7 pages., The study highlighted the information needs and information sources used by the farmers of Kurukshetra district. Data were elicited through the questionnaire. All the farmers needed information on availability and use of pesticides, fertilizers for the crop, disease, pest, weed control, knowing and selling market prices of crops followed by government schemes/policies (98.1%), variety and new cropping system, availability of seeds (96.2%), Agricultural loan (73.1%), weather/weather forecast (73.1%), etc. The majority of the respondents (59.6%) were using newspapers in which Dainik Bhaskar (46.2%) was the first choice of farmers and (30.8%) banners and wall paintings were also assisted. Mobile phones (69.2%) and Television (67.3%) were major electronic sources among them. All the respondents were using these sources to increase agricultural production, availability and know the current market prices. While (90.4%) were using proper use of fertilizers/medicines/pesticides and curing diseases followed by (82.7%) know about new agricultural technology, weather (76.9%). Insufficient information literacy, information communication technology (ICT) skills (87.7%), and inadequate training opportunities (61.5%) were the main constraints faced by farmers. Satisfaction was high in electronic sources (53.8%) than print information (23.1%) sources for their agricultural information among the farmers of Kurukshetra.
10 pages., Via online journal., In 18 East German municipalities, nine of them with a planned pig production site and the other nine with an existing pig production site, a survey was carried out on the factors influencing the acceptance of pig production. The influencing factors examined were the personal attitude on particular aspects of pig production, socio-demographic characteristics, the personal involvement in local decision-making, the size of livestock and the production technology. As a result, existing production sites are perceived more positively than planned sites, without any influence of size and production technology. The difference may be explained by the fact that planned sites are evaluated in respect to economic arguments as jobs and income (market goods), while existing sites are rather evaluated in respect to environmental factors (public goods). For new investments the results lead to the recommendation to emphasize its economic aspects, to integrate the investor socially in the rural community and to apply technology that prevents pollution for the neighborhood. More importantly, the results show the shortcomings of a “top down” approach and the indispensability of endogenous resources in regional development.
