The present study has aimed at analyzing the technical and scale efficiencies of credit utilization by the farmer-borrowers in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. DEA approach was followed to analyze the credit utilization efficiency and to analyze the factors influencing the credit utilization efficiency, log-linear regression analysis was attempted. DEA analysis revealed that, the number of farmers operating at CRS are more in number in marginal farms (40%) followed by other (35%) and small (17.5%) farms. Regarding the number of farmers operating at VRS, small farmers dominate the scenario with 72.5 per cent followed by other (67.5%) and marginal (42.5%) farmers. With reference to scale efficiency, marginal farmers are in majority (52.5%) followed by other (47.5%) and small (25%) farmers. At the pooled level, 26.7 per cent of the farmers are being operated at CRS, 63 per cent at VRS and 32.5 per cent of the farmers are either performed at the optimum scale or were close to the optimum scale (farms having scale efficiency values equal to or more than 0.90). Nearly 58, 15 and 28 percents of the farmers in the marginal farms category were found operating in the region of increasing, decreasing and constant returns respectively. Compared to marginal farmers category, there are less number of farmers operating at CRS both in small farmers category (15%) and other farmers category (22.5%). At the pooled level, only 5 per cent of the farmers are operating at DRS, majority of the farmers (73%) are operating at IRS and only 22 per cent of the farmers are operating at CRS indicating efficient utilization of credit. The log-linear regression model fitted to analyze the major determinants of credit utilization (technical) efficiency of farmer- borrowers revealed that, the three variables viz., cost of cultivation and family expenditure (both negatively influencing at 1% significant level) and family income (positively influencing at 1% significant level) are the major determinants of credit utilization efficiency across all the selected farmers categories and at pooled level. The analysis further indicate that, escalation in the cost of cultivation of crop enterprises in the region, rise in family expenditure and prior indebtedness of the farmers are showing adverse influence on the credit utilization efficiency of the farmer-borrowers.

In several industries, including the agriculture industry, information and communication technology (ICT) expenditure has been gradually increasing. This study explores the ICT investment of Korean agricultural corporations, and examines the effect of ICT investment on their profitability using an IT portfolio framework. As the organizational capabilities and environment in which ICT is used is critical in examining its impact, the IT-savvy level is used as a moderator. An increase in ICT investment size results in a significantly positive effect on profitability in organizations with higher IT-savvy levels, whereas there is no effect in organizations with lower IT-savvy levels. This study shows the necessity of understanding the structure of ICT investments in the agriculture industry, and suggests the importance of organizational capabilities and environment in making best use of ICT.

The interest in convenience food has increased over the years. Many researchers have tried to discover what factors affect the consumption of convenience food. Despite the diversity of studies, few studies emphasize a household’s income. The aim of this article is to identify the different consumption patterns between upper, middle, and lower income brackets. Generally, households with higher income consumed more convenience food or the relationship was not significant. However, many convenience foods are regarded as nutritionally unbalanced and have a lower quality. So, the hypothesis cannot be easily confirmed because there are tradeoffs not only between health, as nutrition balance and cost, but also health and convenience. Thus, there is a need to indicate the divergent attributes of buying convenience food in a distinct income group. In addition, the convenience food is subdivided into two distinct categories: convenience food as a substitution for a whole meal (unhealthy) and substitution as part of a diet (healthy). We found that higher income groups purchase healthier convenience food while lower income groups purchase unhealthier convenience food. Also there are distinct attributes that influence the consumption of healthy and unhealthy convenience food.

This research is about visualizing data for efficient use in agriculture, by measuring the understanding of graphs according to their features. A questionnaire consisting of one graph, either a bar graph or line graph, and a question about data, was made. According to the results, the time spent answering the question did not differ between the line graph and the bar graph. However, the rate of correct answers differed: that of the bar graph was 50% and the line graph was 0%. This implies that participants answered using the bar graph more accurately regarding whether the data involved understanding the absolute value. From this result, it is clear that using proper features of graphs according to the characteristics of data improves the understanding of information. In addition, a strategy to utilize information and communication technology in agriculture effectively was discussed.