Production Performance and Economic Appraisal of Broiler Farms in Anand District of Gujarat

The production performance of different sizes of broiler farms has been studied by collecting data from 60 broiler producers of Anand district during 2005. To examine production performance, the average feed conversion ratio, livability percentage, average body weight and age at marketing have been worked out. Though broiler production is capital-intensive, it has been found profitable. The average cost of production per broiler has been found to be ` 64 and per kilogram live weight of broiler as ` 32. The variable cost and fixed cost constitute 84.5 per cent and 15.5 per cent of total cost, respectively. The major cost components have been found as feed cost (58.6%), chick cost (21.5%) and depreciation on buildings (10.7%). The net profit per broiler as well as per kilogram body weight has been found as ` 7.20 and ` 3.59, respectively for the sample as a whole. The benefit-cost ratio has worked out to be 1.11 for the sample as a whole and it increases with increase in farm-size, indicating that as farm-size increases, the net margin over the rupee invested on broilers also increases. The break-even analysis has revealed that the producers have to maintain minimum of 1531, 2611 and 10437 broilers, respectively on small, medium and large farms to meet the cost incurred in production of broilers.Broiler farms, Feed conversion ratio, Livability percentage, Benefit-cost ratio, Break-even analysis, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q120, Q130,

Exciton Recombination in One-Dimensional Organic Mott Insulators

We present a theory for the recombination of (charged) holons and doublons in one-dimensional organic Mott insulators, which is responsible for the decay of a photoexcited metallic state. Due to the charge-spin separation, the dominant mechanism for recombination at low density of charges involves a multi-phonon emission. We show that a reasonable coupling to phonons is sufficient to explain the fast recombination observed by pump-probe experiments in ET-F$_2$TCNQ, whereby we can also account for the measured pressure dependence of the recombination rate.Comment: 5 + 3 pages, 2 figure

Holon-Doublon Binding as the Mechanism for the Mott transition

We study the binding of a holon to a doublon in a half-filled Hubbard model as the mechanism of the zero-temperature metal-insulator transition. In a spin polarized system and a non-bipartite lattice a single holon-doublon (HD) pair exhibits a binding transition (e.g., on a face-centred cubic lattice), or a sharp crossover (e.g., on a triangular lattice) corresponding well to the standard Mott transition in unpolarized systems. We extend the HD-pair study towards non-polarized systems by considering more general spin background and by treating the finite HD density within a BCS-type approximation. Both approaches lead to a discontinuous transition away from the fully polarized system and give density correlations consistent with numerical results on a triangular lattice.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Technical Efficiency of Rice Farms under Irrigated Conditions in Central Gujarat

The present investigation undertaken in the central Gujarat, has estimated the technical efficiency in rice production and has assessed the effect of farm-specific socio-economic factors on this technical efficiency. A stochastic frontier production function has been estimated to determine technical efficiency of individual farms and variance as well as regression analyses have been carried out to find the influence of socioeconomic factors. The study has revealed that the farm-specific technical efficiencies range from 71.39 per cent to 99.82 per cent, with the mean of 72.78 per cent, which indicates that on average, the realized output can be raised by 27 per cent in the region with the available technology and resources, without any additional resources. It has been found that factors like operational area, experience, education and distance of field from canal structure are the most influential determinants of technical efficiency, while the variable, number of working family members, has shown significant but negative relationship with technical efficiency. By adopting good management practices and proper allocation of the existing resources and technology, along with sound extension programmes, the potential that exists for improving the productivity of rice in the state, could be exploited.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Numerical Investigations on the Effects of Transient Heat Input and Loading Conditions on the Performance of a Single-phase Closed-loop Thermo-syphon

One of the most important sources of renewable energy is solar energy, which is readily available throughout the world. There is a requirement to make the solar energy affordable for everyday use in order to minimise the present reliance on fossil fuels. This would also assist in meeting the requirements of limiting greenhouse-gas effects, and hence conserve the environment from pollution, global warming, ozone layer depletion, etc. Thermo-syphons are systems that capture solar energy using a working fluid. In the present study, Computational Fluid Dynamics based solver has been employed to carry out an extensive investigation on the performance analysis of a thermo-syphon operating under transient conditions. There has been limited research conducted on the transient performance of thermo-syphons. This study focuses on the effects of various heat flux inputs and thermal loading conditions on the performance of a closed-loop solar hot water thermo-syphon system. The study reveals that the effect of heat flux input on heat transfer coefficient is dominant as compared to thermal loading. The results provided here can be used to optimally design thermo-syphon systems. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that Computational Fluid Dynamics can be used as an effective tool to analyse the performance of a thermo-syphon with reasonable accuracy