The most important objective of any production unit is to co-ordinate and utilize the various resources of production in such a manner that they yield the highest net returns. As farmers are shifting from low input-low output to high input-high output and traditional and subsistence to commercial dairy farming, this study assesses the impact of resources being used optimally through herd size categories by the dairy farmers for buffaloes and crossbred cows in the Middle Gujarat region. The resource use efficiency analysis helps the dairy farmers in taking appropriate decisions regarding resource allocation without using additional resources for enhancing their income. The findings show that on an average, the costs of human labour, green fodder and concentrates had significant influence on milk yield for buffalo milk production while costs of human labour, green fodder, concentrates and veterinary and medical charges had significant influence on milk yield for crossbred cow milk production implying that one per cent increase in the use of these inputs can led to increase in the gross returns from milk. Milk production for buffaloes was in decreasing returns to scale while on an overall basis, milk production for crossbred cows was increasing returns to scale. Further, the difference between MVP and its acquisition unit price for human labour in small category, green fodder in overall category and dry fodder in marginal category in buffalo milk production and price for human labour in medium and overall category and green fodder in large category in crossbred cow milk production were found positive and significant indicating that the dairy farmers have an opportunity to increase their profit by using more of these inputs on their farms. Thus, the study concluded that only in crossbred cows, milk production was size neutral.

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The performance regarding Bt technology and its impact on farming community have been assessed in Middle Gujarat based mainly on primary data using tabular analysis. The farmer's perceptions on the impact of Bt cotton technology on various dimensions were ascertained and analyzed in terms of "positive", "neutral" and "negative". The impact of Bt cotton, as perceived by the farmers, has been in terms of enhanced yield; reduced pest and disease incidence; increased income, employment, education and standard of living; and reduced health risk. To foster adoption, availability of quality and quantity of Bt cotton seed to farmers needs greater attention of development agencies, while researchers' attention is called for incorporating resistance/ tolerance to Spodoptera and pink bollworms. The major production, marketing and economic constraints faced by the Bt cotton growers were non-availability of agricultural labour during peak seasons, high incidence of attack from sucking insect-pests and bollworms, fluctuation in the market prices, lack of transportation facilities, high cost of quality Bt seeds and high cost of fertilizers and pesticides.

Background: Dairy farming has been emerging as an important commercial enterprise in India as milk is an essential commodity where majority of the population is vegetarian. Milk production plays an important role in the rural economy with particular focus on landless, marginal and small farmers who constitute core milk production system in the country. Therefore, the current study was aimed to analyse milk production across different herd sizes of buffaloes and crossbred cows in Middle Gujarat.Methods: This study is based on the primary data collected from the dairy farmers during the agricultural year 2018-19 by interviewing the respondents through a pre-tested structured schedule from 240 respondents spread over 24 villages of Anand, Kheda and Panchmahal districts of Middle Gujarat. Conclusion: The present investigation indicated that for increasing farmer’s income and eventually livelihood, rearing of crossbred cows should be encouraged in the study area as they have edge over buffaloes in net returns. Break-even analysis indicated that crossbred cow owners were able to cover their total expenditure at a lower point than the buffalo owners due to the fact that the crossbred owners realized higher milk production as compared to buffalo owners.