India is the highest producing country in the world and contributes one fourth in total pulse production. The Karnataka state is one of the leading pigeonpea growing states, with Gulbarga district contributing about 56 per cent of the total pigeonpea area of the state. The present study investigates the adoption pattern of improved varieties of pigeonpea. A sample size of farmers each of adopters and non-adopters of improved varieties of pigeonpea were selected randomly from four villages in two blocks of Gulbarga district. The result indicates that more than 45 years age group with higher education background was the adopters of improved varieties. WRP-1variety released by University of agricultural Sciences, Dharwad was the leading improved cultivar's among the sample farmers which has higher net return over ICP-8863 and local varieties. The short duration of the crop, more grain yield and high market price were found to be the main reasons for adoption of the improved varieties. The logit analysis interpret that size of operational holding, education and age of farmers were found significant and positive factors influencing adoption decisions of farmers. It was suggested that greater agricultural research efforts are needed towards varietal improvement in pigeonpea crop in order to improve their yield. Emphasis may be given for improvement in the development of infrastructural facilities for quality and timely availability of inputs including credit facilities.

The study aimed to analyze the determinants of livestock pattern in Bellary district using multistage random sampling consisting of 120 sample size during the year 2010-11. The findings of socio-economic profile revealed that the average size of land holdings of small, medium and large farmers was 3.20, 8.00 and 22.22 acres, respectively; however the cropping intensity was 167.39% in NEK region. The findings also revealed that the total cost incurred in rearing of local cow was found to be ` 35.33 and a return from local cow was ` 40.83 per day. Rearing of buffalo incurred total cost ` 42.84 and total returns from buffalo was ` 47.54 per day. The findings revealed that the determinants of sheep and goat holding patterns of the farmer depend on decisions to hold sheep and goat are influenced by a number of factors such as Coefficient of age of the farmer was negative (-0.141) and significant at 10% level. Coefficient of total land was negative (-0.008) and significant at 5% level. Overall, the coefficient, multiple determination (R 2 ) revealed that the combined contribution of all the independent variables puts together explained the variation of 30.10% in the sheep and goat holding pattern. The coefficients of age of the farmer, total land were negative and having a significant relationship with sheep and goat holding implied that generally these species holder depends on common property resources for meeting their fodder and feed requirement.