Factors Contributing to the Performance of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) – a Study in Medak District of Telangana State

A study was conducted on the performance of FPOs and the factors contributing to performance of FPOs in Medak district of Telangana State, India. Three FPOs were selected randomly from 3 different promoting institutes viz., Suraksha Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SFPCL) promoted by independent research organization Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Marpalli Kisan Kranthi Producer Company Ltd (MKKPCL) promoted by Vrutti NGO and Siddipet Kisan Agro Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SKAFPCL) promoted by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study with a sample of 90 producer members, covering three FPOs in erstwhile Medak district of Telangana State. From the analysis, it was found that overall performance of FPOs in Medak district was average to poor. The factors viz., education, group leadership, group communication, adherence to rules, group participation, and team spirit had showed positive and significant relationship with performance. The results of regression analysis inferred that all the selected twelve factors put together explained the variation to the extent of 72.47% in the performance of the FPO with leadership of officials and participation of members contributing significantly to the performance of FPOs.

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) – Analysis of Profile of FPOs and Its Members in Medak District of Telangana

This paper focused to study the profile of selected FPOs and its members. With respect to the profile of FPO members, twelve profile characteristics selected were grouped under group composition, governance and management and membership commitment. An Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study. Three FPOs were selected randomly from 3 different promoting institutes working in the Medak district viz., Suraksha Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SFPCL) promoted by independent research organization Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), Marpalli Kisan Kranthi Producer Company Ltd (MKKPCL) promoted by Vrutti NGO and Siddipet Kisan Agro Farmers Producer Company Ltd (SKAFPCL) promoted by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The results of the study revealed that under group composition, majority were small farmers with middle age (55.55%), primary school education (35.55%), with medium farming experience (47.77%) and with medium annual income (60.00%). Majority of respondents perceived that with respect to management and governance characteristics of FPO had poor group leadership (41.11%), fair group communication (58.88%) and medium adherence to rules(41.11%). With respect to membership commitment majority of respondents had low group participation (43.33%), medium group cohesiveness (47.77%) and low team spirit (43.33%).

Induction by Regions lateral to the Streak in the Chick Embryo

The discovery of the organization centre of Amphibia by Spemann (1918) opened a new field in the outlook of experimental embryology; but there were several technical difficulties to be overcome in the application of the concept of the organizer to avian embryology. In this connexion the tissue culture technique has several advantages over the earlier methods of in situ sectioning or chorio-allantoic techniques, and it has helped a great deal in the understanding of the processes of development in the chick. It has already been proved that at least the anterior third of the primitive streak has an organizing function (Waddington, 1932); but regions outside the primitive streak have not been systematically tested so far for the inducing capacity. In the present studies an attempt is made to study the extent of the organization centre in the chick embryo at the definitive primitive streak stage.

The Effects in Chick Blastoderms of replacing the Primitive Node by a Graft of Posterior Primitive Streak

The demonstration by Waddington (1932 and later) that the chick primitive streak has some of the properties of the amphibian ‘organization centre’ makes detailed investigation of its functions in development a matter of particular interest. A useful method of analysis is the exchange of parts within the streak. Abercrombie (1950) found that such exchange is technically possible, and he investigated the effects of reversing the antero-posterior polarity of pieces of the streak. The present investigation is concerned with another kind of transplantation within the streak: the replacement of its anterior end by a piece from its posterior end. The experiments described here were all made on blastoderms with a full-length or almost full-length primitive streak. Their main result was the production of numbers of embryos with anterior axial duplication. Several variants of the kind of operation used in the present work have been tried in order to carry the analysis farther.

Studies on Regional Specificity Within the Organization Centre of Urodeles

1. In young gastrulae of Triton alpestris the median part of the organization centre immediately in front of the blastopore was excised and replaced after reversal of its anterior-posterior axis. Completely normal embryos developed in many cases, but in others there was some degree of microcephaly or spina bifida. 2. Similar normal embryos can develop after exchange of the anterior and posterior regions of the organizer, either with normal or reversed orientation. 3. The spina bifida which frequently appears is a consequence of the impediment offered by the graft to the normal gastrulation movements. 4. Microcephaly may also result if the presence of the graft prevents the proper development of the anterior part of the archenteron roof. 5. It may also be caused when the posterior organizer region is brought into the anterior region, if the host fails to convert it into anterior material. This occurs the more frequently the older the grafted posterior material is. 6. Even at the end of gastrulation (slit yolk-plug stage) the regional character of the archenteron roof is not finally determined. A fairly normal embryo (with over-thick mesoderm) may develop if an extra archenteron roof is added with reversed orientation between the normal archenteron roof and the presumptive neural plate. 7. The determination of the regional structure of the archenteron roof and the neural plate is discussed. Attention is drawn to the spatio-temporal factors involved in the production and diffusion of the evocator with the dynamic system of the gastrulating egg.