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ThesisItem Open Access EFFECTIVENESS OF CLIMATE RESILIENT DAIRY FARMING PRACTICES IN KARNAL DISTRICT OF HARYANA(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) PUSHPENDRA YADAV; B.S. MEENAClimate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and weather patterns. The German watch’s Index (2020) ranks India as the world’s seventh most vulnerable country. Increased temperatures and variations in rainfall patterns make dairy farming sensitive to climate change. Vulnerability to climate change has hardly been documented in the context of India; experimental studies have been conducted on effects of season and climate on production performance and other physiological parameters of dairy animals. The key focus of climate resilience efforts is to address the climate variability. Absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and adapt, and evolve into more desirable formations that improve the sustainability of the climate. For resilient agriculture ICAR has launched a project that called NICRA project. The project consists of four components viz. Strategic Research, Technology Demonstration, Capacity Building and Sponsored/Competitive Grants. Keeping the above scenario in mind, the present investigation was carried out to appraise farmers’ awareness towards climate change and its impact on dairy farming, to assess the effectiveness of technological interventions on performance of dairy animals and to document the adaptation strategies to climate change followed by the farmers. The present study was carried out in purposively selected Karnal district of Haryana, in its 6 villages (3 experimental and 3 control) and a total sample size of 120 was considered (60 from 3 NICRA beneficiary villages and 60 from non-beneficiary villages). The study revealed that Overall awareness on climate change was almost 70 per cent in beneficiary villages whereas, in non-beneficiary villages it was only 31.36 per cent. There was a significant difference in all the productive and reproductive parameters of dairy animals. In beneficiary villages average daily milk yield and lactation yield in indigenous cows increased with the upsurge in awareness on climate change While, in crossbred cow peak yield, average daily milk yield, lactation yield and lactation length were increasing positively Whereas, in buffalo peak yield, average daily milk yield and lactation yield got increased on beneficiaries farmers’ dairy animals. Total 16 and 19 adaptation strategies were documented for crop and dairy farmers, respectively. The interventions will be more effective if dispersed to more villages and when more farmers get the benefit.ThesisItem Open Access APPRAISAL OF DAIRY FARMING PRACTICES IN NORTH BIHAR: FARMERS PERSPECTIVE(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) SUBHASH KUMAR SAURAV; RITU CHAKRAVARTYIndia is the largest milk producer in the world. An essential component of its agricultural economy is the dairy subsector. Since, the milk production has increased remarkably, it now has the largest economic impact on the country than any other agricultural product. Small and marginal farmers, as well as landless labourers, rely heavily on the dairy industry for their livelihood. India's dairy industry makes a significant contribution to job creation, basic food provision, economic growth, stable income for rural residents, and the fight against poverty. Over past six years, milk production in India has increased at an average annual growth rate of 6.3 per cent, while the global milk production is increasing at a rate of 1.5 per cent annually. In the last decade, number of dairy animals in Bihar have increased but the milk productivity is still not up to the mark. The performance of North Bihar is even poorer as its milk productivity is lesser than the average milk productivity of Bihar as a whole. Therefore, it is important to figure out the reasons for the low productivity of dairy animals by analysing the dairy farming practices followed by the dairy farmers. It is also essential to assess the productive and reproductive performance of cattle and buffalo as well as the constraints and benefits of dairy farming perceived by the dairy farmers. For the present study, North Bihar was purposively selected and three districts namely Madhepura, Supaul and Darbhanga were selected on the basis of stratified random sampling. Two blocks from each districts were randomly selected one being nearest and other being farthest from the district headquarter. Two villages from each district were randomly selected and fifteen respondents from each village were randomly selected making the total sample size as 180 respondents. Among the existing dairy practices, the majority of the respondents adopted AI (68.33%), repeat breeding was the major reproductive problem (70.55%) and local veterinary service provider was the major source of consultation for treatment of dairy animals (59.44%). The average daily milk yield was low as compared to overall yield rate of Bihar and dry period was also higher than the recommended values. Distance of veterinary hospital from selected village, lack of credit/finance and inadequate number of veterinary doctors were the major constraints faced by the dairy farmers. This study gives an insight into the productive and reproductive status of cattle and buffalo in North Bihar and animal rearing practices which could be used as a framework for developing training progammes for dairy farmers and will also prove useful for policy makers.ThesisItem Open Access AGRI-STARTUPS IN NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION OF DELHI: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY(ICAR-SRS-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) VIPIN KUMAR; M.C. ARUNMOZHI DEVIAgri Start-ups have the potential to play a key role in stimulating the expansion of the agriculture sector and in turn, augment farmers income by transforming “subsistence farming into commercial farming” or ‘Agri-business’. The Agri start-ups are expanding at a rate of 25.00 percent year on year, at present about 450, among the total 4300 start-ups in the country. Delhi-NCR is one of the emerging start-up ecosystems in our country and according to the report of World bank (2020), it has also improved its ranking from its place of 142nd to 63rd in “ease of doing businesses”. In this context, the present study entitled “Agri-Startups in National Capital Region of Delhi: An Exploratory Study” was designed with the specific objectives of (1) To document the profile of Agri Start-ups, (2) To analyse the factors influencing the performance of the Agri Start-ups and (3) To identify the constraints faced by Agri-Start-ups. The research study was conducted in the National Capital Region of Delhi in the districts of Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad with fifty Agri Start-ups selected from a total of 133 Agri Start-ups, using purposive sampling method. The significant findings of the study revealed that, 38.00 per cent of the Agri Start-ups were present in the ‘early-traction’ stage, followed by, ‘validation stage’ (30.00%), ‘scaling stage’ (24.00%) and ‘ideation stage’ (8.00%). Majority (74.00%) of the Agri- Start-ups were established during the period 2017 to 2020. Only 28.00 per cent of the Agri Start-ups were acquainted with incubator programme and 40.00 per cent of the entrepreneurs of the start-ups under study had received training related to their Start-ups. The majority of start-up entrepreneurs (70.00%) belonged to the middle age group and were postgraduates. The major sources of funding for the Agri Start-up entrepreneurs from the ‘Institutional sources’ were commercial banks (44.26%) and venture capitalists (20.15%); and from ‘non-institutional sources’ were family & friends (54.52%) and bootstrapping/own savings (49.51%). With regard to the performance of Agri start-ups as perceived by the entrepreneurs, the overall distribution of entrepreneurs the identified factors of the influence revealed that most of the respondents belonged to category of medium level of influence, in case of entrepreneurial behaviour factors (70.00%), economic factors (56.00%), demographics factors (56.00%) and environmental factors (60.00%), and business factors (62.00%). With regard to internal factors (66.00%) and socio-cultural factors (68.18%) the levels of influence were low and medium respectively. The major constraints faced by Agri Start-up entrepreneurs were, low price for the products (49.44), high cost of technologies (47.44), lack of government support (48.14), non-cooperation of family members (54.56) and limited market access during covid-19 pandemic (59.48). Therefore, policymakers and other key stakeholders could also pay special attention for building a conducive and sustainable "Agri start-up ecosystem" by creating a strong functional network among different stakeholders such as start-ups, academia, research, industry, and financial institutions for the promotion of Agri start-ups.ThesisItem Open Access ROLE PERFORMANCE AND JOB COMPETENCE OF FIELD LEVEL DAIRY AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PERSONNEL IN SOUTHERN KERALA(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) VISHNUPRIYA, A.; SANCHITA GARAIKerala is one among the highly dairy progressive states in India and has immense potential in the livestock production. Factors like role performance, job competence and job satisfaction of the field level personnel play significant role in augmenting the developmental activities in the concerned departments thereby reaching out to the farmers. Therefore, the present study was undertaken in southern zone of Kerala purposively and three districts namely Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha from this zone were selected randomly. Six blocks from each district were selected in random for the study. Major respondents of the study included Dairy Farm Instructors (DFIs) and Livestock Inspectors (LIs). Data were collected from 147 respondents for ascertaining role performance by different rating techniques and from 63 respondents for the other objectives of the study by interview schedule. DFIs had good role performance ascertained by self-rating (72.22% of DFIs), superior rating (66.68% of DEOs) and beneficiary rating (93.33% of farmers) respectively. LIs exhibited outstanding performance by self-rating (80% of LIs) and superior rating (58.33% of VSs) and possessed good performance by beneficiary rating (100% of farmers) respectively. As per the different ratings, their activity wise role performance was found. In the study, majority (72.22 %) of DFIs and 82.22 per cent of LIs expressed the tasks under various parameters of job as extremely important and highly important respectively and it was revealed that more than half (61.11%) of DFIs and most (93.33%) of LIs had possessed high level of knowledge/skills in performing the tasks. Competencies differed significantly at 5% level of significance under these components. With regard to job satisfaction, majority (94.44%) of DFIs and all the LIs (100%) were highly satisfied in their respective jobs. The study explained the significance of the parameters under job satisfaction of DFIs and LIs at 5% level of significance. Feedback documented from the respondents indicated constraints in their job environment and expressed that they had clear perception about improving their competencies in job as they had clearly demarcated the need for the same. They had also suggested possible measures for improvement of the job competency. Hence, suitable steps should be taken by the concerned departments to fulfil their requirements which would enrich the development of the sectors.ThesisItem Open Access IMPACT OF FARMERS FARM SCHOOL ON DAIRY FARMING IN KARNAL DISTRICT(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) SRUTHI C. O.; B. S. MEENADairy farming forms the major part of livelihood of farmers in Haryana though knowledge gaps regarding scientific dairy farming practices prevailed which led to low productive and reproductive performance in dairy animals. As an initiative to address these issues faced by the farmers, ICAR-NDRI established a one-year programme named as “Farmers Farm School” under the efforts of Dairy Extension Division. Hence, the study was undertaken in the four villages where Farmers Farm School has completed its five batches in Indri block of Karnal district, Haryana to assess the contribution made by farmers farm school in fostering transformative learning experience among the beneficiaries, to study the knowledge and adoption of dairy farming practices and to document the feedback of farmers and experts regarding Farmers Farm School. The total sample size was 120. A Transformative Learning Experience Index was developed. Transformative learning experience together as a combination of ten indicators attained a weighted mean of 85.23 per cent by the beneficiary farmers with major contribution from satisfaction-farmer (89.79%) followed by “self-reflection environment”, “action- farmer” and “actionenvironment” was observed with a weighted mean score of 87.99, 87.92 and 87.22 per cent, respectively. More than half (53.33%) of the farmers succeeded in achieving high transformative learning experience after completion of the course. Active participation and involvement led to the same. Farmers in new batches were found to have comparatively low transformative learning experience. Overall knowledge about scientific dairy farming practices possessed by the beneficiary farmers was significantly (p < 0.01) higher than the non-beneficiaries and thus in the case of adoption also. The extent of knowledge observed from the beneficiaries was 84.02 per cent whereas in contrast to the non-beneficiaries with a weighted mean of 49.25 per cent. The extent of adoption in beneficiaries was found to be 73.61 per cent whereas it was 40.06 per cent in non-beneficiaries. A mean score of 9.08 was given to the role played by the facilitators in sharing knowledge on various strata of dairy farming followed by a score of 9.02 for updating the knowledge in dairy and crop farming. A mean score of 9.60 was given for importance of farmers farm school in the present context and 9.50 for the uniqueness of farmers farm school compared to other extension approaches. It can be inferred that feedback along with follow up measures should be practiced at regular intervals to improve the effectiveness of beneficiaries to achieve the goal set by farmers farm school.ThesisItem Open Access PRIORITISING EXTENSION INTERVENTIONS FOR RESOURCE POOR DAIRY FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN HARYANA(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) SAURABH PANDEY; K. PONNUSAMYDairy farming is practised mainly by resource poor farmers. They gave limited access to knowledge, skill, training and credit. Extension interventions would help these farmers to access knowledge and technologies that can enhance their standard of living. It is important to understand their existing level of knowledge, adoption and needs in dairy farming. Therefore, the present study was conducted in three districts of Haryana state namely Karnal, Jind and Jhajjar representing three different Agro climatic zones in Haryana during 2021-2022. This was followed by selection of cluster of villages in each district with the predominance of resource poor dairy households and 40 respondents randomly from each cluster. Thus, study constituted a sample size of 120 respondents. Data were collected using structured interview schedule which was later analysed by using frequency, percentage, correlation and regression. The findings revealed that most of the respondents were middle aged (44.17%), male (81.67%), had secondary level of education (26.67%), land holding upto 1 acre (35.83%), belonged to medium level of income group and had joint family (58.33%). About (52.50%) of respondents had expressed that they won’t purchase additional land in next 10 years. Majority of the respondents (57.50%) possessed medium level of overall knowledge under improved dairy farming practices. Similarly, 47.50 per cent of the respondents had medium level of overall adoption. Education, land holding and social participation were positively correlated with the overall knowledge level about improved dairy farming practices. About 54.6 per cent variance on dependent variable is due to the undertaken independent variables. Extension interventions were prioritised as per the expert opinion by using Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology which indicated that training has acquired the highest rank with a value of 0.35 followed by demonstration with value 0.34. Among policy interventions, subsidy has acquired the highest rank with a value of 0.37 and then incentive acquired 2nd rank with value 0.25. Among technological interventions, Artificial Insemination has obtained the highest rank with a value of 0.41 followed by mineral mixture with value 0.26. Among input services interventions, milking equipment has acquired the highest rank with a value of 0.45 and then medicine and veterinarian drug acquired 2nd rank with value 0.25. The study suggests the importance of intensive training, demonstration and exposure visit to research institution and progressive farmers for gradually empowering the resources poor farmers.ThesisItem Open Access ANALYSIS OF LIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF DAIRY FARMERS IN ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS OF KARNATAKA(ICAR-SRS-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) ABHISHEK K. M.; S. SUBASHDairying is the main source of livelihood and also provides nutritional support for millions of farmers in rural areas. Livelihood security can be defined as ‘adequate and sustainable access to income and resources to meet basic needs’. India is still a developing country; several Indian areas are still underdeveloped. As a result, in 2018, Government of India under the NITI Aayog launched the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), to identify the most underdeveloped districts of our country based on 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) under five thematic areas. Accordingly, 117 districts from 28 States & Union Territories has been identified as Aspirational Districts. In this context, the present study was carried out in the aspirational districts of Karnataka state viz. Raichur and Yadgir districts, to assess the role of dairying in securing the livelihood of the dairy farmers. The primary data was collected randomly from 200 respondents comprising of equal number of dairy and non-dairy farmers. To analyse the livelihood security of dairy farmers in aspirational districts a composite ‘Livelihood Security Index’ (LSI) was developed consisting of seven indicators viz. Food and nutritional security, economic security, health security, educational security, social security, institutional security and infrastructural security. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was used to statistically compare dairy and non-dairy farmers. The dairy farming in the study area was predominantly a small holder farming system, with an average land holding of 2.01 acre and herd size of 5 cattles comprised of Deoni, Khillari, Holstein Friesian, Jersey, Murrah and Dharwadi buffaloes. Average milk production was found to be 8.39 lit/day/household and consumption was 1.63 lit/day/household. The major dairy management practices adopted by the respondents includes feeding of both roughages and concentrates (79.00%), semi kutcha type of housing (63.00%), use of A.I. services for cattle breeding (59.00%) and regular vaccination of their cattle (60.00%). The salient findings of the study revealed that majority (52.00%) of the dairy farmers belonged to medium level of livelihood security, whereas, most of the non-dairy farmers (43.00%) had low livelihood security. The composite index score of dairy farmers was found to be 0.68 which was higher than the non-dairy farmers (0.59). PSM technique revealed that the livelihood security of dairy farmers is significantly higher than non-dairy farmers by 14.10 per cent. Food and nutritional security was found to be highest among dairy (0.84) and non-dairy farmers (0.73) while economic security was lowest for both dairy (0.51) and non-dairy farmers (0.43). Problems and prospects related to dairying in aspirational districts were analysed using Garret ranking method and it was found that ‘non remunerative prices for milk’ (74.56), ‘absence of dairy cooperative societies in their locality’ (67.13), ‘limited access to veterinary institutions’ (64.55) were the major problems. Prospects of dairying in aspirational districts can be improved by ‘strengthening the infrastructure for access to dairy development services by the farmers’ (58.20), ‘easy access to primary milk cooperatives’ (55.83), ‘regular payment of incentives’ (52.48) and ‘introduction of suitable high yielding cattle breeds’ (48.04). The present study concludes that livelihood security of dairy farmers was found to be better secured than non-dairy farmers in the Aspirational districts of Karnataka state. Hence, strengthening dairy based developmental programmes can be one of the important interventions for securing the livelihood of farmers in Aspirational districts of our country.ThesisItem Open Access ANALYSIS OF LIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF DAIRY FARMERS IN ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS OF ANDHRA PRADESH(ICAR-SRS-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) JAGADEESH NAIK KIMAVATH; M. C. ARUNMOZHI DEVIDairying secures 8.4 million livelihoods annually and also plays a crucial role in providing the year round income, employment generation and nutritional support to the rural households. Livelihood security can be defined as ‘adequate and sustainable access to income and resources to meet basic needs’. The government of India initiative in the identified 117 aspirational districts programme, based on the forty-nine key performance indicators of five thematic areas viz. education, health and nutrition, financial inclusion, agriculture and water resources, basic infrastructure and skills had been initiated through various schemes and programmes. In this context, the present study was carried out in the aspirational districts of Andhra Pradesh state viz. Kadapa Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, to assess the role of dairying in securing the livelihood of the dairy farmers. The primary data was collected through random sampling method from 180 respondents comprising of equal number of dairy and non-dairy farmers. ‘Livelihood Security Index’ (LSI) was developed to analyse the role of dairying in securing the livelihood of dairy farmers in aspirational districts consisting of seven indicators viz. Food and nutritional security, economic security, health security, educational security, social security, institutional security and infrastructural security. Systematic analysis was done through PSM technique to compare the attributes of dairy and non-dairy farmers for meaningful conclusions. The dairy farming in the study area was predominantly a small holder farming system, with an average land holding of 1.78 acre and herd size of 5 number of dairy animals of the breeds: Holstein Friesian, Jersey, Gir, Sahiwal and Murrah buffaloes. The average milk production consumption and sale were found to 9.8 lit/day/household, 1.53 lit/day/household and 8.2 lit/day/household respectively with dairy farming experience of 15 years. The dairy management practices adopted by the respondents included feeding of both roughages and concentrates (60.00%), semi kutcha type of housing (64.00%), use of A.I. services for cattle breeding (42.22%) and regular vaccination of their cattle (61.11%). The salient findings of the study revealed that majority (48.88%) of the dairy farmers belonged to medium level of livelihood security, whereas, most of the non-dairy farmers (44.44%) had low level of livelihood security. The composite index score of dairy farmers was found to be 0.72 which was higher than the non-dairy farmers (0.56). PSM technique revealed that the livelihood security of dairy farmers was significantly higher than non-dairy farmers by 23.61 per cent. Food and nutritional security was found to be highest among dairy farmers (0.86) and non-dairy farmers (0.72) while economic security was the lowest for both dairy (0.51) and non-dairy farmers (0.40). Problems and prospects related to dairying in the aspirational districts were analysed using Garret ranking method and it was found that ‘non availability of dairy cooperative societies in their villages’ (69.28), ‘lack of organised marketing and infrastructural facilities’ (68.20), ‘non-remunerative prices for milk’ (66.45), were the major problems. Dairying in aspirational districts can be improved by ‘establishing more number of milk co-operatives in the village level’ (62.20), ‘creating awareness on benefits provided by formal institutions’ (59.76), and ‘strengthening the infrastructure for access to dairy development services by the farmers’ (57.24). The present study conclude that dairying provides a better livelihood security to the dairy farmers which will also aid in securing a better livelihood for non-dairy farmers if they integrate as subsidiary occupation in the aspirational districts of Andhra Pradesh.ThesisItem Open Access STUDY ON ASPIRATIONS AND OCCUPATIONAL CHOICES OF RURAL RAJBANSHI YOUTH FROM DAIRY FARM FAMILIES(ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL, 2022) BIKRAM BARMAN; ASIF MOHAMMADDairy farming is one of the major sources of income and nutrition for the rural population. India is the largest milk-producing country in the world but West Bengal contributes about only 3.00 percent to the country’s milk pool (20th Livestock Census). Most of the population of the Coochbehar district of West Bengal belonged to the Rajbanshi community and are engaged in dairy farming. A large section of the Rajbanshi community is under deprivation due to a low level of development and compelled to move out from villages in search of job. There is a need to involve the rural Rajbanshi youth in dairy farming to improve their economic condition. With this background, one study entitled “Study on aspirations and occupational choices of rural Rajbanshi youth from dairy farm families” was conducted. The study was carried out purposively in the Coochbehar district of West Bengal. A sample of 200 respondents from the age group of 15-29 who had at least 50.00 percent income from dairy husbandry was selected randomly from four blocks. The study revealed that 48.00 percent of families of respondents had small number of cattle in milk and 54.00 percent of the respondents belonged to low milk production category. For treating a sick animal, the dairy farm families depended on mostly Prani Bondhu (96.50 %). The average selling price of milk gained by the farmers was R.s 37.45 but the market price of milk (Consumer’s buying price) was R.s 40.88. Level of Aspiration Index (LAI) was developed with ten dimensions of aspiration to understand the aspiration of rural Rajbanshi youths. It was found that majority (37.50 %) of the respondents had a medium level of aspiration (56.52 to 61.12). The youths who belonged to the categories of ‘youth in their twenties,’ married, with primary level of education, had a large number of cattle in the herd, from high milk production and milk selling household, had a family occupation as agriculture, dairy farming and business, high family income from dairy farming, had high social participation, high extension contact and high mass media exposure possessed a greater level of aspirations score. Paired comparison technique was used to make the hierarchy of the identified factors pertaining to occupational choices by the Rajbanshi youth. The factor which affected most was education level with scale value of 0.901. The scale values were internally consistent as the Absolute average Discrepancy was quite low i.e., 0.0496. The major constraints perceived by the rural Rajbanshi youth in selection of dairy farming as an occupational choice were the inability to detect heat at the right time, low availability of concentrates, non-availability of emergency treatment at the doorstep, more charges for veterinary services and medicine, lack of financial support from Govt. and limited purchasing power.
