Protected cultivation is an innovative way of raising seasonal and off-seasonal crops under a controlled environment. Vegetables and flower crops have tremendous potential to augment productivity, generate employment, utilize land efficiently and enhance export. This study was undertaken to assess the economic feasibility of protected cultivation in the high export potential zones of the Pune and Nasik districts of Maharashtra, India, by employing project analytical tools and the regression model. The results revealed that the cultivation of flowers and vegetables under protected cultivation was highly lucrative with high investment. The protected cultivation of rose and capsicum had higher cultivation cost (300%), gross return (250%) and net return (190%) as compared to open cultivation. Moreover, most of the crops grown in polyhouses are highly profitable at different discount rates (7%, 10% and 12%), whereas a few crops were rewarding under shade net condition with subsidies. Factors such as literacy (p < 0.05), income (p < 0.05), access to subsidy (p < 0.05) and the risk orientation index (p < 0.01) were found statistically significant in technology adoption. In the context of a changing climate and shrinking land resources, water scarcity, incidence of pests and diseases, an ever-increasing population, low productivity under open conditions and changes in consumer’s preference are the drivers for switching over to protected cultivation. In the recent past, protected cultivation has been gaining importance in different parts of the country, including Maharashtra. The policy implications are creating modern infrastructure, enhanced application of ICTs, maximum crop production with minimum utilization of land and institutional support to promote technology on a commercial scale.

The study conducted in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu state has investigated the consumers’ buying behaviour towards organic food products based on the data collected from 240 respondents (120 organic food consumers and 120 non-organic food consumers). The study has used chi-square test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for analysis. Besides looking into the awareness level, the study has found the association between demographic characters and awareness level about organic food products. The study has revealed that factors like gender, family income, education and occupational status differentiate consumers of organic and non-organic food products. Besides, psychological factors such as attitude, perception, belief and intention have shown positive results for the organic food consumers of Tirupur district.