Small and marginal farming communities of Indian agriculture account for more than 85%of the total farming households. They face the challenges of land fragmentation, high costof inputs and inability to market their produce efficiently. To tackle these challenges, policymakers came up with the model of farmers’ mutual cooperation through Farmer ProducerOrganisations (FPOs). This study conducted in Punjab analyses the behavioural factorsresponsible for functionality of FPOs. A random selection of 150 members from 5 functionaland 5 non-functional FPOs (i.e., 15 respondents from each selected FPO) was made andthe respondents were interviewed personally. The findings revealed that the members(including management) of the functional FPOs had higher risk bearing capacity, greatereconomic motivation and more innovativeness as compared to the respondents from non-functional FPOs. Similarly, respondents from functional FPOs were socially, economicallyand managerially more empowered than the non-functional FPOs. Business skills of themembers, including the managerial members, of functional FPOs were also better ascompared to those from the non-functional FPOs. Regression estimates revealed that thefunctionality, better academic qualification, bigger land holding and joint family systemwere responsible for the higher net annual income of the respondents.

The agricultural extension system in India has the daunting task of serving about 146.45 million farm families. Public extension systems comprising KVKs, ATMA, State Line Departments, SAUs and ICAR Institutes have been playing a pivotal role in extending extension services; of late, private players like input companies, credit and insurance firms, Corporate Social Responsibility units, NGOs, farmers’ associations (FBOs/FPOs) and commodity boards (Rubber, Coffee, etc.) have made a significant impact in this area. Despite such a vast network of public and private extension agencies, there is a wide gap in service delivery and extension education interventions. All these extension agencies have their strength and weaknesses but also hold promising dynamism for future challenges. As agricultural extension will be a very important determinant of future agricultural growth, the assessment of SWOT analysis of different extension agencies engaged in delivering extension services in India is imperative.

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Agriculture was, by default, organic throughout the world before the technique of manufacturing synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer was discovered in 1903. However, availability of agro-chemicals became very common after the Second World War and the agriculture started becoming more and more chemical based. Synthetic fertilizers were introduced in India during 1965-66 and their use grew rapidly along with the high yielding varieties during the green revolution period and Indian farming, by and large, became chemical based. However, by the end of the twentieth century the ill-effects of such chemical-based farming were very well understood by the common Indian people and demand for organically produced food started growing. Different methods and procedures of growing organic food got popularity among the growers, however, a sense of confusion on package of practices on organic/natural farming kept on growing simultaneously. This review article was designed to make various concepts related to organic/natural farming crystal clear for the readers. Principals of organic farming, crop cultivation strategies in organic/natural farming, challenges in organic/ natural farming and possibilities and suggestions in organic/natural farming have been elaborately articulated in this review.

Background: India is the largest producer as well as consumer of pulses in the world due to higher relance of their people on vegetarian sources of proteins, however, we have been dependent on import of pulses for meeting our demand for pulses over several decades. As a strategy to be self-reliant in pulses production two important initiatives were taken by the government of India viz. implementation of Accelerated Pulses Production Program (A3P) and inclusion of pulses in the National Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses) during 2010-11. Pigeon pea has tremendous medicinal and pharmacological properties and uses in addition to the good quality source of proteins. Significant improvement observed in production and productivity of pigeon pea after the A3P and NFSM-Pulses was questioned for its Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth. Methods: This study was designed to assess impact of A3P and NFSM-Pulses on TFP of Pigeon pea in major Indian producing states. TFP was estimated with the help of Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) using Data Envelopment Analysis Program (DEAP) version-2.1 in five states of India viz., Gujarat, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra and UP which contribute more than three-fourth pigeon pea production in India. Result: TFP change in period-II (after A3P and NFSM-Pulses) was invariably higher than the TFP change in period-I (before the initiatives) in all the studied states. It indicates that these government initiatives contributed to the enhancement of production and productivity of pigeon pea with the support of better technology adoption rather than just led by higher use of inputs.