The provision of effective extension services to smallholder farmers across both developing and developed countries remains a challenge worldwide. The objective of the study is to demonstrate the impacts of improved extension services on awareness, knowledge, adoption rates and perceived benefits of smallholder dairy farmers in Pakistan. An extension program was developed and implemented in five districts of Punjab (Okara, Pakpattan, Jhelum, Kasur and Bhakkar) and two districts of Sindh (Thatta and Badin) provinces. The extension program involved the provision of research-based information on a monthly basis to smallholder farming families (FF = 523) over a 4-year period. The extension program was primarily a knowledge transfer-based system, but also relied on farmer engagement and feedback to help drive research and topics for discussion. No financial incentives were provided to the farmers for their participation. A ‘whole-family approach’ was used in the extension program, where comprehensive interdisciplinary training on the whole dairy-farming system was provided to the males, females and children of the farming household. To encourage greater participation and support different learning strategies, several information transfer media were used (including group discussions, one-on-one visits, practical demonstrations, problem-based learning techniques and videos). To assess the impact of this extension program on farms involved, data on farmer awareness, knowledge, adoption and their perceived benefits were collected using a mixed-method approach from three different groups of farmers; registered (IMPreg = 179) farmers directly involved in the extension program, non-registered (IMPnon-reg = 116) farmers indirectly benefiting from the program and traditional (IMPtrad = 104) farmers not associated with any project activities. Overall awareness, knowledge and adoption rates relating to seven different recommendations in the extension program were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the registered farmers than in the non-registered and traditional farmers. The perceived benefits of the adopted recommendations varied between the different extension messages, but farmers described that they observed increases in milk production, improvements in animal health (body condition and morbidity) and labour efficiency (time savings). These results suggest that adopting improved extension services using a whole-family approach we can significantly achieve higher adoption rates, leading to on-farm benefits to smallholder dairy farmers and their families.

The condition known as Bell's palsy results in the weakness of fascial muscles causing it to sag and stiffen on that side. It results from damage to the 7 cranial nerve. objective: To identify the comparative effects between the PNF and neuromuscular re-education. Methods: It was randomized clinical trial with non-probability purposive sampling. Data were collected from Aziz Fatima, DHQ, Allied and MTH hospital of Faisalabad. The study consisted of 30 patients (males and females), 15 participants were randomly divided in each group by lottery method. Group A treated by proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation with conventional physical therapy that include EMS and home plan exercises. Group B treated by neuromuscular re-education facilitation techniques with conventional physical therapy treatment. Total treatment was of 4 days per week for 4 weeks. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Results: The findings indicated that Group A had a considerably greater value on the Facial Disability Index (FDI). Group A differed significantly from Group B in each single element (physical and social functioning), while Group B showed very moderate recovery on FDI. Conclusions: After completing four weeks of treatment, PNF demonstrated considerable reduction in facial dysfunction in conjunction with conventional PT treatment. In the case of facial paralysis, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation combined with conventional treatment is more efficient than neuromuscular re-education combined with conventional PT.

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Drip irrigation is regarded as one of the highly efficient methods that allow limited water resources to be properly utilized. The study has been conducted to perform the economic analysis of low and high head drip irrigation systems throughout the country based on data from 100 adopters of drip irrigation through a research & development project funded by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA-Pakistan)/United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A field survey for the study was conducted in the year 2018 in all the provinces of Pakistan. The study revealed that technology is generally adopted by the farmers having diversified income sources and medium-sized land holdings i.e. ranging from 12.5 to 25 acres. System installation cost-shared 11 percent in low-head drip system of the annual production cost of fruits. While, it shared 29, 32, and 27 percent in case of a high-head system for grapes orchards, vegetables in tunnels, and open fields, respectively. Low-head drip irrigation is profitable for dates/ lemon orchards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.27:1.00. It results in considerable profitability for grapes orchards with BCR of 1.73:1.00 and 1.32:100 in Punjab and Balochistan provinces, respectively. The low-head system is also beneficial for mixed fruit orchards in rain-fed Punjab with a BCR of 1.24:1.00. Similarly, for high-head systems, the benefit-cost ratio was the highest for grapes produced in rain-fed Punjab (2.62:1.00), followed by squash-gourd in irrigated Sindh (2.17:1.00) bitter-gourd in rain-fed Punjab (1.50:1.00) and okra in Sindh (1.22:1.00). However, low and high-head systems could not result in considerable returns for farmers in the case of mixed fruits in Balochistan and cucumber production in tunnels in Punjab province during the study year.

Rainfall variability often results in low crop and fruit productivity in rain-fed hilly areas. Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting (RTWH) Technology can play a promising role in achieving agricultural production potential in these areas. Its adoption makes the supply of water sustainable for vegetables, fruit, and crop farming as well as domestic use. According to key informants, RTWH is being adopted in the study area on technical lines since the early 1990s. However, the availability of literature about economic aspects of the technology in the context of Pakistan is quite limited. This study is an effort to document the economic aspects of the technology including cost structure, potential benefits, net returns, and returns on investment. Thus, the study is based on a purposively selected sample of thirty farmers from Kotli Sattian and Murree tehsils of Rawalpindi district having operational RTWH systems installed at farms. The data have been analyzed for descriptive statistics and financial evaluation. Moreover, technical discussions with key informants and a detailed review of literature have also been made to substantiate the findings of the study. In the study area, farming families have diversified income sources with a considerably low share of agriculture in family income (19.5%). The mean command area of the RTWH systems at sample farms was 0.33 acres, which is allocated to different vegetables, and mainly to guava & citrus orchards. Benefit-cost ratios of vegetables and fruit farming through RTWH is 1.16, with returns on investment of 15 %, and a rate of return to labour of 0.95 in the first year of installation. Thus, technology is economically viable in the study area. Moreover, the financial gains of RTWH can be improved by enhancing storage capacity and increasing the command area.