Satbir Singh

Impact of Vocational Trainings on Adoption of Dairy Enterprise in South-Western Districts of Punjab

The economic contribution of livestock is quite substantial in the agricultural economy as well as in the national economy. The basic objective of all the vocational trainings is to create self employment in the dairy farming with recommended technologies of feeding, breeding, housing, disease control, management and marketing. To study the impact of vocational courses organized, three south–western districts namely Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur of Punjab were selected. A total of 866 dairy farmers who acquired vocational trainings on dairy farming from KVK, Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur during the year 2011, 2012 and 2013 were selected for the collection of data. The information filled in a questionnaire from the trained farmers by visiting and discussing with them personally was analyzed for adoption status in dairy enterprise. The farmers were categorized in seven categories i.e. domestic (1–2 animals), marginal (3–5 animals), small (5–10 animals), medium (10–20 animals), large (20–100 animals), commercial (above 100 animals) and others who did not adopt the enterprise. The results revealed that 24.7 per cent farmers adopted this vocation as domestic, 16.8 per cent as marginal, 11.5 per cent as small, 7.0 per cent as medium, 04.1per cent as large, and 1.9 per cent on commercial scale while 16.9 per cent did not adopt dairy farming. It was also concluded that trainings on dairy farming play a significant role in bringing improvement in the socio-economic status of the farmers.

Awareness programme through on-farm testing on use of mineral mixture in dairy animals

A study was undertaken to assess the gain in awareness of farmers by on-farm testing on mineral mixture feeding to dairy animals for three years in tehsil Sangaria of Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. Thirty animals were given three treatments i.e. farmers practices, recommended practices and refinement for 90 days. The awareness level of the farmers was measured on two major parameters i.e. milk yield and decrease in anoestrous cases. The results indicated that there was a notable change in the knowledge of animal rearing in all the three aspects of use of mineral mixture after completion of on-farm testing. An increase of 2.53 (1.33-3.64), 5.9 (4.83-8.00) and 6.39 (5.00-9.09) percent in milk production for T1, T2 and T3 groups, respectively was recorded. Twenty females (66.7%) were also detected in oestrous during the trial period. Major source of information for farmers was Subject Matter Specialist of KVK followed by neighbouring farmers and farmers got knowledge about mineral mixture feeding in animals.