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Social media are digital networks that are used to share and discuss user generated informa tion - opinion, video, audio, and multimedia spreading far and wide even in remote areas of the country and has changed the way farmers communicate and interact. This study was conducted in 2021, with an objective to understand to understand the use of social media by farmers and to analyze its relationship with economic profile characteristic. The data were collected personally from Hisar and Sonipat districts of Haryana, with a sample size of 200 respondents comprising 25 farmers from eight villages through a structured interview sched ule. Findings revealed that 69.00 per cent of the respondents were in medium category of social media use. Garrett ranking analysis revealed that watching videos was the most pre ferred purpose of social media use among farmers followed by chatting/ connecting with peers. Also, YouTube was found to be most preferred social media followed by WhatsApp and Facebook. Further, education, family income, cosmopoliteness-localiteness, social par ticipation, extension contact and extension participation showed positive relationship with social media use while age had negative relationship. Also, regression analysis showed that the eleven personal variables selected for the study could explain 53.30 per cent variation in the social media use.

Dairy sector plays a critical role in growth of rural India by providing livelihoodopportunities to millions of people. The present study was conducted in Zone-I and ZoneII of the Haryana state. District Kaithal and Karnal were selected from Zone I whereasSirsa and Hisar districts represented Zone II to study the investment and resource usepattern followed by the dairy farmers. To achieve the objective the primary data from the200 sampled dairy farms (divided into three categories i.e. small, medium and large herdsize of milch animals) were collected through survey method. The study revealed that thetotal investment per milch animal per day in small, medium and large herd size group wasRs.175.50, 178.40 and 181.80, respectively, in Zone-I and Rs.170.08, 174.30 and 175.86,respectively, in Zone-II. From total investment, major proportion was covered byinvestment on feed and fodder, followed by concentrates and labours in both the Zones. Itmay be suggested that providing feed concentrates and high yielding seeds of green foddercrops at cheaper rates and credit facility should be strengthened.

A Self-Help Group (SHG) is a registered or unregistered group of people having homogenous socio-economic background, voluntarily coming together to save small amounts regularly, mutually agree for the contribution of a common fund and to meet their emergency needs. It aims engaging rural women with new activities to increase their income, development of better networks and linkages and improved the existing conditions of the SHGs members. The study was conducted to analyse the income generating activities being taken up and the level of empowerment of SHG members.. Result pertaining to income generating activities indicated that majority of the respondents were involved with small micro enterprises. The need to develop SHGs and motivate rural women to systematically manage and choose their activities in order to generate income can be advocated. Certain essential activities like choosing the more appropriate activity, market intelligence, establishing marketing linkages etc. are an indication of the capability of the groups as SHGs becoming a tool for social empowerment.