In recent years there has been considerable pressure in agriculture to reduce chemical pesticides and to look for their better alternatives. The plant kingdom is recognized as the most efficient producer of different biologically active compounds, which provide them with resistance against different pests. Some higher plant products have been currently formulated as botanical pesticides and are used on a large scale as ecofriendly and biodegradable measures in managing agricultural pests. Botanicals used in agricultural pest management are safer to the user and the environment. The interest in the possible use of natural compounds to control agricultural pests has notably increased in response to consumer pressure to reduce or eliminate chemically synthesized additives in foods. There is a wide scope of use of plant-based pesticides in the integrated management of different agricultural pests. A consolidated and continuous search of natural products may yield safer alternative control measures comparable to azadirachtin and pyrethryoids, which are being used in different part of the world as ideal natural fungicides. The products from higher plants are safe and economical and would be in high demand in the global pesticide market because of their diverse mode of application.

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The study has analysed the factors affecting adoption of improved forage technologies and its impact on milk yield and feed sufficiency in Bundelkhand region. We used propensity score matching (PSM) technique on cross-sectional data collected from 400 dairy farmers for impact evaluation and also conducted sensitivity analysis to examine the effect of uncontrolled confounders on the estimands. Our findings suggest that, education status, standard livestock unit, animal breed type, off-farm income activities, farm size and access to training, credit and market significantly influence adoption of improved forage technologies and practices. Further the adoption led to a significant increase in annual milk production (over 950 litres) and daily milk yield (1.15 to 2.04 litres) and also reduced time spent in feeding by around 2 hours during zaid season and around an hour during kharif season.

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