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ThesisItem Open Access ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND ITS EFFECT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: A STUDY ON STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES IN UTTARAKHAND(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2023-02) Saklani, Tanya; Kamesari, V L VOrganizational climate is an ingrained quality of an organization and is a decisive factor in the effective realization of organizational goals. It also serves the purpose of organizational assessment and institutional improvement initiatives. Education sector is no different as there is greater emphasis on quality education and student achievement. A number of factors affect academic achievement, and a growing body of literature indicates that organizational climate affects student achievement. Despite this, there is a dearth of behavioural studies that examine the effect of organizational climate on student achievement in higher education. Past studies on organizational climate have mostly focussed on government departments. Moreover, multi-informant investigations have been very few. Therefore, a study entitled “Organizational Climate and its Effect on Student Achievement: A Study on SAUs in Uttarakhand” was undertaken with the following specific objectives: (i). To assess the organizational climate of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) in Uttarakhand, (ii). To analyze the variation in perception of faculty members and students regarding organizational climate of State Agricultural Universities in Uttarakhand, (iii). To determine the extent to which organizational climate affects student achievement in State Agricultural Universities of Uttarakhand, (iv). To study the extent to which achievement motivation influences student achievement in State Agricultural Universities of Uttarakhand and (v). To find out the effect of socioeconomic status on student achievement in State Agricultural Universities of Uttarakhand. The study was conducted in both the SAUs in Uttarakhand i.e. Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar and Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Bharsar. From each university, two colleges were chosen using simple random sampling. Fifty per cent of the faculty members from each college were selected through simple random sampling. For the selection of students, an appropriate sample size was computed using Yamane’s formula. After eliminating first year students, 300 UG, PG and PhD degree students were selected using probability proportional to size method. Descriptive research design was used for the study and data was collected using pre-tested questionnaire, supplemented by personal interviews. It was found that most of the faculty members in both the SAUs were male, belonged to young age category and had short job experience. In GBPUAT, maximum number of the faculty members were Professors, while in VCSG UUHF, most of the faculty members were Assistant Professors. In case of students, most of them were female, belonged to young age category, had completed their previous education in English medium, belonged to upper-middle class urban households, had medium level of achievement motivation and student achievement level. Maximum number of students from GBPUAT had studied at public institutions, while in VCSG UUHF, more number of students had come from private institutions. The overall organizational climate in GBPUAT was Dependency-Achievement while that for VCSG UUHF was Affiliation-Achievement. This revealed that in GBPUAT, there is respect for people in power with key decisions being controlled by a few who have the last word on all matters. VCSG UUHF gives high value to maintaining friendly relations amongst the members and people are often rewarded on the basis of their closeness to the top persons. With respect to the faculty members, the organizational climate came out to be Achievement-Expert Influence in GBPUAT, while for VCSG UUHF it was Dependency-Expert Influence. As far as students were concerned, the organizational climate for GBPUAT was Dependency-Achievement while in case of VCSG UUHF, it was Affiliation-Control. Extension had lowest score out of all the six motives in both the universities. Correlation analysis between socio-economic status, achievement motivation, organizational climate and student achievement showed a positive and significant relationship for both the universities. All these three variables explained for 45.40 per cent variation in student achievement in GBPUAT. In VCSG UUHF, they accounted for 51.40 per cent of variation in student achievement. Path analysis for GBPUAT and VCSG UUHF revealed that organizational climate had a substantial and positive direct effect on achievement motivation while achievement motivation had a substantial positive and direct effect on student achievement. Therefore it is evident that organizational climate affects student achievement indirectly through achievement motivation, rather than having a direct effect on student achievement. It was concluded that achievement motivation mediates the effect of organizational climate on student achievement. A healthy climate contributes for the development of mental capacity and cognition of the students which, in turn, drives the students’ motivation towards accomplishment of their goals. This drive then urges the students to perform better and actually accomplish what is required of them academically. The study disproved direct effect of organizational climate on student achievement so there is a need for alternate theory building. The results from the study can be used for self evaluation of the institutions. Organizational climate in both the SAUs need improvement as they need to move from dysfunctional motives to functional ones.ThesisItem Open Access MODELING AND SIMULATION OF CUTTING FORCES IN SURFACE GRINDING PROCESS AT MICRO LEVEL USING MATLAB(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2023-02) Singh, Yogendra Kumar; PankajGrinding is a major manufacturing process that accounts for approximately 20– 25% of total machining expenditures in industrialized countries. Everything used todayhas been machined by grinding at some point in its manufacturing process or has been produced by machines that owe their functionality to grinding operations. Grinding forces play a key role in the grinding process by influencing the specific power consumption, heat generation at the interface of abrasive cutting grains and the workpiece, quality of the ground workpiece surface and various other performance parameters. So, a mathematical model to estimate the grinding forces would help to achieve the target. Previously developed models were usually based on the assumption which might contradict with the reality as they didn’t consider the grain-workpiece interaction at the micro level (i.e., rubbing, ploughing and cutting). Also, most previous studies could only be used to predict average values on wheel basis of grinding forces because the most models were built based on average grain cutting depth or average chip thickness, and none of the grinding force details at the micro level. A new model to predict the grinding forces at micro levelof grain-workpiece interaction have been developed in the present study and validated with help of MATLAB and data available in the previous studies. The effects of grinding parameters such as depth of cut, workpiece speed, wheel speed and size of abrasive grains was studied. The predicted grinding forces were almost identical to the grinding forces experimentally estimated by the previous researchers, with an average percentage error of 6.09%. It was found that the Size of the abrasive grains (abrasive grit number) have the largest impact on rubbing, ploughing and cutting contributions. Depths of cut have the second largest effects and the dominant force component could probably be changed from rubbing to cutting by using different cut depths. The effects of wheel speeds can also be seen: fast wheel speeds lead to less rubbing forces and more cutting forces, while the effects of workpiece feed rates seem to be limited. Therefore, high wheel speeds and large workpiece feed rates are recommended to achieve high material removal rates. (ThesisItem Open Access APPLICATION OF DATA-DRIVEN MACHINE LEARNING MODELS FOR RAINFALL PREDICTION: A CASE STUDY OF SUB-HUMID KONKAN REGION OF MAHARASHTRA(2023-03) Jadhav, Nikhi Kanta; Kumar, PankajRainfall is one of the most influential hydrologic variables required for number of applications in water resource management, specifically in the agriculture sector. Rainfall prediction has gained utmost importance in recent times due to its association with natural disasters such as floods, landslides, drought, etc. Rainfall prediction can help decision makers of a variety of fields in making decisions regarding important activities like crop planting, agricultural operations, sewer system operations, and managing natural disasters like floods and droughts. This study presents a comparative analysis of four data-driven machine learning models, namely, Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Random Forest (RF), Categorical Boosting (CatBoost), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) for predicting daily rainfall of Dapoli station, located in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Historical daily meteorological observations starting from 2005 to 2021, for seventeen years, were collected for the analysis from Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Dapoli. The meteorological parameters data include the parameters such as rainfall (R), minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), relative humidity in the morning (RH1), relative humidity in the afternoon (RH2), wind speed (WS), sunshine hours (SS), vapor pressure in the morning (VP1), vapor pressure in the afternoon (VP2), and evaporation (E). The whole dataset was split into two parts, the training dataset and the testing dataset. The data were in the proportion of 80% and 20% for the training and testing phase, respectively for the prediction of rainfall. The qualitative and quantitative performance of the aforementioned models was assessed using four statistical properties, viz. coefficient of determination (R2), Kling Gupta efficiency (KGE), root mean square error (RMSE), and index of agreement (d). After a detailed analysis, it was concluded that the RF model performed consistently well for predicting the daily rainfall at Dapoli station.ThesisItem Open Access STUDIES ON MAJOR INSECT PESTS AND DEFENDER FAUNA IN VARIOUS BITTER GOURD VARIETIES/LINES GROWN IN OPEN AND PROTECTED CONDITIONS(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2024-02-01) Kumar, Nilesh; Srivastava, R. M.The present research work “STUDIES ON MAJOR INSECT PESTS AND DEFENDER FAUNA IN VARIOUS BITTER GOURD VARIETIES/LINES GROWN IN OPEN AND PROTECTED CONDITIONS” is based on population studies of insect pests and defender/natural enemies fauna in bitter gourd crop in open as well as protected conditions and their correlation with various abiotic factors. Various varieties/lines of bitter gourd have been screened against insect pests of bitter gourd and categorized as low, moderate and high tolerance levels. During the investigation, it has been find out that population of insect pests were observed from 12th SMW to 24th SMW. The peak incidence of all insects i.e., fruit fly (20th SMW), aphid (18th SMW), jassid (15th SMW), whitefly (18th SMW), thrips (18th SMW) and semilooper (17th SMW) was witnessed from the fourth week of April to third week of May. Population of insect pests was compared in open and protected condition. It was found that population level of all pests was higher in open condition except whitefly, which was found higher in protected/green house condition. Defenders fauna was also studied. Thirty five genotypes of bitter gourd was screened out against infestation of fruit fly (B. cucurbitae) and categorized as low, moderate and higher tolerance levels. Three cultivars were found highly tolerant against infestation of fruit fly whereas six were resistant, nineteen moderately resistant and eight were susceptible. The current study will be helpful in developing integrated pest management strategies for bitter gourd crop in view of resistance cultivars, population management and conservation of defender fauna.ThesisItem Open Access REFERENCE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION PREDICTION USING VARIOUS HEURISTIC AND STATISTICAL APPROACHES(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2024-02-01) Reang, Hamtoiti; Kumar, PravendraThe accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) has paramount importance and is crucial in irrigation planning and scheduling, watershed hydrology studies, drought forecasting and monitoring, water resource management and planning, etc. In the present study from Guwahati station (Assam), the standard FAO-56 based Penman-Monteith (PM) method was utilized to estimate daily ET0 which was considered an output to assess the models. The different soft computing and statistical techniques such as ANN, wavelet based ANN (WANN), ANFIS and MNLR models were used for the prediction of daily reference evapotranspiration in the study area. Gamma test (GT) was used to determine and select the best input combination of climatic parameters (i.e., mean temperature, mean relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation) having the least gamma and V-ratio values. The qualitative and quantitative performance evaluation criteria were done by visual inspection and using statistical and hydrological indices such as coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of efficiency (CE) and Willmott index (WI) respectively, which were used for assessing the prediction accuracy of the developed models. Based on the comparison of the models, the results revealed that the WANN-11 model performed the best as compared to ANN-8, ANFIS-02 (trap-2) and MNLR models for prediction of reference evapotranspiration of the study area.The sensitivity analysis was also carried out for the best developed model to detect the most sensitive input parameter based on the performance of the model. It was found that mean relative humidity was the most sensitive input parameterfor daily reference evapotranspiration prediction of the study area. (ThesisItem Open Access A STUDY ON COMMUNICATION NETWORK ANALYSIS OF DAIRY FARMERS IN KUMAON DIVISION OF UTTARAKHAND(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2024-02-01) Karki, Pooja; Ansari, M. A.Dairy contributes significantly towards socioeconomic development of rural households in the country as it is closely integrated with farming systems of rural India. In Uttarakhand, availability of abundant grazing land and forests makes it all the more important as it provides gainful employment to family members of rural households. Information about scientific dairy farming practices needs to be communicated to the dairy farmers so that they can enhance the productivity as well as production efficiency. Communication Networks play an important role in disseminating information about appropriate feeding, breeding, and disease management practices through relevant communication networks, as well as in improving animal health and yielding higher milk production. Thus, the knowledge of communication networks and the information flow will be useful in upscaling the knowledge and skills of the dairy farmers. Thus, there is an urgent need to analyze communication network and information flow between network members in dairy sector for effectively addressing the diverse and varied information needs of dairy farmers. If, the right communication networks are identified for information exchange about improved dairy farming practices within the community, it may help in promoting innovations through extension services and other livestock programme, schemes, projects. Keeping this in view a study entitled “A study on Communication Network Analysis of Dairy Farmers in Kumaon Division of Uttrakhand” was undertaken. The present study was conducted in Kumaon division of Uttarakhand. The study followed descriptive research design to meet the objectives of the study. Two districts were selected purposively on the basis of maximum number of organized milk societies and highest number of memberships (dairy farmers). The two blocks from each district were then selected purposively on the basis of maximum number of dairy cooperative societies. Later, two villages were selected from each block through random sampling without replacement. Thirty dairy farmers from each of the eight selected village (sample size 240) were selected for the study through purposive sampling. The data was collected through pre-tested interview schedule and collected data was coded, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted with the help of Excel, SPSS and UCINET software. From the study findings, it can be concluded that majority of the respondents were male, middle aged, married, educated up to high school, belonged to upper caste, belonged to nuclear family with family size (<7 members), respectively. As regards dairy farming experience majority of the respondents had medium level (23- 41years) of dairy farming experience, having land less than 1 hectare with primary occupation agriculture along with dairy farming and secondary occupation as agriculture labour. It was also found that majority of the respondents had less than 4 herd size, less than 15 liter milk production, earned monthly income from dairy farming between Rs.10,000 to Rs.19,000 and earned an annual income between Rs.173,333- Rs. 556,667. It was found that all of the respondents possessed television, displayed medium information seeking and sharing behaviour. Further, it was observed that majority of the respondents had medium level of economic motivation, scientific orientation, risk orientation and management orientation. Study of communication network among the dairy farmers seeking dairy related information showed that total 29 respondents occupied the central position in the communication network as the holder of influence with respect to dissemination of dairy information. These dairy farmers can serve as Key Communicators in the village(s) for the promotion of dairy farming. Further, majority of the respondents displayed medium level of knowledge of improved dairy farming practices. Also, it was found that selected profile characteristics of dairy farmers such as education, experience, herd size, daily milk production, monthly income from dairy farming, total annual income, economic motivation, scientific orientation, management orientation, decision making ability, risk taking ability, information seeking behaviour and information sharing behaviour were found to have had positively and significant relationship with their knowledge of improved dairy farming practices. Age and land holding of the respondents had non-significant relationship with their knowledge of improved dairy farming practices. Major constraints as reported by the dairy farmers were unavailability of vaccines, low price of milk offered, lack of training facilities in dairy sector, inadequate or lack of information about government schemes. The identified opinion leaders as well as the type of communication networks among the dairy farmers will revitalize and reinvigorate the dairy sector in Uttarakhand. The study outcomes are important as it will help dairy professionals, researchers, policy makers in advancing the cause of dairy farming in the state.ThesisItem Open Access COMPARATIVE STUDY OF APSIM-WHEAT AND CERES-WHEAT MODEL FOR PRECISION MANAGEMENT OF WHEAT CROP AND MITIGATION OF THE ADVERSE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE UNDER TARAI REGION OF UTTARAKHAND(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, 2022-09-01) Pareek, Neha; Nain, A. S.Climate change impacts on wheat production has widespread and national ramifications for food and nutritional security. A field study was conducted during rabi2017-18 and 2018-19 at agricultural farm of G.B. Pant University forcomparative study of APSIM-Wheat and CERES-Wheat model for precision management of wheat crop and mitigation of adverse impact of climate change Tarai region of Uttarakhand. APSIM-Wheat and CERES-Wheat, which simulates yieldhas been calibrated for winter wheat using experimental dataof 2017-18 crop season.The calibration was performed against anthesis (DAS), physiological maturity (DAS), grain and biomass yield for the three treatments of sowing dates (viz.,15th November, 25th November and 05th December) , three levels of irrigation (number of irrigation five, four and three) for two wheat varieties (HD-2967 and PBW-502).The calibrated APSIM-Wheat and CERES-Wheat model were then applied to validate anthesis (DAS), physiological maturity (DAS), yield and biomass for rabi season of 2018-19 for the three treatments of sowing dates (viz., 15th November, 25th November and 05th December) , three levels of irrigation (number of irrigation five, four and three) for two wheat varieties (HD-2967 and PBW-502). The simulated output by the CERES-Wheat model found closer to the experimental field data therefore this model was applied for other two objectives. In this study sowing time and irrigation (number of irrigations) were optimised to get economical yield. A sowing window starting from last week of October (25th October) to the first week of December (06th December) was selected for optimization of sowing date. Crop sown in the first week of November produced highest grain yield followed by sowing in second and third week in the rabi season of 2017-18 and 2018-19.The optimum number of irrigations for wheat was also evaluated by CERES-Wheat model through projected irrigation scenarios. Present study revealed that in this region three irrigations are sufficient for optimum yield. This model also applied to predict the wheat biomass and yield in the year 2030, 2050 and 2080 and found that biomass and yield will be decreased in the future years due to increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall. In-situ moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting and recycling, and efficient irrigation water use are all important adaptation strategies to combat the adverse effect of climate change. Breeders will need to develop some short-duration varieties in the coming years by changing the genetic makeup of existing varieties. Early flowering (photo- and thermo-insensitivity), early maturity, and higher productivity should be characteristics of the new varieties. Identification of crops and varieties/ hybrids with high water use efficiency, adapted to temperature extremes and high concentration of CO2 is needed in this climate change scenario.ThesisItem Open Access IN-VITRO STUDIES ON NANOPARTICLE MEDIATED BIODEGRADATION OF ELECTRONIC WASTE BY NATIVE BACTERIA(2023-02-01) Chakraborty, Moumita; Rai, J. P. N.The management of electronic waste (e-waste) becomes a global issue in this digital era. Plastics are neither the main residue nor the most important pollutant in electronic trash, but they take up a lot of room due to their low density and the forms of their parts. They make up about 17 percent of the WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) stream. More than 55% of all the polymers in e-waste are made up of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene Sheet). Existing conventional practices are harmful for dealing with e-waste, therefore, indigenous soil bacteria were explored for e-waste treatment through enrichment culture approach followed by screening, identification and their characterization used for in-vitro biodegradation investigation. Soil bacteria were enriched in the presence of e-waste for 6 months and the findings were established through optical density value that were higher in the case of soil enrichment than the control. Based on their morphological, biochemical and molecular characterizations, the bacterial isolates MGP1, MGP4 and MGP15 were identified as Bacillus aryabhattai, Sporosarcina sp., Rhodococcus kroppenstedtii. The selection and biocompatibility testing of potential isolates were performed for the formation of bacterial consortia. All the isolates displayed their best performance at pH 7, temperature 30°C and shaking speed 120 rpm. Supplementing the nutrient medium with additional carbon and nitrogen sources enhanced the rate of polymer degradation by the bacterial isolates. A known bacterial strain Pseudomonas fluorescens was selected for the degradation of the electronic waste and its comparison with that of screened bacterial isolates. Comparative studies showed that e-waste degradation potential of consortium is better than the individual bacterial strains. Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were used to study its effect on biodegradation ability of the best suited bacterial strain. The biodegradation of e-waste by the selected strains during in vitro experiment was confirmed by analytical processes like FT-IR, FESEM, EDX elemental analysis. Thus, this study besides providing direct and standardized protocol for screening and selection of efficient e-waste utilizing bacteria is also demonstrating potential consortia which are ready to be used. The bacterial isolates were able to degrade e-polymer both in media and soil and therefore can be used profitably for field scale bioremediation technology.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR CUM BATTERY OPERATED BOOM SPRAYER AND OPTIMIZATION OF SOLAR PANEL TILT ANGLE FOR MAXIMUM RADIATION AND DISCHARGE(2023-02-01) Chaniyal, Divanshu; Kumar, ArunSpraying pesticides is one of the most important process in agricultural production. A farmer must engage in spraying as a crucial task to safeguard cultivated crops from insects, pests, fungi, and diseases. The major drawback of a hand-operated spray pump is that it can not be used continuously for around 5 to 6 hours without tiring the user. The fuel-operated spray pumps required fuel, which was expensive, contribute to high CO2 emissions, and challenging to get in remote locations. Reducing the carbon footprint and being friendly to the environment, solar power can easily help with that. To solve challenges a solar cum battery-operated boom sprayer is required. It is suitable for small land holding farmers and has low cost of operation. The development and fabrication of sprayer was done in workshop, comprising of components angle adjustment mechanism, telescopic panel stand, rear axle and tyres for proper stability, frame, and supporting links. The performance of the developed sprayer was evaluated in laboratory to ensure that the objectives are fulfilled. Under laboratory conditions, sprayer was tested in solar power mode of operation. The independent parameters for lab test were nozzle type (flat fan), tilt angle of solar panel (20°, 30°, 40°, 50°), time ((10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) and afternoon (2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.), height of solar panel ( highest, medium, and lowest). The developed sprayer performance was evaluated on the basis of net radiation, current ,voltage, discharge rate and pressure. The developed sprayer should be operated in Sunny day and can be switch to battery mode in non sunny day. Panel should be mounted at 30° in order to receive maximum radiation. The application rate of sprayer ranged from 356 to 432 l/ha which is adequate for spraying on different vegetable crop.
