ECONOMICS OF DAIRY FARMING SYSTEMS IN KERALA
Loading...
Date
2016-06-20
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kerala Veterinary and animal science university, Pookode
Abstract
The present study was conducted to study the management practices, trends and issues of various dairy production systems in Kerala, to study the variation in cost and profitability of milk production under different dairy production systems, to assess the influence of various assistance schemes in the economy of milk production and to evaluate the present milk pricing policy of Kerala and suggest modifications. The study was carried out selecting 350 farm households belonging to three groups based on number of milch animals. The study covered five agro climatic regions, five districts and 10 blocks to represent the state. The stratified random sampling method was used for selection of study area and samples.
In small, medium and large farms, the herd size was 3.13 0.08, 9.52 0.3 and 36.38 3.65 respectively. The investigation on investment on capital assets showed that, the major share of capital expenditure was on milch animals followed by buildings. The labour use pattern in the small (99.4 per cent) and medium (70.9 per cent) farms were dependent solely on family labour. While in large farms, there was more (52.0 per cent) dependence on paid labour. The adoption index of recommended management practices was highest (90.04 per cent) in large farms followed by medium (89.40 per cent) and small farms (84.36 per cent). The wet average (l/day) was 8.98, 8.00 and 10.00 in small, medium and large farms respectively. The dry average (l/day) was 8.13, 6.65 and 7.86 in small, medium and large farms. The average daily price/litre realized from society was Rs.29.43, 29.79 and 29.64 in small, medium and large farms respectively. The major share of milk produced in small, medium and large farms were sold to society. A significant association was observed between adoption class and assistance class. In all farm types, majority of the farms showed medium level dairy farm performance. High price of concentrate feed was the major constraint in feeding. In all types of farms, infertility was the major breeding constraint. On milch animal basis, the average cost/litre of milk (cost B) was 32.51, 34.29, 29.08 and 32.29 in small, medium, large and overall farms respectively The average cost per litre of milk after deduction of imputed family labour cost (cost A) was 22.02,26.33, 27.08 and 24.34 (Rs/litre) in small, medium, large and overall farms respectively. On milch animal basis, the net return per day per milch animal was Rs.23.34, 10.39, 27.74 and 20.58 respectively in small, medium, large and overall farms respectively. The net return after deduction of imputed family labour cost was Rs.92.59, 52.42, 43.12 and 70.51 in small, medium, large and overall farms respectively. The estimated milk production function for different farms revealed that overall farms showed positive and highly significant effect of concentrate and adoption index and significant effect of total roughage (P < 0.05) with R2 value as 67.0 per cent. The marginal Value Products (MVP) of inputs in milk production for different farms showed that, in small farms the MVPs of two inputs viz. roughages and labour were significantly less than unity, signifying over utilization of these inputs. The MVP value of concentrate was significantly higher than unity indicating their under utilization in milk production process. The mean technical efficiency in small, medium and large farms was 99.80, 83.22 and 99.96 per cent respectively. A critical analysis of present milk pricing policy was done suggesting modifications and derived a new formula for pricing of milk considering significant factors.
Description
Keywords
null
Citation
KVASU reference style