APPRAISAL OF DAIRY FARMING PRACTICES IN NORTH BIHAR: FARMERS PERSPECTIVE
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Date
2022
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Publisher
ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL
Abstract
India 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.