Domestic work animals exist in all regions of the world. In India, the energy for ploughing two-thirds of the cultivated area comes from animal power and they haul up to 15 per cent of the total freight in the available 14 million animal drawn carts. Thus the stock of 60 million working cattle and buffaloes were used for various agricultural operations, saving fossil fuel worth Rs 60 billion, annually. With nearly 83 million land holding (more than 75% of the land holding) being less than 2 ha in size, the animal power can play a very important role in Indian agriculture. But the cropping season in India generally lasts for only 30 days during kharif and 30 days in during rabi or a total of 60 days in a year. Atleast 200 days of work was necessary to get the breakeven point considering the cost of maintenance and market hire rate for draught animals. The annual use of Draught Animal Power should be expanded through haulage and rotary mode of operation for agro processing and electricity generation and the new research findings should be communicated to the farmers through training.

Relevance of draught cattle power and its future prospects in India : A review

Background: Black gold popularly renounced for Large cardamom which is world&rsquo;s oldest and third expensive spice following, saffron and vanilla. The study was to assess suitability of large cardamom farming as business in eastern Nepal.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Eastern Nepal, subdivided as Koshi corridor (Sankhuwasaba and Tehrathum) and Mechi corridor (Taplejung and Panchthar), were purposively selected as a research site. About 480 Households were selected randomly. An interview schedule was prepared for cost of production and other expenses incurred along with production and price received by farmers. 
 
Result: During the 7-year cycle, the total fixed cost was NRs 115,663. The breakeven point for large cardamom was calculated to be 157.45 kg. The average price per kilogram of large cardamom was NRs 1274.6. The average variable cost per kilogram of large cardamom was NRs 621.01. Financial indicator like net present value (NPV), benefit cost ratio (BCR) and internal rate of return (IRR) were 1,536,006, 2.14 and 71.31. The Return on Investment (ROI) and Payback period (PBP) were 138.45 and 5.6 years. Under worse scenario, The NPV declined to 977,115.1, the BCR fell to 1.60, the IRR fell to 50.02 and the ROI fell to 78.84. The PBP has risen to 6.8 years. This scenario demonstrated that simultaneous negative increases in cost and income had a greater impact on the profitability of large cardamom farming. Finally, the study&rsquo;s findings highlighted the sensitivity of financial indicators in large cardamom farming to changes in production costs, income and delays. This helpful information could be used by stakeholders to make decisions and develop strategies to improve sustainability of large cardamom growing in the research area.

Suitability of Large Cardamom Farming as Business in Eastern Corridor of Nepal

Background: Over the years, cotton cultivation and production has been increasing quantitatively in the country. India, being one of the five largest cotton producing countries in the world, the entire cotton is picked manually. Increase in the wage rate of human labour is the major factor responsible for the drastic rise in cost of cotton cultivation which accounts for 30% of the total cost of cultivation. Considering the issues and challenges with respect to high operation costs, labour scarcity and adaption to various field condition, a research work has been undertaken to develop a self-propelled single row cotton picker. 
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Methods: A self-propelled single row cotton picker was developed and evaluated for its performance. Energy spent in the field and energy use efficiency in both machine picking and traditional practices was measured in terms of man hour&rsquo;s expressed in megajoules per hectare (MJ ha-1). Straight line method was adopted for performing the cost economics. 
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Result: Energy use efficiency was found to be less in case of manual picking i.e., 17.4% compared to 31.7% in machine picking. Similarly, energy productivity in case of manual and machine picking was calculated to be 1.48 kg MJ-1&nbsp;and 2.65 kg MJ-1, respectively. Cost of self-propelled single row cotton picker was calculated to be is Rs. 8,50,000. Cost of operation using developed prototype was found to be 789 Rs h-1&nbsp;and 5,175 Rs ha-1&nbsp;with a saving of 70% compared to manual picking. Also, 90% saving in labour hours spent in harvesting was noted. Payback period of the machine was calculated as 4.8 years. Breakeven analysis was found to be 275 h yr-1. 
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Relevance of draught cattle power and its future prospects in India : A review

Suitability of Large Cardamom Farming as Business in Eastern Corridor of Nepal

Energy use Efficiency and Economic Feasibility of Self-propelled Single Row Cotton Picker over Traditional Cotton Picking Practices