The effectiveness and efficiency of the agricultural extension system in India can be improved by motivating and mobilizing the rural and tribal folk towards sustainable productivity. It requires efficient and innovative approaches in order to organize and strengthen the farming community in an effective way for better participation, adoption and empowerment. A sample of 500 tribal families were selected on stratified random sampling procedure from four village panchayats and seven hamlets based on purposive random sampling method. A socioeconomic survey was carried out by using PRA techniques to analyze the tribal scenario of East Godavari district. Major problems were identified and agro-based interventions were proposed suitable for the selected tribal area. After conducting an externally funded extension based DBT project for a period of three years (2009 to 2012) and implementing the interventions in tribal area of East Godavari district, it was found that there is a great scope to suggest suitable innovative and appropriate approaches for tribal and rural population. Suitable innovative extension strategies were suggested for bringing a desirable change in improving the livelihood of rural and tribal societies towards productivity and sustainability.

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A field experiment was conducted during kharif (soybean), 2012 and rabi (onion) 2012-13 in a sandy clay loam soils of college farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to study the response of P levels (0, 30 and 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 ) either alone or in combination with PSB @ 5 kg ha -1 , biochar @ 5 t ha -1 , humic acid @ 20 kg ha -1 and citric acid @ 10 mM concentration to study the direct, residual and cumulative effects of the treatments imposed on yield of soybean (direct) and onion (Residual and Cumulative), soybean equivalent yield (Residual and Cumulative) and benefit : cost ratio of soybean (direct) and onion (Residual and Cumulative). The mean seed yield of the soybean with biochar was 2077 kg ha -1 which was significantly higher against the control seed yield of 1329 kg ha -1 . Biochar resulted in a significant increase in mean onion yield to 22.1 t ha -1 against 15.8 t ha -1 when organics were not supplemented, the yield response being 39.9 per cent across inorganic P and mode of effect. Yield of soybean -onion cropping sequence was higher with biochar and humic acid when applied along with 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 with corresponding soybean equivalent yields of 7063 and 6740 kg ha -1 . For soybean-onion cropping sequence, residual effect of 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 + humic acid was economically better with higher B: C ratio of 2.0 followed by 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 + biochar in both residual and cumulative effects which showed 1.9.

Exploring the relationship among inorganic potassium fractions, yield and soil properties were important to know the best extractant for available K for cauliflower in the light textured soils of Rangareddy district. Surface soils in bulk were collected from thirty locations of Rangareddy district and pot culture experiment was carried out. Inorganic K fractions were analysed to evaluate the relative efficiency of extractants in determining the available K. Here, we have investigated the relationships among the soil properties, between soil properties and K uptake, between soil properties and yield, between K fractions and K uptake, between K fractions and yield. Organic carbon (r = 0.65 ** ), available nitrogen (r = 0.60 ** ) exhibited a significant positive correlation with NH 4 OAc (1N) extractable K. Available potassium extracted by NH 4 OAc showed a significant positive correlation with NaBPh 4 (0.2 M) extractable K (r = 0.93 ** ), 1M HNO 3 (r = 0.55 ** ) and also with citric acid extractable K (r = 0.67 ** ). Among all the extractants 1N NH 4 OAc extractable K showed higher positive correlation with curd yield (r = 0.975 ** ). It had a significant positive correlation with NaBPh 4 (0.2 M) extractable K (r = 0.926 ** ).

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