstrate site-specific application packages in the fields of farmers to resolve existing climatic risks.

* To enhance the capacity building and deployment of climatic resilient agricultural research by scientists and other stakeholders.

ii) **National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)**

NMSA has been formulated to enhance agricultural productivity, with a focus on integrated agriculture, water quality, soil health management and resource conservation synergies, especially in rainfed areas. NMSA addresses key aspects of water use efficiency, nutrient management and diversification of livelihood by
following path of sustainable development by gradually moving to environmentally
friendly integrated farming etc. NMSA aims to promote specific enhanced agronomic
practices.

Objectives

i. By supporting place specific integrated/composite farming systems, to make agriculture more efficient, sustainable and climate resilient.

ii. To preserve natural resources by suitable steps to conserve soil and moisture.

iii. To follow systematic practices of soil health management based on soil fertility maps, application of macro and micro nutrients based on soil testing, judicious application of fertilizers etc.

iv. Optimizing the use of water supplies through successful water management to increase coverage to achieve 'more crop per drop'.

v. To promote capacity building of stakeholders and farmers with on-going missions in order to follow mitigation measures and climatic change adaptation.

vi. To create effective and efficient inter and intra departmental coordination under NAPCC for achievement of key deliverables of NMSA.

NMSA has three essential components such as:

* Rainfed Area Development (RAD).

* Soil Health Management (SHM).

* Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY): The state is bestowed with the potential of organic farming due to its huge natural resource, biodiversity, varied and rain fed agro-climatic conditions. To promote organic farming, Indian Government has recently launched a new scheme, PKVY under the NMSA for adoption of organic villages.

2. For Watershed development

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)

Government of India has started a new scheme, PMKSY. The main motto of this scheme will be micro irrigation projects ("Har Khet Ko Pani") and end to end irrigation solutions. The big concept is "More crop per drop".

Objectives

i. Achieving convergence of irrigation investments at field level.

ii. Expansion of cultivable region under guaranteed irrigation.

iii. Improving water use efficiency to reduce water wastage.

iv. Improving the adoption of precision agriculture and other innovations to conserve water.

3. For Crop insurance
## National Crop Insurance Scheme/ Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

The state government. has introduced this scheme from Rabi, 1999-2000 season. Crops that covered under this scheme are wheat, barley, maize, paddy, potato and ginger. 50 per cent subsidy is being provided to the small holding and marginal farmers. For loaned farmers, Scheme is obligatory and for non-loaned farmers, it is optional. The framework offers comprehensive risk insurance against yield losses, in other words, drought, hailstorm, floods, pests and diseases. The scheme is being introduced by Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India (AICI). The farmers of the state will benefit from this scheme. The government of state and India share the losses equally. The premium subsidy has been increased from 10 to 50 percent for small as well as marginal farmers since Rabi 2007-2008.

## VII. CONCLUSION

This chapter clearly explained about Climate smart agriculture and role of Agricultural Extension in Climate smart agriculture. As per the reports, most of the positions of agricultural officers are vacant in many states. At national level, the ratio of extension staff to farmers is 1:1162, as compared to the recommended ratio of 1:750 (Anonymous, 2018). Even though Government implemented schemes in national as well as international level is giving satisfactory results in implementation level, due to low ratio of extension workers, sometimes schemes are not reaching farmers effectively and not utilised efficiently. Extension approaches shows us regarding the methods, methodologies and technologies used in CSA. This chapter also tells us about institutional support for promoting Climate smart farming. Thus, Agriculture Extension plays the vital role in supporting and improving new innovative technologies introduced in agriculture. Future role of Agriculture Extension is vitally important for developing every farmers livelihood and their socio-economic conditions in the society. Farmers also need to initiate using new innovative ideas like CSA in order to lead a sustainable life.

## VIII. REFERENCES

* Anonymous, (2015). Agritech.tnau.ac.in.

* Anonymous,(2018).HansIndia, https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/News Analysis/2018-07-24/Reform-agri-extension-to-boost-ryots-income/400625.

* Anonymous,(2020). dst.gov.in/climate change programme. Ministry of Science and Technology.

* Boa, E. Danielsen, S. and Haesen, S. (2015). Better Together: Identifying the Benefit of a Closer Integration Between Plant Health, Agriculture and One Health. In: One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches, 22: pp. 258-259.

* FAO. (2010). Climate-smart agriculture: policies, practices and financing for food security, adaptation, and mitigation. Rome. 49 pp.
* FAO. (2011). The State of Food and Agriculture. Women in Agriculture. Closing the gender gap for development. Rome, FAO. 160 pp.

* FAO. (2013). Climate Smart Agriculture: Sourcebook. Food and Agriculture Organisation of The United Nations, Rome, Italy. 570 pp.

* FAO. (2018). Climate-smart agriculture training manual – A reference manual for agricultural extension agents. Rome. 106 pp.

* Franzel, S. Degrande, A. and Kiptot, E. (2015). Farmer-to-farmer extension. Global forum for rural advisory services good practice notes for extension and advisory services, Note. 7. Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services, Lindau, Switzerland. 4 pp.

* Kristjanson, P. Neufeldt, H. Gassner, A. Mango, J. Kyazze, F. Desta, S. Sayula, G. Thiede, B. Förch, W. Thornton, P.K. and Coe, R. (2012). Are food insecure smallholder households making changes in their farming practices? Evidence from East Africa. Food Security, 4: 381-397.

* Lipper, L. Thornton, P. Campbell, B.M. and Torquebiau, E.F. (2014). Climate - smart agriculture for food security. Nature Climate Change, 4: 1068-1072.

* Manobharathi, K. (2020). Job Satisfaction of Agricultural Extension Functionaries for Dissemination of Information in District Baramulla of Jammu & Kashmir, M.Sc., (Agri) thesis. Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar, Kashmir: 145 pp.

* Maunder, A.H. (1973). Agricultural Extension: A Reference Manual, Abridged Edition, Rome, 374 pp.

* Mloza Banda, B.C. (2014). E-adaptation to Climate Change in Malawi, ICT Update, 78 pp.

* Neeta Sabar. (2015). A study on the level of Job satisfaction of agriculture extension functionaries of Nuapada district in Odisha, M. Sc. (Agri.) Thesis, Department of Extension Education, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology Bhubaneswar, Odisha. 122 pp.

* Parry, M. C. Rosenzweig, and M. Livermore. (2005). Climate change, global food supply and risk of hunger. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B, 360: 2125-2138.

* Rasheed Sulaiman, V. Onima, V T. Nimisha Mittal. Athira, E. (2019). Taking Stock and Shaping the Future: Conversations on Extension. Agricultural Extension in South Asia (AESA), Centre for Research on Innovation and Science Policy (CRISP), Hyderabad, India, 572 pp.

* Ratheeswari, K. (2018). Information Communication Technology in Education. Journal of Applied and Advanced Research. In Proceedings of the Conference on "Recent Trend of Teaching Methods in Education" Organised by Sri Sai Bharath College of Education Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India.

* Ray, G.L. (1991). Extension communication and management. Naya Prakash,
Calcutta, India. ISBN: 8185421072. 358 pp.

* Rupan, R. Saravanan, R. and Suchiradipta, B. (2018). Climate Smart Agriculture and Advisory Services: Approaches and Implication for Future. National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad, India, 54 pp.

* Sala, S. Rossi, F. David, S. (2016). Supporting agricultural extension towards Climate-Smart Agriculture: An overview of existing tools. Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture FAO, Italy, 90 pp.

* Scarbourough, V. S. Killough, D.A. Johnson and J. Farrington (eds.). (1997). Farmer-led Extension: Concepts and Practices. Intermediate Technology Publications, London, 214 pp.

* Swanson, B.E. & Rajalahti, R. (2010). Strengthening agricultural extension and advisory systems: procedures for assessing, transforming, and evaluating extension systems. World Bank Agriculture and Rural Development Discussion Paper No. 45, 206 pp.

* Uphoff, N. and Krishna, A. (2004). Civil society and public sector institutions: more than a zero-sum relationship. Public Administration and Development, 24: 357-372.

* Winarto, Y.T. Stitger, K. Anantasari, E. And Hidayah, S.N. (2008). Climate Field Schools in Indonesia: Improving “response farming” to climate change. Leisa Magazine, Indonesia, 24 pp.

* World Bank. (2002). Reforming Public Institutions and Strengthening Governance: A World Bank Strategy- Implementation Update, USA, 239 pp.

* World Bank, FAO and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). (2015). Gender in Climate Smart Agriculture: Module 18 for the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook. Agriculture global practice. World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 96 pp.
# FARM EFFICIENCY MEASURE TO GAUGE THE PROFITABILITY SITUATION OF THE FARMS

Anurooddha Pratap Singh Yadav¹ and Navin Kumar²

Assistant Professor (Agril. Economics) SOAS, DR. K. N Modi
University Newai, Rajasthan, Teaching Assistant (Agril. Statistics),
Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh

## Farm:

Farm a piece or pieces of land operated as single unit of agriculture enterprise under one management. In other words, Farm is smallest unit of agriculture which consist of one or more plat cultivated by one farmer, of group of farmers in common are rising crop and livestock enterprise.

## Farming as Business:

* Social acceptability

* Technical feasibility

* Economic efficiency

### Social acceptability

Social acceptance can be defined as the fact that most people, in order to fit in with others, attempt to look and act like them. or sometimes it is the ability to accept or to tolerate differences and diversity in other people or groups of people.

### Technical feasibility

It is the complete study of the project in terms of input, processes, output, fields, programs and procedures. It is a very effective tool for long term planning and trouble shooting.

* **Payback period-** It refers to the period of time required to recoup the funds expended in an investment, or to reach the break-even point.

* **Net present worth- (NPV/NPW)-** A measurement of profit calculated by subtracting the present values (PV) of cash out flows (including initial cost) from the present values of cash inflows over a period of time.

### Internal rate of return- (IRR):

* Internal rate of return (IRR) is the interest rate at which the net present value of all the cash flows (both positive and negative) from a project or investment equal zero.

* It is used to evaluate the attractiveness of a project or investment.
* Lower discount rate + deference between two discount rates.

**Profitability Index:**

Profitability index (PI), also known as profit investment ratio (PIR) and value investment ratio of payoff to invest of a proposed project.

* It is a useful tool for ranking projects because it allows you to quantify the amount of value created per unit of investment.

* Net present value of cash flows upon Original amount invested.

**Benefit-Cost Ratio – (BCR)**

* A Benefit-cost ratio (BCR) is an indicator, used in cost benefit analysis, that attempts to summarize the overall value for money of a project or proposal.

* The BCR is calculated by dividing the total discounted value of the benefits by the total discounted value of the costs.

**Economic Efficiency**

Balance Sheet –

* Comparative listing of all assets and liabilities of a farm over a year with respect to previous year

* An analysis of the assets, liabilities, and equity of a farm. This analysis is conducted generally at set intervals of time, like annually or quarterly.

* Income statement / profit and loss (P&L) statement.

* It depicts the revenues, expenses and net income generated by an organization over a specific period of time.

**Physical Efficiency Measure**

**1. Land**

**2. Labour**

* Land is measured in term of acres or hectares owned by the farmer.

* Always the entire land is not put to cultivation due to the inadequacy of resources.

* When part of the land is slack, the efficiency of the farm is affected.

* Land use efficiency is measured by productivity, cropping intensity and crop yield index.

**A. Productivity of Land**

It is the ratio between actual crop yield on the farm and average in locality.

This relationship is expressed in proportional term.
$$ \text{Production efficiency} = \frac{\text{Actual crop yield on the farm}}{\text{Average yield in the locality}} \times 100 $$

## B. Cropping Intensity

Cropping intensity is ratio of gross cropped area during the agricultural year and net cropped area.

$$ \text{C.I.} = \frac{\text{Gross cropped area during the agricultural year}}{\text{Net cropped area}} \times 100 $$

## C. Crop Yield Index

* It is a good measure of index to compare the yields of all the crop grown on the farm with that of average yields of same crops grown in that locality.

* The index measured in terms of percentage.

* Thus, the farm is more efficiently organized in terms of crop yields as compare to an average farm in the area since the crop yield more than 100.

## 2. Labour

* The profitability of the farm business is influenced by the efficiency of the labour resources.

* Farmers use different types of labour for executing various farm operations.

* These include men labour, women labour and child labour. However, labour is measured in terms of man-days.

* Taking the efficiency into consideration, three women are considered as equivalent to two men and two children are equal to one man.

* The sum of all man-days and man equivalent days is divided by 365 days to get man equivalent year.

## Financial Efficiency Measure

The financial efficiency measures are classified into aggregate and ratio measures-

### 1. Aggregate measures: -

Aggregate measures are the measures meant to reflect the income earned by various factors of production for the farm as a whole. Efficiency is worked out for the entire farm in terms of each resource used. Following are the aggregate measures: -

I. **Total Capital Invested:** Invested on fixed assets in working assets together represent the size of the farm.

II. **Total value of Production (Gross Income):** It is the total income derived from the sale of main product as well as by-product from the enterprises taken up by
the farmer in a year. Gross income includes value of home consumed products plus value of products sold.

III. **Total Expenses:** It includes working costs and fixed cost of the farm.

IV. **Net Worth:** Net worth is the surplus of total assets over the total liabilities.

$$ \text{Net Worth} = \text{Total assets} - \text{Total liabilities} $$

The high level of net worth indicates strong financial position of farm at a point of time.

## 2. Ratio Measures

These measures reflect per unit returns or costs to the input involve in organization of the farm business.

a. **Fertilizer Costs Per Crop Acre:** It is the ratio of total expenditure on fertilizers to number of acres under crop.

b. **Power and Equipment Cost /Crop Acre:** This related to running costs incurred in operating power drawn machinery per acre of cropped area.

### C. Cost Ratios:

These ratios provide information to the manager to decide whether the existing costs of the business farm are higher or lower. These ratios are-

$$ \text{a. Operating Ratio} = \frac{\text{Operating Expenses on the farm}}{\text{Gross Income on the Farm}} $$

$$ \text{b. Fixed Ratio} = \frac{\text{Fixed Cost on the Farm}}{\text{Gross income on Farm}} $$

$$ \text{c. Gross Ratio} = \frac{\text{Total Costs on the Farm}}{\text{Gross Income on the Farm}} $$

### Measure of Financial Position and Performance:

* Profitability

* Liquidity

* Solvency

* Financial efficiency

* Repayment capacity

### Profitability:

* Measure the extent to which a business generates a profit from the use of land, labour, management, and capital. Measured by

- Net farm income on operations (NFIFO)

- Rate of return on assets (ROA)
- Rate of return on equity (ROE)

- Operating profit margin (OPM)

**Net farm income on operations:**

* Net revenues available from normal operations after fixed and variable expenses have been deducted.

* For accuracy, calculate on an accrual basis

* For a sole proprietor farm operation, this income is available to compensate unpaid family labour, management, and equity capital.

**Rate of return on assets:**

* Net income generated by all assets, after labour has been compensated but before interest payments.

* Operating profitability per dollar of assets

* Allows comparison between different sizes and types of businesses.

**Rate of return on equity:**

Measures the return to the owner of the business for their capital investment can be compared to alternative investments.

The return after all labour and interest expenses.

**Liquidity:**

* Ability of a farm business to meet financial obligations as they come due in the short term, without disrupting the normal operations of the business.

* Measured by

$$ \text{Current Ratio} = \frac{\text{current assets}}{\text{current liabilities}} $$

**Solvency:**

* Gauges the farm's ability to

- pay all financial obligations all assets are sold

- continue viable operation adversity

* Measured by

- Debt to asset ratio

- Debt to equity ratio

- Equity to asset ratio
**Operating expense ratio:**

Total operating expenses-depreciation/ Gross revenue ×100
Proportion of total revenues absorbed by operating expenses.

**Depreciation expense ratio:**

Depreciation expense/Gross Revenue×100
Proportion of total revenues absorbed by depreciation.

**Interest expense ratio:**

Total farm interest/Gross revenue×100
Proportion of total revenue absorbed by interest expenses.

**Net farm income ratio:**

NFIFO/Gross revenue multiply×100

* Proportion of total revenue that remains as net income after all expenses have been paid.

* Income that remains for unpaid labour compensation and equity capital.

**MEASURES OF FARM INCOME AND PROFIT EFFICIENCY:**

1. Net cash income - Total cash receipts from production minus total cash operating expenses.

2. Net farm income - Net cash income from production plus or minus change in inventory in non-depreciable items and depreciation on power machinery, livestock, buildings, etc.

3. Farm earnings - Net farm income value of farm privileges (farm products) used in home.

4. Family labour earnings -
   Farm earnings minus interest charges on farm capital.

5. Percent returns to capital -
   Ratio of farm earnings minus imputed value of the family labor to average, capital investment expressed in percent terms.

6. Returns to management -
   Family labor earnings minus imputed value of the family labor.

**Production:**

* What to produce?

* When to produce?

* How to produce?

**Production process:**

* Cost minimization

* Optimization technique

* Resource use efficiency
* Raw materials (Input) → Out put

**Aspect of marketing Efficiency:**

* Conventional

* Shephard's

* Acharya's

* Consumer satisfaction

* Future plan

**Reference:**

* Economics of Farm Production and Management by V.T Raju & D.V.S Rao

* An Introduction to Agricultural Social Sciences by Subhash Chandra

* Agricultural Economics S. Subba Reddy
# CHANGE SCENARIO IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

Girijesh Yadav¹, Akanksha Singh¹, Pawan Kumar², Amit Kumar³ and Yogendra Yadav⁴

Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication¹, Department of Entmology², Department of Horticulture³,

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (250 110), Uttar Pradesh, India, Department of Agriculture⁴, Government of U. P., Deoria (275 509), Uttar Pradesh, India

Email Id: girijeshyadavjnp438@gmail.com

## Introduction

The word ‘extension’ is derived from the Latin word ‘ex’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘tensio’ meaning ‘stretching’. Extension is that type of education which is stretched out to people in the rural areas far and near, beyond the limits of the educational institutions to which the formal type of education is usually confined. Agricultural extension is to bridge the gap between agricultural research stations on the one hand and the farming population on the other by establishing a suitable teaching organization at various levels of administrations. A service or a system which assists farm people, through educational procedures, in improving farming methods and techniques, increase production efficiency and income, bettering their level of living lifting the social and educational status of rural life. (Mounder, 1973) Modern extension began in Dublin, Ireland in 1847 with Lord Clarendon's itinerant instructors during the great famine (Jones et al 1997). It expanded in Germany within the 1850s, through the itinerant agricultural experts and later within the USA via the cooperative extension system authorized by the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. The term was later adopted within the United States of America, while in Britain it absolutely was replaced with "advisory service" within the 20th century. A number of other terms are used in different parts of the globe to explain the identical or similar concept:

* Arabic: *Al-Ershad* (guidance)

* Dutch: *Voorlichting* (lighting the path)

* German: *Beratung* (advisory work)

* French: *Vulgarisation* (popularization)

* Spanish: *Capacitación* (training, capacity building)
* Thai, Lao: *Song-Suem* (to promote)

* Persian: *Tarvij & Gostaresh* (to promote and to extend)

In the US, a county agent may be a university employee who develops and delivers educational programmes to help people in economic and community development, leadership, family issues, agriculture and environment. One of the other programme area provided by extension agents is 4-H and youth activities. Many extension agents work for cooperative educational activity programs at land-grant universities. They're sometimes mentioned as county agents, or extension educators. Often confused with Extension workers, Extension specialists are Subject matter experts usually employed as scientists and university professors in various departments within the land-grant university system. Subjects range from agriculture, economics life sciences, engineering, pest management, food safety, veterinary medicine, and many other allied disciplines and subject matter specialists work with agents (usually in a very state wide or regional team environment) to support programs within the cooperative extension system.

## Four paradigms of agricultural extension

Any particular extension system can be explained in terms of dual purpose how communication takes place and why it takes place. It is not the case that paternalistic systems are always persuasive, neither is it the case that participatory projects are necessarily educational. Instead there are four possible combinations, each of which represents a unique extension paradigm, as follows: (NAFES, 2005).

* Technology transfer (persuasive + paternalistic): This paradigm was prevalent in colonial times and reappeared within the 1970s and 1980s when the "Training and Visit" system was established across Asia. Technology transfer involves a top-down approach that delivers specific recommendations to farmers about the practices they ought to adopt.

* Advisory work (persuasive + participatory): This paradigm can be seen today where government organizations or private consulting companies respond to farmers' inquiries with technical prescriptions. It also takes the shape of projects managed by donor agencies and NGOs that use participatory approaches to enhance predetermined packages of technology.

* Human resource development (educational + paternalistic): This paradigm dominated the earliest days of extension in Europe and North America, when universities gave training to rural folk that were too poor to attend full-time courses. It continues today in the outreach activities of colleges around the world. Top-down teaching methods are employed, but students are expected to create their own decisions about the way to use the knowledge they acquire.
* Facilitation for empowerment (educational + participatory): This paradigm involves method like experiential learning and farmer-to-farmer exchanges. Knowledge is gained through interactive processes and also the participants are encouraged to form their own decisions. The simplest known examples in Asia are projects that use Farmer Field Schools (FFS) or participatory technology development (PTD).

**Changing role of agricultural extension**

**Community Development approach to extension** – Public sector extension has undergone several changes science the country gained independence in 1947.Beginning with the Community Development programme is 1952 through the National Extension Service in 1953, the main focus of extension was on human and community development but there has been a gentle progress towards technology transfer within the policy framework of food security with the many programme like as IADP, IAAP, HYV etc.

**Transfer of technology approach through T&V** – The foremost significant recent development was the introduction of Training and Visit (T&V) extension management system, starting in 1973 in Turkey and 1974 in India. T&V extension was similar temperament to the rapid dissemination of broad-based crop management practices for the high yielding wheat and rice varieties that were released since the mid 1960s. Given this specialized in disseminating Green revolution technology for major cereal crops extension activities are largely dispensed by State Department of Agriculture.

**Integrated Approaches** – Integrated approaches to extension are frequently initiated through area development projects funded by donors. These approaches is agriculture specific if organized through a ministry of agriculture or they will concentrate on broader rural development objectives (for example, agriculture, health, nutrition, communication development) if organized through a rural development. Integrated approaches generally give more attention to the needs of small-scale subsistence farmers, including women farmers, the landless person, and other disadvantages group.

Some institutions have produced individual publications containing principles of reforms, which can be used as guidelines for reforming the national agricultural extension system in the developing countries. The basic institutions are:

* Food & Agricultural organization of the UN (FAO)

* The US Agency for International Development (USAID)

* The World Bank (WB)

* The International Fund for Agricultural development (IFAD)
## Forces of change

* **Privatization**- Privatization has emerged as another to public extension in providing quality extension services. The privatization of agricultural extension services in terms of the preferences also categorise in three categories of farmer i.e. small, medium and large for various forms of privatization, the constraints perceived by the farmers just in case they choose privatization and also the impact of the privatization on the agricultural extension services. While majority of the farmers preferred franchisee and vouchers as another to public extension services. High charges, exploitation of the farmers, supply of substandard technology due to lack knowledge of regulatory mechanism were the main constraints perceived by all the three categories of farmers.

* **Commercialization and agri-business**- Indian agriculture is getting increasingly commercialized and monetized and also the volume and proportion of output that enters into market is on the increase. This shows, that together with optimization of production, producers must achieve optimization of sale to appreciate best returns to their efforts and investments. This might require knowledge about market demand, prices, timing of sale, relationship between commodity attributes and prices, methods of sale, consumer preference for physical and quality characteristics etc. The idea is to induce prices for what has been produced. Thus, with the increased orientation of production for market, we are landed with an extra responsibility of informing and educating producers about prices, marketing skills, emerging demand, temporal price pattern and lots of such things

* **Democratization and participation**- Under direct democracy, people participate directly in the decision-making processes of the demos. Under representative democracy, however, the demo selects people to create decisions on its behalf. Here a second democratic principle appears whereby the demos must be able to hold their representatives to account for his or her actions and make sure that they always act in the people's best interests the principle of popular control. Representative democracy, therefore, seems to want less participation (at the minimum, only the act of voting), but the people need to do more than vote in order to hold their representatives to account.

* **Environment concerns**- All economic activities either affect or are affected by natural and environmental resources. Activities like extraction, processing, manufacture, transport, consumption and disposal change the stock of natural resources add stress to the environmental systems and introduce Wastes to environmental media. Moreover, economic activities today affect the stock of natural resources available for the welfare of the longer term and have
intertemporal welfare effects. From this angle, the productivity of a financial set-
up depends partly on the supply and quality of natural and environmental
resources.

* **Disasters and emergencies**- Community is major stakeholder in Disaster Management. It plays important role at each stage of Disaster Management Cycle. We can reduce vulnerability by creating awareness, giving them proper training, which can help in disaster preparation and response. We can provide trained manpower by giving training to informal groups. There is need to bring change in perception of people from Disaster response to Disaster Risk Management.

* **Information technology break-through**- A major technological breakthrough has on the economy, notably on the level and rate of growth of productivity. How long does it take before the innovative technology has spread throughout the economy, fundamentally altering modes and system of production and consumption? In particular, we intend to explore whether each breakthrough is identical in its effects or whether one can detect a general pattern. We will compare the effects of three technological breakthroughs, namely the steam electrification, power revolution, and the ICT revolution.

* **Rural poverty, hunger and vulnerability**- In the 1980s, Indian policymakers shifted their focus from food self-sufficiency to generating additional income in rural areas as a means of tackling the issue of poverty, which was concentrated in rural sectors. Acceleration of agricultural growth, with a special focus on improving the position of small farmers and lengthening the productivity revolution to non-irrigated areas was seen as a critical part of the strategy for poverty alleviation. This effort was supplemented targeted anti-poverty programs to deal with the requirements of vulnerable groups who may not benefit sufficiently from general agricultural growth.

* **Criticism of public extension services**- Agricultural extension witnessed a qualitative change in the 1990s, with a new focus on privatisation and the withdrawal of support to the state-led extension system. Reduced spending by government weakened the public sector extension system. Other non-governmental agencies stepped in to fill the vacuum.

Globalization

Globalization aims at generating more interaction and linkages among countries in information flow, trade and finance, encouraging open competition through removal of trade and other national protected barriers, supposedly under fair and comparatively equal conditions for producers of goods and services irrespective of which country they live in, thus making it possible to mutually get benefits from international contacts and
opportunities. The controversy, however, lies in the uncertainty of fair and equal conditions for all producers, regardless of the benefits, disadvantages, potentials and risks of globalization. In the present conditions, the developing countries may not compete with the developed nations in the international market sector in terms of production, quality and exports because of a number of factors such as, lack of technology, lack of resources, poor infrastructure, weak rural institutions, and communication facilities, etc. The main message scattered in the by-now familiar demonstrations at economic summits is that globalization will make rich countries going richer and poor countries going poorer. The World Trade Organisation conference held in September 2003 in Cancun, Mexico saw serious disagreement between rich and poor countries on agricultural problems, and the event ended in miserable failure. Aside from politics, the phenomenon of globalization will definitely bring both risks and opportunities to the farming communities of less-developed countries. The communities, therefore, must be educated and ready to change their agricultural operations within the context of globalization, a responsibility which, by and huge, the national agricultural extension systems will need to bear, and they must prepare themselves in time to meet the challenge.

## Market Liberalization

Market liberalization is an integral part of globalization. This calls for removal of trade barriers, tariffs and other regulatory measures that are usually put into force by countries to safe their own industries and products, and to discourage the inflow of articles produced elsewhere in the world. Liberalization asks for the opening of markets, called deregulation, in order that goods may move freely between countries. It also advocates the removal of artificial price controls and of public support to the farming sector in the kind of farm subsidies in order that the market can realistically determine the worth of varied commodities and products on the premise of their demand, supply and quality, and also the consumers can then freely make a choice concerning what is best for them. However, at present time, heavy government subsidies in rich countries give a large advantage to their farmers over the small and poor competitor farmers of less-developed countries, threatening their very survival.

## Modern Extension System

* **Decentralized extension services-** Small unit of national level to handle functions of policy, co-ordination and training and delegating the tasks of programmed planning, implementation and even fiscal authority to the provincial or district or municipality government. Here important involvement of NGO's, community-based groups, Farmer organizations.
* **Fully or partially privatized extension-** The positive result is enhanced efficiency of staff, and therefore the negative effect is the deprivation of small farmers from extension services due to their inability or unwillingness to pay.

* **Pluralistic extension system-** Model of both public and non-public institution for diverging extension services to farming communities. The major challenge in installing a proper pluralistic agricultural extension mechanism would be the coordination among various agencies, the absence of which has led, in some instances, to conflicting technical recommendations creating confusion among the farmers.

* **Client-orientation-** The extension clientele include subsistence farmers, commercial farmers, rural youth, women, rural farmers' families, and that they all have different extension needs.

* **Application of information technology-** The advanced information technology is already making headway in the area of rural and agricultural development. The major challenge is how to improve the powers of advanced information technology can be harnessed for the benefit of both extension persons and farmers without compromising the importance of human and unique local factors.

* **Participatory extension-** Participatory methods are central to effective demand-driven extension systems. Good extension like effective adult education, implies starting with the issues and needs of the target group. If clients do not seem to be curious about the subject are fail to work out how it will be helpful, then they probably will not participate willingly in the extension process.

* **Unified extension service-** The UAES extension strategy remains basically top-down in approach and also the farmer also still basically remains passive receptors of knowledge and information, which can not necessarily meet his/her needs. Since the establishment of UAES, poverty has continued to pose a heavy threat to our national survival, that, its eradication or reduction to the barest minimum has become a matter of urgency. This has resulted in the government shifting benchmarks without investigating the issues militating against the effective implementation of the programme objectives. It therefore becomes necessary to see the challenges related to the implementation of unified agricultural extension services (UAES) programme.

**References-**

Ahluwalia, M. S. (2005). Reducing Poverty and Hunger in India: The Role of Agriculture, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23529847. pp 1-7.

Edquist, H. and Henrekson, M. (2006). Technological Breakthroughs and Productivity Growth, *Research in Economic History*, 24:1-57.
Kumar, P. and Nain, M. S. (2014). A Critical Analysis of The Privatization Of Agricultural Extension Services *Indian Journal of Social Research*, 55(3):427-435.

Jones, Gwyn E., Garforth and Chris (1997). The history, development, and future of agricultural extension Improving agricultural extension. A reference manual. *Food and Agriculture Organization*, 92-5-104007-9

Maunder, A. H. (1973). Agricultural Extension. A reference manual (Abridged version). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. P. 103

Modernizing National Agricultural Extension Systems: A Practical Guide for policy-Makers of Developing countries. http://www.fao.org/3/a0219e/a0219e04.htm

Nwarieji, F. E. and Ifeanyieze, F. (2016). Challenges Associated with the Implementation of Unified Agricultural Extension Services (UAES) Programme in Imo State, Nigeria, *IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science*, 9(9): 82-88

NAFES (2005). Consolidating Extension in the Lao PDR, National Agricultural and Forestry Extension Service, Vientiane, 1-83.

Peter Somerville (2011). Democracy and participation, *Policy & Politics*, 39(3):417-37

Singh, A. K., Singh, L. and Burman, R. R. (2006) Dimensions of Agricultural Extension, (ed.) S.K. Jain. Aaman publishing house, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

Singh, K. M. (2012). Commercializing Agriculture in Eastern India: Some pertinent issues, *SSRN Electronic Journal*, 1-12.

Sajesh, V. K. and Suresh, A. (2016). Public-Sector Agricultural Extension in India: A Note *Review of Agrarian Studies*, 6(1), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291956642
# EFFECT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON FRUITS AND ORNAMENTAL CROPS

Dr. Ashok Kumar¹ and Abhinav Kumar²

Head of Department¹, Ph.D.² Floriculture & Landscape, College of Horticulture & Forestry, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad

Email Id: akmnduat@yahoo.com

The effect of climate change and sudden change in environment on fruits and ornamental crops is well known. There are four major environmental factors which saviour affects observed on fruits and ornamental crops.

1. Effect of high of temperature on Fruits and ornamental Crops

2. Effect of low temperature on Fruits and ornamental Crops

3. Effect of heavy rainfall on Fruits and ornamental Crops

4. Effect of drought on Fruits and ornamental Crops

## 1. Effect of high of temperature on fruits and ornamental crops

The effect of global warming is now visible in many parts of the world. Abnormality in climate patterns, induced by accelerated warming, has started to affect a catchment-species chydrologic cycle. Higher temperatures lead to a high rate of evaporation and dry conditions in some areas of the world. The effect of high temperature on different growth stages (phenology) of fruit crops is summarized under following under sub-heads:

* Vegetative growth

* Flowering

* Fruit yield

* Fruit quality

* Disorders

* Metabolic processes

### Vegetative growth

Under high temperature exposure (43º C) in almond bud failure like symptoms appear in which there is complete separation of distorted and compressed cells from surrounding tissues takes place by a periderm like layer. Higher temperature in temperate fruits can negate the chilling effect. In apple, the trees, which were exposed to daily alternating temperatures, had lower levels of bud break (vegetative), when the high temperature in the diurnal cycle was greater than 14ºC. Practically no bud break
was apparent on trees that were exposed to diurnal cycles with a high temperature of 20º C for 8 hours. In raspberry, the optimum temperature for node production is 22º C and it continues to support growth up to the range of 20º C. Above this range, it becomes supraoptimal and node production is reduced. Mango cultivars exposed to higher temperature showed that vegetative growth increased with increasing temperatures. Likewise, mango, higher temperatures in citrus also enhances vegetative growth but after certain limit, it retards the shoot elongation. Troyer citrange and Valencia oranges showed that seedlings were with short internodes and leaves were markedly shorter as compared to normal ambient temperature (28/22ºC). Beside the effects of high temperature on whole fruit trees, some examples are desiccation of leaves in Baramasi lime and young leaves of newly planted guava plants wilt and die during hot summers. Many a times pear on kainth rootstock newly-planted plants dries up during May-June due to desiccation.

## Flowering

The various stages starting from flower bud differentiation, anthesis, rate of flowering and even development of various parts of flowers is influenced by the prevailing environmental temperature. Lack of chilling associated with mild winter conditions results in abnormal pattern of bud break and development in temperate fruit trees. After strict deprivation of cold temperature in peach all floral primordia died within 5 months. In red haven peaches grown at 20/15º C from October to December, it was found that the bud necrosis could be attributed either to the weak establishment of vascular connections between stem and floral buds or the unavailability of the sugars. However, the sugars viz., sorbitol and sucrose concentrations remained high in cushion and bud scales but low in floral meristem. Thus, it seems that under high temperature the bud scales and cushion beneath the meristem primordia served as strong sink as compared to meristem. The temperature rise at the end of January in apricot (during the period of rapid floral development) appears to increase the flower bud abscission. In most fruit crops, generally higher temperature decreased the days interval required for flowering and cooler temperature though required more days for flowering but the number of flowers produced increased proportionally at this temperature. The rate of flowering in raspberry cv. Autumn Bliss was dependent upon temperature. The flowering in primocane raspberry cultivars is initiated by the cessation of vegetative growth. Growth of plants at 24.5º C slowed earliest after just less than 100 days but at temperature below or above this, the cessation of growth was delayed. In citrus (Citrus unshiu), the flower number at an air temperature of 15º C were greater than at 30º C. In sweet cherry, there is abnormality in pistil development, if the flower bud development period (mid July) exposed to higher temperature (35º C). While evaluating the effect of temperature on flowering of peaches, it was found that the period of full bloom with treatments of 25/15 and 30/15º C were 5 and 8 days earlier, respectively than for the
20/15⁰ C treatment. With the increase in temperature, rate of pollen development and tendency for the stamens to abort increased. Temperature not only influences the development of various parts of flowers but also determines the type of inflorescence. In litchi cultivars, when trees exposed to day/night temperatures of 30/25⁰ C and 25/20⁰ C did not flower and temperatures of 20/15 and 15/10⁰ C gave rise to variable proportions of vegetative, leafy panicles and leafless panicles depending on the cultivars. Similarly, in citrus, more leafless floral shoots are produced at cooler temperature (20/ 15⁰ C day/night) and higher soil and air temperature enhanced production of leafy floral shoots.

## Fruit set and Yield

Fruit set and yield in fruit crops are directly related with the environmental temperature. Likewise, in apple and pear low temperatures appeared to promote fruit set on potted trees to different temperature regimes from February to harvest. In apricot, at higher temperature, the pistil size is reduced which leads to abnormal flower and ultimately reduced fruit set. In Cherimoya (tropical fruit), the effect of warm (30/25⁰ C) and cool (20/15⁰ C) day/night temperatures on fruit set and fruit growth the low fruit set at warm temperature regime was ascribed to both pollen and stigma damage from heat stress. Beside pre-blossom and blossom temperature, the higher temperature during fruit set stage also affect the fruit retention. The fruit set in soft pear and peaches is reduced due to sudden rise in temperature.

## Fruit quality

Quality is a measure of degree of excellence or degree of acceptability by the consumer. It includes external parameters (color size, shape and defects) and internal parameters (texture, flavour and nutritional qualities).

### External parameters

Natural colour development in fruits is one of the external quality parameters visibly sought after by the consumer. High temperature generally reduces the anthocyanin accumulation in fruit crops. In grapes, version is a critical period for the berry tissues to perceive environmental stimulation and trigger anthocyanin biosynthesis. At this stage, night temperature is more critical than the day temperature. Anthocyanin synthesis in the skin of berries grown at high night temperatures (30⁰ C continuous day and night) is reduced as compared to that of berries grown at low night temperatures (30/15⁰ C ; day/night). Fruits of Cavendish banana subgroup failed to degreen, when ripened at the high temperatures of the tropics (>24⁰ C). The fruits remained green because of the retention of chlorophyll and associated thylakoid lamellae in citrus, if mature fruits are left on the trees during summer months, chlorophyll returns to rind and carotenoid content decreases. This condition is referred to as regreening, degree of which is influenced by high temperatures.
**Internal parameters**

Kiwi fruit grown under high temperature (3-4°C more than the ambient temperature) during mid-march to mid may had lower soluble solids, more firmness and had higher starch concentrations in both core and cortex tissue. However, in the grapes also a vine crop, the soluble solids content increased with the increase in temperature from 15 to 30° C.

**Disorders**

Early water core of apple cultivars in which there is sorbitol accumulation takes place is increased by high temperature above 30º C during the summer. The resistant cultivar 'Fuji' showed a difference in sugar compartmentation and higher fructose and glucose in the vacuoles. Conversely, the susceptible 'Orin' apples had higher sorbitol level in cytoplasm and tonoplast. These results implied that higher fruit temperature may increase tonoplast permeability especially to sorbitol in the early water core susceptible 'Orin' cultivar but not in resistant 'Fuji'. Similarly, higher temperature grown fruits, when stored at 3º c, here is breakdown incidence. In pear also, the higher temperature accelerates the development of water core in pineapple, translucency of fruits is most commonly encountered disorder in which the flesh gives water soaked appearance. It is a hindrance in the fresh marketing of fruits. The incidence of the disorder is correlated with both higher (28/18º C, max/min temperature) and lower (23/15º C) 3 months preceding the harvest. Albinism of strawberry is a serious disorder, which has attained alarming situation in USA, Belgium and Netherlands. Fruit suffering from this malady appear blotted and develop pink or white areas on their surface, the pulp remains pale. It occurs frequently in the fields during peak fruit production in localities experiencing warm weather. This disorder is also favored by black polythene as it raises the soil temperature.

**Metabolic processes**

High temperature also has a direct effect on the processes like respiration and photosynthesis. In mango, with the increase in temperature from 15 to 35º C, the photosynthesis rates increased. However, the photosynthesis rates decreased, when the temperature was increased further at the same vapour pressure deficit.

**2. Observed impacts of low temperature on fruit and ornamentals production in India:**

The low temperature coupled with dry air during winter may develop a situation where evergreen plants fail to tolerate the high rate of transpiration, leading to winter injury.
**Chilling Injury:**

Tropical and sub-tropical fruit plants get injured by low temperature above freezing point. The intensity of injury depends upon the duration of the exposure to the low temperature. Plant height depends upon the extent of low temperature. Kinnow leaves inside the plants are injured due to low temperature. The prolonged hours of low temperature can cause temporary to permanent wilting of the plant parts or whole of the tree. Papaya and guava leaves and trees got damaged due to prolonged low temperature for a month during.

**Freezing Injury:**

In temperate and sub-tropical climate many a times temperature falls below 0°C for long duration, resulting into formation of ice from water in the cells and tissues of the fruits plants. The tissues get killed due to enlarged size of ice crystals. The severity of injury depends upon the tolerance of the plant to freezing atmosphere. Fully grown trees of mango and guava got killed due to freeze injury during. Tree trunks of many mango and citrus plantation were damaged due to bark shredding/injury.

**Physiological Disorders:**

Both higher and lower temperature than normal induces higher rate of transpiration in comparison to rate of photosynthesis leading to imbalance in the hormonal activity and metabolite synthesis and their translocation. This imbalance adversely affects various growth processes particularly apical dominance and flowering.

Winter temperatures and precipitation especially in the form of snow are very crucial for induction of dormancy, bud break and ensuring flowering in apples. Apple requires 1200-1500 hours of chill depending upon the variety. The chilling below 1000 results in the poor fruit set which consequently lead to poor yield of the crop.

**3. Observed impacts of heavy rainfall on fruit and ornamentals production in India:**

Flooding or excess water damage can be caused by short to medium term, intense introductions of water, as a result of poor soil drainage causing soil saturation and pooling, from over application of water through irrigation or through heavy rains or runoff from water bodies.

**General Plant Damage / Impact**

Plants that have been flooded or that grow in saturated soil situations will often exhibit reduced growth and/or stunting. Foliage (leaves and stems) may look yellowed and chlorotic and, if conditions persist, may become necrotic (dead). Seeds may rot and root death may occur. Plants may wilt and decline (depending on the duration of the saturated soil conditions). There will be an increase in the incidence of diseases
(bacterial, fungal) due to weakening to the plants and due to improved conditions for disease development (increased humidity, prolonged leaf wetness periods, etc.). Plants that are exposed to excess water will have altered plant hormone levels, which will result in abnormal growth, including twisting, epinasty, distortion, enlarged lenticels, and aerial or adventitious root formation. The main impact that comes from excess water is due to a reduction in the amount of oxygen that is in the roots, which affects respiration and metabolic transport systems. Reduced oxygen also damages roots, which reduces uptake of nutrients (such as calcium) and can result in increased uptake of toxins and attack from pathogens. Different crops respond to flooding in different ways, depending on the previously outlined factors. The rain is rarely considered to be negative weather, however if it arrives in excessive amounts in a short time, resulting in localized flooding of soil and associated excess moisture damage. Sudden, heavy rains can also produce damage that is very similar to hail damage, causing varying degrees of defoliation, bruising of plants (particularly soft fruit), specifically in the shoulder regions. Some cracking of the shoulder regions can also occur. Disease development may increase due to soil splash, damaged tissues and increased humidity. Dealing with heavy rain is similar to dealing with excess water / flooding or hail, depending on the situation. Producers should ensure that there is good drainage (or actively work to drain soils) and may apply protective fungicides may help protect damaged tissues from infection. Replacement of lost nutrients may also be necessary.

In mango untimely rain caused the vegetative growth of trees with new leaves hampering their productive growth. Then the untimely budding of mango trees due to fluctuation of temperature as well as knocking down by seasonal storms of green mangoes have been responsible for poor yield.

**4. Observed impacts of drought on fruit and ornamentals production in India:**

In banana, one of the major constraints for productivity is drought. Water deficit severely affects the plant growth and yield, because it deeply reduces the photosynthetic capacity of the banana plants as the crop sensitivity is reflected by reduced greenness of foliage. Water deficit during the period of finger development inhibits the translocation of assimilates to bunches. The present review made for the better understanding of the effects of water deficit to physiological and biochemical changes in banana.

The potential for a drought during the growing season is a very real probability. The length and severity of droughts vary greatly and cannot be predicted, so planning is critical in order to minimize the effects of a drought. However, the potential for a drought is such that current recommendations for fruit orchards include irrigation as an integral part of fruit production and not as an option. With perennial tree fruit crops it is best to take a proactive position rather than waiting for a drought before taking action. Many orchards are poorly located where water is not readily available. Also, in mature orchards, where fruit trees are relatively deep rooted, installation of an irrigation system
during a drought period is impractical and usually not as effective. The effect of a drought on tree fruit production can result in reduced yields for several years, assuming that the trees survive the drought. With fruit trees, the flower buds for the following season are initiated during the previous summer, and prolonged drought can inhibit the initiation of flowers for the next season. A drought can also reduce the quantity and quality of the current season's fruit crop as well. To better understand the effect of drought on fruit production it is necessary to understand the fruit's seasonal moisture requirements and to understand how drought affects fruit growth and development. Fruit trees have different patterns of shoot and fruit growth, so drought during different times of the season will result in varying responses. Growth of all plant organs is dependent on an adequate supply of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, the main food source in trees, are produced in the leaves during photosynthesis. Photosynthesis requires sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. Stomata's, small openings in the underside of leaves, allow carbon dioxide to enter the leaf and water vapor to exit. Maximum photosynthetic rates and, therefore, maximum carbohydrate production occur when the stomata are open. When plants experience drought stress the stomata's close to conserve water and photosynthesis and carbohydrate production is seriously reduced.

Under drought conditions, afternoon apple leaf photosynthetic rates may drop to 20% of normal. Therefore, avoiding drought stress with irrigation will result in greater production of carbohydrates for increased tree and fruit growth. Apple fruit growth is fairly uniform during the entire season. Fruit enlargement for the first 50 days after bloom is largely due to cell division, thereafter fruit growth is due to cell enlargement. Prolonged drought stresses any time during the season may adversely affect fruit growth, but early season drought is most detrimental because ultimate fruit size is related to cell numbers.

**Color:** In addition to fruit size, fruit quality can also be related to water availability. Because sugar is the building block for the red pigment in the apple skin, anything that reduces photosynthesis may delay or reduce red color development.

**Storage Potential:** Starch accumulates in apple fruits from about 50 days after bloom until fruit maturity and is converted to sugar in the maturing fruit. Stored starch is the energy source used by fruit tissues in storage. Harvested fruits having little starch will not store well and will soften earlier than expected.

**Nutrient Disorders:** Calcium uptake by roots requires adequate soil moisture. During dry seasons, fruit calcium levels are often low, and cork spot, bitter pit, and internal breakdown in storage may be severe. There is also some evidence that fruit rots before and after harvest may be most severe in fruits with low calcium concentrations.

**Pre-Harvest Fruit Drop:** Pre harvest apple drop is influenced by environmental conditions, but field observations do indicate a consistent relationship between drought
and fruit drop. A high percentage of fruit dropped in some orchards before harvest. In this case, severe drop may have been related primarily to the drought-induced late harvest.

## Water Conservation Practices

Due to the potential reduction in fruit yield and tree growth and survival, it is important that growers know what actions can be taken to minimize the effect of a drought on tree fruit production. However, during a serious drought nothing can take the place of a well-designed and properly installed irrigation system. One of the best ways to help minimize drought stress in an orchard is to provide a vegetation-free strip down the tree row before growth begins in the spring. This strip is usually implemented and maintained with an herbicide program. For optimal results, the vegetation-free strip should extend from the trunk of the tree out to at least the drip line of the tree on both sides of the tree row.

Frequent mowing of the vegetation in the orchard should also be avoided. When grass is mowed before seed stalks form, the grass vigorously grows back after being mowed, further reducing soil moisture in the orchard. Options to mowing the vegetative row middles include using sub lethal rates of herbicide applied during the spring and early summer. This practice is commonly referred to as chemical mowing and is used to suppress vegetative growth of the orchard floor for 6 to 8 weeks.

A well-managed orchard should not look like a lush green park or golf course. When new orchards are planted, a good technique is to prepare the soil a year in advance and plant a vegetative cover.

Then 3 to 4 weeks before planting, apply a contact herbicide to provide killed sod-row strips into which the new trees will be planted. By planting into a killed vegetative cover moisture infiltration is greatly improved, and moisture loss by evaporation is reduced, maximizing the use of brief rain showers that may occur during periods of drought stress.

Another practice that may help to minimize the effect of a drought is to thin the fruit crop properly early in the season. By removing the excess fruit early in the season, the tree does not expend carbohydrates and moisture in fruit that are later removed. Early thinning minimizes the amount of wasted energy and promotes growth of the desired fruit. Thinning at bloom time is preferred; however, in the Southeast the potential for spring frost-freeze problems limits the use of bloom thinning in order to guarantee a crop.
Growers may help minimize the effect of a drought on fruit production by controlling insects and disease pests that defoliate the trees, which reduces photosynthesis and carbohydrate production.

## Irrigation Systems

As mentioned earlier, the best option is to have a properly installed irrigation system in place to avoid any drought-stress problems. There are several different types of irrigation systems that should be considered for fruit trees. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type and for each specific orchard and local circumstances, and these must be considered before installation. It is best to consult an irrigation specialist and your county Extension Service agent to aid in designing a reliable system to meet individual needs. The three basic types of systems primarily used in commercial orchards in the Southeast are:

(1) low-volume drip or trickle,

(2) high-volume overhead, and

(3) micro sprinkler.

## Observed impacts of climate change on fruit production in India:

However, there are certain beneficial effects of climate change such as projected improvement in coconut yield in west coast of India (Naresh Kumar et al., 2008; Naresh Kumar and Aggarwal, 2009). More number of such potential benefits need to be analysed for maximizing the positive impacts.

### Strategies for Adoption in the change Climate:

* Improvement of heat, drought, and pest resistant varieties

* Improvement of resources for irrigation efficiencies: drip and sprinkler irrigation

* Research in water and nutrient management in various agro-ecologies to meet the climate change

* Research in green manuring crops, cover crop, to preserve soil moisture, soil organic matter and micronutrients

* Research on climate prediction related models and their application

* Research work on new technologies towards low carbon economy

* Research on land use planning, watershed management, vulnerability assessment and resource management

* Resource on yield gap analysis to analyze the factors responsible to climate change

### Strategies for improving the fruit production

* Promote seminar, workshop, training and general education to rural population dependent on agriculture
* Identification of present issues of climate change related to fruit crops

* Strengthen Horticultural Research Station and community program to run effective research related to climate change

* Interactive communication for transfer of technologies to farmer about climate change and its impact on fruit production

* Preservation of genetic materials to reduce extinction of biodiversity

* Crop insurances for social security and food securities

* Change in national policies towards farmers incentives such as subsidy in agricultural inputs and agricultural investment.

**Conclusion**

In order to provide environmentally-resilient cultivar for sustainability of future fruit production, breeder require accurate and high-throughput phenotyping protocols for identification of the varying levels of chill requirement in the available germplasm. We illustrate here preliminary results of one such careening method. So mitigating the adverse effect of climate and the damage by emerging pest's adaption of some techniques that can restore the health and productivity of the trees enabling us to produce commercial quantities is desirable.
# A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND AN OVERVIEW OF GOVERNMENT SCHEMES

B. Srishailam¹*, Dr V. Sailaja² Vavilala Priyanka³

Ph.D. Research Scholar¹, Associate Professor², Department of Agricultural Extension, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, A.P.

Ph.D. Research Scholar³, Department of Agricultural Extension, Sardar Vallabhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Modipuram U P.

Corresponding author's mail I'd*: sribathini15@gmail.com

## ABSTRACT

Public agricultural extension system is one of the largest knowledges and information dissemination institution. In the last decades, agricultural production has stagnated and this calls for a system based inter-disciplinary holistic approach not only to develop ecologically sound technologies for different areas, but also to facilitate their utilization at gross root level. Extension approach is like doctrine for the system, which informs, stimulates and guides such aspects of the system as its structure, its leadership, its program, its resources and its linkages. Various extension approaches completed successfully by giving satisfactory results in past to improve the farmers knowledge regarding newly developed agricultural technologies. Some of them are continuously running in present along with newly developed extension approaches and requires little modifications in future to increase the agricultural potential of country. The use of innovative extension approaches to increase coverage is, therefore, a concern for all involved in agriculture extension and advisory services. Participatory, partnership of government and non-government organizations (NGO's), farmer's cooperative approaches are running successfully in present. In the future, the social media, agricultural education, village panchayats, off-line initiation of ICT could be helpful for effective extension of agricultural information to the grass-root level. Cost recovery approach and sharing cropping approach should be followed at large level.

**Key words:** Agricultural technologies, extension system, public private partnership, NGOs and Information Communication Technologies.
## Introduction

Several well defined extension approaches and systems for agricultural development have been practiced and are being practiced in several countries of world including India. In India a number of different approaches to the organization of field extension services have been adopted. These often represent different policy objectives, although they may also represent different responses to production system. There are several extension approaches followed in various parts of the world including India. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages.

### The Extension Approaches in Agriculture

* Early Extension Efforts

* Community Development approach

* Target area approach

* Target group approach

* Farmer participatory approach

* Broad based approach

* Single window approach

## Origin and Development of Extension Efforts

During the British rule, there was no spectacular improvement in the standard of living of rural people. The major contributions for this set back were due to the series of famines, floods etc. (from 1875 – 1901, numbering 18 out of total 33 during the whole 19th century), forced the government to appoint some commissions to know the various reasons for these calamities. They recommended rural development work. They followed certain acts like

1988 - Land improvement loans Act and Agricultural loans Act

1904 - Co-operative Act and then the amendment in the Co-operative Act in 1912

Establishment of development departments like Agriculture, Animal husbandry and veterinary, Irrigation etc., some irrigation projects were also taken up to control famines.

### Early Extension Efforts

Experiments with extension have been a unique feature of the development of extension in India. Long before the introduction of extension system at the national level in 1952, there had been sporadic attempts in developing the rural life. A
knowledge of the early extension efforts shall serve as a useful background in understanding the development of systems of extension in India.

<table><thead><tr><td>S.No.</td><td>Year</td><td>Name of the worker</td><td>Title or Place of experiment</td><td>Objectives of the programme</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1.</td><td>1903</td><td>Sir Daniel Hamilton</td><td>Scheme for Rural Reconstruction, Sundarban (Bengal)</td><td>Achieving overall development by creating model villages</td></tr><tr><td>2.</td><td>1914-18</td><td>Dr.M.Visweswaraya</td><td>Economic conference of Mysore, Mysore</td><td>Achieve all round progress</td></tr><tr><td>3.</td><td>1920</td><td>F.L.Brayne</td><td>Gurgaon Experiment, Punjab</td><td>Poverty and misery of people</td></tr><tr><td>4.</td><td>1921</td><td>Rabindranath Tagore</td><td>Sriniketan attempt, Calcutta.</td><td>To create a real intrest in people for rural welfare work</td></tr><tr><td>5.</td><td>1921</td><td>Dr.Spencer Hatch</td><td>Marthandam Project</td><td>Three folds development of body, mind and spirit</td></tr><tr><td>6.</td><td>1921</td><td>Mahatma Gandhi</td><td>Sevagram, Wardha district of Madhya Pradesh</td><td>Service to the under privileged with a sense of dedication</td></tr><tr><td>7.</td><td>1945</td><td>Mr.Arthur T.Moshar</td><td>Indian village service (Uttar Pradesh)</td><td>Impart guidance to the villagers for their developments</td></tr><tr><td>8.</td><td>1947</td><td>Shri. Prakasam</td><td>Firka Development Scheme (Madras State)</td><td>Rural reconstruction - The scheme derived its inspiration from the ideal of Mahatma Gandhi "Village Swaraj"</td></tr><tr><td>9.</td><td>1948</td><td>Albert Mayer</td><td>Etawah Pilot Project (UP)</td><td>To see the extent of improvement possible in production, social improvement, development of initiative, self confidence and co-operation in an 'average district</td></tr><tr><td>10.</td><td>1948</td><td>S.K.Dey</td><td>Nilokheri experiment</td><td>Rehabilitate 7000 displaced person from Pakistan</td></tr></tbody></table>
## Grow more food campaign (GMFC) – 1947

**Objective** - To increase agricultural production.

Under this programme, additional staff were provided at district and sub- divisional (Taluk) levels. But even after four years of working of this programme, it was observed that the system was not functioning properly and cultivators response towards the programme was very poor. Moreover, all the departments for rural development were working in isolation and reaching the people directly without any close co-ordination. The importance of co-ordinating the activities of the development department was felt and strongly emphasised in 1949. A committee was again appointed in 1952 enquire about the working of the programme.

## The G.M.F. Enquiry Committee report – 1952

### Important recommendations

* The administrative machinery of the government should be reorganised and equipped for the efficient discharge of the duties imposed on it under the new concept of India as a welfare state.

* An extension organisation should be set up for rural work which would reach every farmer and assist in the co-ordinated development of all aspects of rural life.

* The pattern of staffing should consist of a Block Development Officer (BDO), four technical officers and twelve village level workers (VLWs) for a tashil or taluka, with an average of 120 villages.

* The development activities of the district level will be under the Collector, assisted by specialists.

### The lessons learnt from the early extension efforts were

* For sustained rural development, self-help and self-reliance through active people's participation must be the guiding principle.

* An integrated approach to rural development must be preferred for a balanced growth.

* Nation wide government supported extension net worth as a permanent system was essential.

* Multi-purpose village level workers (VLWs) were needed to regularly and constantly interact with villagers.

* Trained extension agents with both social science and technological background were needed as extension professionals.

### National Extension Systems

Based on the experiences of the early extension efforts, systematic, planned and country wide extension system was introduced by the national government in India in
1952. Since then, the system of extension passed through various stages, in an effort to find out how best it could meet the needs of the country.

Three distinct stages in the development of extension under the management of the national government are

I. Community Development (1952-1957)

II. Technological Development (1960 – 1966)

III. Development with social justice (1970 – 2005)

* **Community Development Approach**

Community development programme was launched in India on 2nd October 1952 with 55 Community Development Projects (CDPs). Each project had an operational area of about 400 to 500 square miles, comprising 300 villages and a population of about two lakhs. The project area was divided into three development blocks, each consisting of about 100 villages and a population of 60 to 70 thousands. The project was headed by a Project Officer, and a number of subject matter extension officers in the disciplines of agriculture, animal husbandry, co-operation, industries, rural engineering, social education etc. Each project had about 60 multi-purpose village level workers (VLWs). One for each group of 5 to 10 villages. They were government appointed extension functionary at the lowest level, who were nearest to the people. The multi-purpose VLWs were common to the departments engaged in rural development work.

### Objectives of the Community Development Programme

1. To assist each village in having effective panchayats, co-operatives and schools and

2. Through these village institutions plan and carry out integrated, multiphased family, village, block and district plan for

i) increasing agricultural production,

ii) improving existing village crafts and industries and organizing new ones,

iii) providing minimum essential health services and improving health practices,

iv) providing required educational facilities for children and an adult educational programme,

v) providing recreational facilities and programmes,

vi) improving housing and family living conditions, and

vii) providing programmes for village women and youth.

## Administration

### National Extension Services (NES) – 1953

NES was implemented from 2.10.1953. This was implemented in the areas which were not covered by CDP, so that entire country would get the benefit of development/ When compared to CDP, the NES was less intensive in character. Since
CDP and NES had the same basic ideas, they were integrated both at the centre and state. With effect from April 1958 there was no distinction between CD blocks and NES. All NES blocks became CD block was achieved by October 1963.

## The lessons learnt from CD / NES

1. Uneven distribution of benefits.

2. Absence of clear-cut priorities.

3. Lack of self-reliance and mutual aids.

4. Inadequate emphasis on development of cottage and small-scale industries and agriculture.

## Panchayat Raj System (1957)

The realization that peoples' participation is crucial for successful implementation of programmes like CD and NES, was brought to sharp focus through the report of the team for the study of Community Projects and National Extension Service by Balvantray G.Mehta (1957). The Committee observed that one of the least successful aspects of CD and NES work is its attempt to evoke popular initiative and recommended democratic decentralization.

As a pilot project as early as 1957. Based on the success in this State it was Rajasthan which became the pioneer to bring the whole state under democratic decentralisation on Oct. 2, 1959.

Panchayat Raj was easily accepted because it meant administration by mutual consultation, consent and consensus. It fitted closely into the ancient cultural patterns in India.

## Three tiers of Panchayat Raj

**The Gram Panchayat:** The first formal democratic institution under the directive principle in the Indian constitution is the Gram Panchayat or Panchayat. It is the primary unit of local self-government. Panchayat is a cabinet of the village elders, directly elected by the adult citizens of the village.

Gram Panchayats are constituted considering their income, population and area. The income varies from mere Rs.500/- kper annum to more than Rs.2.00 lakhs. The population varies from 500 to 25,000. The panchayat membership varies from 5 to 17. There is provision for reservation of seats for women and SC and STs. The panchayat has a tenure of five years and is directly elected. The meeting is to be convened atleast once in six months. It has income through taxes to perform its functions. The main functions of Panchayats are:

(i) representative function, where the main role is to voice and represent the opinion;
Advanced Farming

(ii) regulatory and administrative functions, which consists of regulating the conduct of individuals and institutions and also collection of taxes;

(iii) service or developmental function, such as promotion of education, health, agriculture, etc.

The Panchayat Samithi or Panchayat Union:

This is the second tier of the administration at Block level. It consists of Panchayat Union Chairman, presidents of all panchayats in the area, local MLAs, MLCs, MPs etc., with the right to vote, but not to hold office and nominated persons. Reservation and cooperation are given for women, SCs and STs and persons with experience in administration and public life. Block Development Officer is appointed by the Government. He functions as the leader of the Block.

Functions of the Block

(1) It has to instill among people within its jurisdiction a spirit of self-help and initiative and work for raising the standard of living;

(2) It has to support for the implementation of development programmes;

(3) It has the welfare and development activities in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, health, sanitation, elementary education, cottage industries and social.

(4) It has to use the village housing project funds and loans.

District Development Council (Zila Parishad)

This is the third tier of Panchayat Raj functioning at district level. The members are all Panchayat Union Chairman, District Collector, MLAs, MLCs, MPs of the district with right to vote but not to hold office and women, SC, ST and persons interested in rural development are also given representation. District Collector leads the work with the help of District Development Officers.

The functions of Panchayat Raj Institutions can be summarised as below:

<table><thead><tr><td>Panchayat</td><td>Panchayat Union</td><td>District Development Council</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1.Sanitation, conservation and water supply</td><td>1.Administration of blocks</td><td>1.Approval of panchayat union budget</td></tr><tr><td>2.Construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, drains etc.</td><td>2 Execution of all programmes under CDP</td><td>2.Distribution of funds of Panchayat Union</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td rowspan="3">3.Promotion of agricultural cooperative, cottage industries etc.</td><td>3.Approval of panchayat budget</td><td>3.Coordinating the plans and supervising it</td></tr><tr><td>4.Management of elementary schools.</td><td>4.Advise the Government for all the district rural development works</td></tr><tr><td>5. Promotion of agriculture, cottage industries etc.</td><td>5 SECONDARY EDUCATION</td></tr></table>

Some special features and advantages of Democratic Decentralisation.

a) Previously the sanction of most of the works and schemes was invested in the hands of officials at higher levels. As a result of devolution of these powers, panchayat samithis and their standing committees can themselves now sanction most of the schemes in the overall programme of community development.

b) Most of the functions which were hitherto implemented by the Government through the Heads of Departments are now performed by land under the administrative control of the Panchayat Samithis. Thus, there is a single agency at Block level for all development programmes.

c) The power and functions of the District Boards are allocated among the parishads and the samitihis, which are within the reach of rural people.

d) Panchayat samithis have all the technical assistance required at the block level itself.

e) Elementary education is now the sole responsibility of the panchayat samithis.

f) Rural medical institutions in the Block are under the administrative control of the samithis.

g) Members of the samithis have the right to inspect institutions or works in the Block with a view to ensure efficient working and execution and draw the attention of the executive to any defects.

h) All state aid and assistance from the All-India Boards for various non-official organisations in the Blocks are routed through the samithis.

i) Personnel functioning within the Block are pooled together so that they function in a coordinated way under the samithis.

j) The responsibility for maintenance of minor irrigation works which was hitherto vested with Collectors and the Public Workers Department, belongs to samithis now.

k) Panchayat samithis provide financial and technical assistance and supervision to panchayats.

l) Previously at village, block and district levels, especially the later two levels there were advisory bodies constituted by various departments.