VEERA RAGHAVA REDDY, K(MAJOR)SUDHAKAR RAO, BRAMESH GUPTA, BBHAVE, M.H.V.Ravi kumar, S2018-08-232018-08-232003http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810067119THESESABSTRACT : Since independence, in India, the veterinary services have been funded managed and delivered by the public sector. But, in the recent past the Government’s financial resources for the provision of veterinary services have not kept pace with the increased livestock population and production resulting in deterioration of quality of services by the Government agencies. Hence, privatisation of veterinary services is considered as one strategy to improve the effectiveness and quality of veterinary service delivery. In this context, it is thought appropriate to ascertain the opinion of farmers towards privatisation, to identify the veterinary services that are suitable for privatisation and to study the willingness of livestock farmers to pay for the veterinary services and hence the present study was undertaken. Exploratory research design was adopted to conduct the present study in three mandals comprising six villages of Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. A total of 120 farmers at the rate of 20 farmers from each village were selected based on proportionate random sampling technique and subjected for the investigation. The findings emerged from the study were; majority of the farmers were of middle age with low farming experience, primary level of education, medium herd size, medium material possession, medium income, low information seeking behaviour, medium level of innovativeness, high level of economic motivation, medium level of achievement motivation and high level of risk orientation. Majority of the farmers had favourable opinion towards privatisation of veterinary services followed by neutral and unfavourable opinion. Content analysis of the opinion statements indicated that privatisation requires more infrastructure, privatisation provides quick diagnostic services, privatisation of veterinary services assures continuous supply of drugs and other inputs, privatisation increases mutual accountability of farmers and veterinarians and privatisation reduces the financial burden on Government for providing the veterinary services as the five statements ranked as I, II, III, IV, and V respectively among the listed 20 statements. Majority of the farmers identified services like, artificial insemination and pregnancy diagnosis in breeding services; diagnostic services like laboratory diagnosis and radiography; prophylactic services like deworming and vaccination; curative services like medical treatment, major surgical treatment and gynaecological and obstetrical treatment; miscellaneous services like distribution of fodder seedlings and round the clock services as suitable for privatisation. The willingness of the overall farmers to pay for the listed veterinary services on an average were; Rs.14.97 for artificial insemination, Rs.9.14 for pregnancy diagnosis, Rs.19.13 for laboratory diagnosis, Rs.67.14 for postmortem, Rs.17.30 for radiography, Rs.6.62 for deworming, Rs.7.27 for vaccination, Rs.37.56 for medical treatment, Rs.15.72 for minor surgical treatment, Rs.97.70 for major surgical treatment, Rs.74.44 for gynaecological and obstetrical treatment, Rs.7.09 for livestock advisory services, Rs.3 for distribution of fodder seedlings, Rs25.56 for on farm consultancy services, Rs.6.82 for supply of publications, Rs.28.49 for round the clock services, Rs.30.02 for issue of health certificate and Rs.37.33 for issue of postmortem certificate. Majority of the farmers identified, lack of sufficient supply of drugs at the veterinary hospitals, absence of efficient diagnostic laboratories in rural areas, inadequate budget allotment for the provision of veterinary services, non availability of round the clock services and lack of sufficient infrastructure facilities for treating the surgical cases as the five major constraints among the listed seventeen constraints in the utilisation of public veterinary services. Efforts should be made by the Government agencies to mitigate the constraints expressed by the farmers in utilisation of public veterinary services, nominal service charge can be collected for services like minor surgical treatment, pregnancy diagnosis, deworming, vaccination and round the clock services, nominal service charge with subsidy on the cost of inputs supplied can be collected for services like major surgical treatment, diagnostic services, medical treatment, gynaecological and obstetrical treatment and artificial insemination, reasonable charge can be collected for services like issue of health certificate and issue of postmortem certificate and the services like livestock advisory services and supply of publications must be provided at free of cost by the Government. Training programmes should be organised for the Veterinary Assistant Surgeons so as to keep abreast with the latest technical knowledge and also to improve their skills and efficiency was the strategy developed based on the findings of the study.ennullThesis