Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.
Sci (2020) 9(4): 1320-1326
International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences
ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 4 (2020)
Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com
Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.904.156
Socio- Economic Profile and Constraints of Dairy Farmers in
Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu, India
R. Gopi1*, A. Manivannan2, M. G. Sindhu3 and C. Soundararajan1
1
Farmers Training Centre, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University,
Enathur, Kancheepuram, India
2
Veterinary College and Research Institute, Orathanadu, India
3
Veterinary College, Hassan, India
*Corresponding author
ABSTRACT
Dairy sector plays an important role in the Indian economy and in the socio
economic development of the country. The present study was conducted to
explore the socio-economic profile and constraints faced by the dairy
Keywords farmers of Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. The data were collected from
Socio- economic 60 dairy farming respondents through structured interview schedule
profile, Dairy developed for the study. The ex-post facto design research design was
farmers,
Constraints,
employed for the study. The study indicated that 46.67 per cent of the
Cuddalore farmers belonged to old age group of above 45 years and were illiterate
Article Info (36.70 %). Majority (51.70 %) of them had dairying and agriculture as their
primary occupation and had more than 10 years of farming experience.
Accepted:
12 March 2020
Majority of the farmers had medium categories of cosmopoliteness and
Available Online: livestock possession (85.00 % and 68.33 %) respectively. The major
10 April 2020 constraints faced by the respondents were lack of awareness about latest
technologies, scarcity of grazing land and water in dairy farming and lack
of veterinary extension services at field level.
Introduction employment, beneficiary income and a
nutritious health to the society in rural as well
Dairy farming is the most suitable production as urban areas. Livestock sector forms an
system that has enormous potential to important livelihood activity for most of the
improve the socio-economic status of the farmers, supporting agriculture in the form of
large percentage of the rural population in the critical inputs, contributing to the health and
country. The livestock farming provides self- nutrition of the household, supplementing
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incomes, offering employment opportunities occurred and the data were collected through
and finally being a dependable “bank on structured interview schedule which was
hooves” in times of need (Annual Report, developed and administrated for the study. A
2017-18). India is endowed with largest total of thirteen variables were selected for
livestock population in the world. There were this study viz., age, sex, level of education,
about 299.9 million bovines, 65.06 million family type, family size, occupation, land
sheep, 135.17 million goats, 10.29 million holding, dairy farming experience, livestock
pigs and other livestock and poultry which possession, social participation, extension
totally constitute about 512.05 million participation, cosmopoliteness and
numbers as per 19th livestock census in India. innovativeness. The data were analyzed with
the help of frequency, percentage, mean and
Subsequently total livestock population has standard deviation.
decreased by about 3.33 per cent as per GOI,
2014 report. Similarly, 19th livestock census Garrett’s ranking technique was followed to
showed that there was decrease in cattle analyze the constraints perceived by the dairy
population over 2007 to 2012 from 11.18 farmers in dairy farming. The farmers were
million to 8.81 million numbers in Tamil asked to rank the factors that were limiting
Nadu also. There was a 21.22 per cent the dairy farming. These orders of merit were
decrease in number of cattle during the inter transformed into units of scores by using the
census period 2007- 2012in Tamil Nadu following formula.
(GOI, 2014). In this regard, studying the
socio-economic profile and constraints of Per cent position (%) = 100 ( Rij -0.50)/ Nj
farmers would provide insights to assess the Where, Rij- Rank given for the ith factor by the
actual ground status of farmers that reflects jth individual.
their livelihood. Keeping these things in
mind, the study was conducted to explore the The percent position is converted into scores
socio-economic profile and constraints faced by referring to the table given by Garrett and
by dairy farmers of Cuddalore district of Woodworth (1969). Then for each factor the
Tamil Nadu. scores of the individual respondents were
added together and divided by the total
Materials and Methods number of respondents for whom scores were
added. These mean scores for all the factors
The study was conducted in Mangalore block were arranged in descending order and the
of Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Out of most influencing factor were identified
13 blocks of Cuddalore district, Mangalore through the ranks assigned.
block was purposively selected for the study
due to easy access to the researcher, Results and Discussion
familiarity to culture, local language and
access to the infrastructure in the study area. Socio- economic profile of dairy farmers
Again from the Mangalore block, five villages
were selected randomly. Finally, 12dairy Age
farmers from each village were selected
randomly, thus constitute a sample size of 60 It is noticed from the Table 1 that nearly half
dairy farmers for the study. Expost facto (46.67 %) of the respondents belonged to old
design research design was employed for the age group followed by middle (33.33 %) and
study since the variables chosen have already young (20.00 %) age groups. Kalaivani et al.,
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(2017) also reported that old age group belonged to more than 5 in family members.
farmers were more interested in rearing
livestock and other farming activities. Occupation
Sex More than one half (51.67 %) of the
respondents had dairying along with
More than one half (51.70 %) of the agriculture followed by dairying and
respondents were female and rest of them agriculture with other family activities (26.66
were males (48.30%). Regarding the sex of %) and dairying alone (21.67 %) as their
the respondents, it is quite interesting to note occupation. This finding derives support from
that most of the activities in animal husbandry the results of Chandrasekar et al., (2017) that
were carried out by the women but the dairy farming alone could not provide
responses given by female respondents in the significant income; hence the respondents
study area. were involved in other occupations.
Education Land holding
Study revealed that 36.70 per cent of the One-third (33.33 %) of the respondents
respondents were illiterates and their belonged to marginal farmers category
education categories were followed by middle followed by landless (26.70 %) and small
(30.00 %), primary (23.30 %), can read only farmer (20.00 %) category and the rest 13.30
(5.00 %), can read and write (3.30 %) and per cent of them were in large farmer
high school (1.70 %) categories. category.
Family type Dairy farming experience
More than three-fourths (78.30 %) of the About 45.00 per cent of the farmers had high
respondents belonged to nuclear family and level of farming experience followed by
the rest were (21.70 %) belonged to joint medium (35.00 %) and low (20.00%) level of
family. In recent days married young couples farming experience respectively. The reason
would like to live in freedom and reluctant to could be due to the farmers involvement in
take parents responsibility which may be the livestock rearing in their beginning of life
reason for increasing nuclear families in itself and also they experienced improvement
social system (Chandrasekar et al., 2017). The in their livelihood with dairying.
results are in accordance with the findings of
Kalaivani et al., (2017) that middle and young Livestock possession
age people move out for employment in non-
farm sector and they settle their life in the Majority of the respondents (68.33 %)
work place itself which could be the possible belonged to medium category followed by
reasons for more number of nuclear families. low (18.33 %) and high (13.34 %) categories.
Family size Social participation
More than three-fourths (78.30 %) of the Majority of them (75.00 %) were members in
respondents belonged to family size up to 5 the village dairy co-operatives. None of the
members family and the remaining (21.70 %) farmers hold any position other than
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membership in any organisation. It was farmers.
concluded that the farmers felt social
participation play a crucial role in knowledge Constraints encountered by dairy farmers
and awareness of new technologies in dairy in dairying
farming practices. The findings support the
results of Kalaivani et al., (2017) that dairy It is evident from the table 2, the first and
cattle being one of the major livestock reared foremost constraint faced by the dairy farmers
by the respondents, most of them would have was lack of knowledge in latest technologies
become members of dairy co-operatives to with a mean score of 65.62. Most of them had
avail the service of this institution. This might lack of knowledge in the latest dairy feeding
be the reason for more number of respondents and management practices in the study area.
having membership in one organisation. Farmers are not aware of providing mineral
mixture and balanced feeding and timely
Extension participation vaccination to their animals. In this era of
modernization there is a need to create
Exactly one-half (50.00 %) of the respondents awareness among the latest dairy technologies
had low level of extension participation and to the farmers. The second important
followed by medium level of extension constraint was scarcity of grazing land and
participation (41.67 %) and the rest 8.33 per water (63.45) because most of the farmers
cent of the respondents had high level of were marginal and landless farmers in this
extension participation. The reason could be study area. In recent days, increased human
that dairy farmers face lack of motivation population, industrialization and urbanisation
regarding field visit, exhibitions, are the reasons for scarcity of grazing land
demonstrations, study tour and training and water.
programmes.
The next important constraints were lack of
Cosmopoliteness veterinary extension services at field level
(60.05) and lack of knowledge of available
More than three-fourths (85.00 %) of the information sources with a mean score of
respondents belonged to medium level of 54.55. Manivannan (2008) also reported that
cosmopoliteness, whereas, 8.33 per cent and the lack of proper extension support for
6.67 per cent of the respondents had low and livestock oriented activities in field level. The
high level of categories respectively. The policy makers and administrators may take
result indicated that most of the farmers were the necessary steps to fill up the existing
seeking information from outside of their vacant posts of Veterinary Assistant Surgeons
farming community in the study area. post at block or village level and Veterinary
University as well as Animal Husbandry
Innovativeness Department can implement suitable
awareness programmes regarding latest dairy
Nearly three-fourths (73.34 %) of the technologies. Information kiosk at village
respondents adopted innovations after seeing level should be established at dairy co-
the adoption of other farmers followed by operatives for easy accessing the latest dairy
preferred to wait and taken their own time information by the dairy farmers and also the
(23.33 %) and adopt an innovations as soon as advantages of using social media application
it they know (3.33 %). Most of the dairy for knowledge dissemination can be explored
farmers preferred to adopt innovations after by concerned Scientists.
seeing the benefits of adoption of other
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Table.1 Profile of dairy farmers in Cuddalore district (n = 60)
Sl.no Variables Categories Frequency Percentage
1 Age Young (Up to 35) 12 20.0
Middle (36-45) 20 33.33
Old (Above 45) 28 46.67
2 Sex Male 29 48.30
Female 31 51.70
3 Education Illiterate 22 36.70
Can read only 3 5.00
Can read and write 2 3.30
Primary school 14 23.30
Middle school 18 30.00
High school 1 1.70
College and above 0 0
4 Family type Nuclear family 47 78.30
Joint family 13 21.70
5 Family size Up to 5 members 47 78.30
More than 5 members 13 21.70
6 Occupation Dairying alone 13 21.67
Dairying + Agriculture 31 51.67
Dairying + Agriculture+ Others 16 26.66
7 Land holding Landless 16 26.70
Marginal (Up to 2.5 acres) 24 40.00
Small (2.51 to 5.00 acres) 12 20.00
Large (More than 5 acres) 8 13.30
8 Farming Low (Up to 5 years) 12 20.00
experience Medium (6-10 years) 21 35.00
High (More than 10 years) 27 45.00
9 Livestock Low 11 18.33
possession Medium 41 68.33
(2.89 ± 1.57) High 8 13.34
10 Social No membership 0 0
participation Member in one organisation 45 75.00
Membership in more than one 15 25.00
organisation
Office bearer in one organisation 0 0
Office bearer in more than one organisation 0 0
11 Extension Low 30 50.00
participation Medium 25 41.67
(1.20 ± 0.48) High 5 8.33
12 Cosmopoliteness Low 5 8.33
(1.02 ± 0.27) Medium 51 85.00
High 4 6.67
13 Innovativeness Adopt an innovations as soon as it 2 3.33
Adopted innovations after seeing the 44 73.34
adoption of other farmers
Preferred to wait and taken their own time 14 23.33
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Table.2 Constraints encountered by dairy farmers in dairying (n=60)
Sl.No Constraints Garrets Garret’s Rank
Score average score
1 Lack of knowledge in latest farming 3937 65.62 I
technologies
2 Scarcity of grazing land and water 3807 63.45 II
3 Lack of veterinary extension services at field 3603 60.05 III
level
4 Lack of knowledge on available information 3293 54.88 IV
sources
5 High cost of veterinary treatment services 3083 51.38 V
6 Lack of veterinary services at door step 2915 48.58 VI
7 Lack of knowledge on diseases and vaccination 2591 43.18 VII
8 Lack of knowledge about government schemes 2577 42.95 VIII
9 Lack of credit facility 2482 41.37 IX
10 Limited contact with scientists 2356 39.27 X
High cost of veterinary services (51.38), lack technologies and dairying related
of veterinary services at door step (48.58) and informations. Efforts could be made by
lack of knowledge of diseases and vaccination Government functionaries to educate farmers
(43.18) were ranked fifth, sixth and seventh to seek the knowledge about dairying related
constraints respectively. Veterinary services government schemes.
like treatment of the diseases like mastitis,
acidosis, anestrus and repeat breeders have Inadequate formal credit facilities could lead
resulted in heavy economic losses faced by to borrowing money from local money
the dairy farmers in the study area. Treatment lenders at high rates of interest for purchasing
cost is also one of the major constraints farm inputs and create burden to the farmers.
perceived by the farmers. Farmers need Banks and dairy co-operatives could help the
immediate door step veterinary services at the farmers for providing low interest credit
time of emergency situation like uterine facilities for purchase of animals, feeds and
prolapse and dystocia cases. farm equipments.
Lack of knowledge about government The study indicated that lack of knowledge in
schemes (42.95), inadequate credit facility latest technologies, scarcity of grazing land
(41.37)and limited contact with scientists and water, lack of veterinary extension
(39.27) were ranked subsequently in that services at field level and lack of knowledge
order. Eqbal et al., (2013) also reported that of available information as the most important
lack of credit facilities for purchase of feeds, constraints perceived by the dairy farmers in
fodders and mineral mixture as the major the study area. Farmers should be made to
constraint faced by respondents. It could be adopt the scientific farming practices through
enhanced by conducting regular interaction extension approaches which will lead to better
programmes between scientist and farmers, so future outcome for farmers. The price offered
that farmers may directly get the latest dairy for the sale of milk should be increased which
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in turn helps farmer to improve socio- Constraints faced by tribal dairy
economic status and larger productivity. farmers regarding dairy farming
practices in Lohardaga district of
Acknowledgement Jharkhand. International Journal of
Scientific Research, 2(6): 546-548.
The authors are thankful to dairy farmers and Garrett, E.H. and Woodworth.R.S.1969.
Veterinary Assistant Surgeons of Cuddalore Statistics in psychology and education.
district, Tamil Nadu for providing necessary Vakils, Feffer and Simons Private
assistance to carry out the work. Limited., Bombay: 329.
Government of India (GOI). 2014. Basic
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How to cite this article:
Gopi, R, A. Manivannan, M. G. Sindhu and Soundararajan, C. 2020. Socio- Economic Profile
and Constraints of Dairy Farmers in Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu, India.
Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 9(04): 1320-1326. doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.904.156
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