Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C16303
Notes:
Chapter 6 in Rafiq Dossani (ed.), Telecommunications reform in India. Quorum Books, Westport, Connecticut. 258 pages., Author describes a proposal wherein the state should build 5,000 communications centers or "work centers" and link these to the rail and fiber infrastructures. Every citizen can access a telephone, the Internet, health care and education. "People stay within the traditional semirural or rural infrastructure, within their 'circle,' rather than moving away from their families to the overcrowded cities."
Agricultural Economics (Amsterdam, Netherlands), The study aims to track adoption of improved chickpea varieties, and assess their on-farm benefits in some remote and backward tribal villages in Gujarat, India, where few newly developed varieties were introduced by a non-government organization. It also determines key factors which were influencing their adoption. The study found that adoption of improved chickpea varieties was gradually increasing by replacing a prominent local variety. Duration of crop maturity, farm size, yield risk, and farmers' experience of growing chickpea crop were significantly influencing their adoption. The on-farm benefits as a result of improved varieties were realized in terms of increased yield levels, higher income and labor productivity, more marketable surplus, price premium and stabilized yields in fluctuating weather. Breeding short duration varieties with stable yield levels under varying weather, and organizing seed multiplication and dissemination in regions, where moisture stress is a problem during maturity of chickpea, are the major suggestions.
