The effectiveness of an extension system referred to its ability to meet the farmer needs in providing the new technology which suits to their conditions and results in better production. Recently the demand for information on agricultural practices and technology among the farmers is increasing day by day but fulfilment of these demands exclusively by public agricultural extension system is limited. To address this challenge, information communication technology (ICT) has the immense role in supplementing the extension system. Among the ICT tools, mobile phone, because of its affordability, accessibility, minimum skill requirement, widespread network etc., has emerged as important tool for information and knowledge dissemination to the smallholder and marginal farmers. But it is necessary to study how effective they are in achieving the respective objectives.The present investigation was conducted to study the effectiveness of mKRISHI® PAWS (Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil) in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state. An ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Total 136 messages were sent to the respondents. The data was collected from 240 beneficiary farmers of the north-western Himalayan region. The effectiveness of the mKRISHI® PAWS in technology advisory and delivery services were measured by developing an effectiveness index for the purpose. Results showed that 93.8% of farmers perceive that quality of information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was excellent and 83.75% of the farmers felt that the information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was appropriate to their condition. The study revealed that the extension services delivered by mKRISHI® PAWS were found to be highly effective by majority of the farmers. 34.58% farmers perceived that the mKRISHI® PAWS was very highly effective as a mean of getting their information needs.

In North West Himalayan region, farmers tend to face problems related to production and natural resource management due to steep slopes; fragile geology and frequent landslides which leads to high soil erosion. The present study was conducted with the objective to assess the impact of Farmer FIRST Project on the livelihood of beneficiary farmers of study area. A sample of 300 farmers comprising of 180 beneficiary and 120 non-beneficiary farmers were selected through multi stage random sampling. To delineate the impact, with-without and before-after comparison on different aspects of Farmer FIRST Project were carried out. Study revealed that there exists a significant difference between beneficiary farmers and non-beneficiary farmers on various aspects, viz. awareness level, change in decision making behaviour, change in marketing behaviour, change in yield, change in income, change in cropping intensity and change in average annual employment days. Before-after comparison of beneficiary farmers showed that there is a significant increase in crop yield, cultivable area and average annual employment days. Hence, there is a need of upscaling the project for inclusion of more numbers of farmers and securing their livelihood.

The Government of India in its annual budget 2016-17 set a policy target of doubling farmers' income by 2022. Agriculture sustains livelihood for more than half of the India's total population. Doubling farmers' income in such a short period is an overwhelming task for decision makers, scientists and policy makers. Doubling farmers' income is possible through increasing total output and better price realization in market, reduction in production costs, diversification of product, efficient post-harvest management, value addition, etc. In this paper, efforts have been made to detail issues, challenges and strategies to achieve the target of doubling farmer's income. Specific strategies suggested for achieving the target of doubling farmers' income were market management, agricultural input management, risk management and agricultural extension strategies.