Performance of dairy co-operative societies and milk disposal pattern of member farmers in Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The study examined the performance of dairy cooperative societies under Jammu & Kashmir Milk Producers Cooperative Limited (JKMPCL) and disposal pattern of milk among the member farmers. The JKMPCL is one of the organized player to which the dairy farmers are attached and collecting the milk. The primary data were collected from 160 cooperative society members selected by stratified random sampling method. For measurement of performance, secondary data were collected from secretaries of selected cooperative societies. The findings showedthat overall mean performance of societies was 51.83% in Jammu and 44.00% in Kashmir, indicating that societies in Jammu performed better than that in Kashmir. The reasons for the better performance of Dairy cooperative societies in Jammu were better milk price and high productivity of animals. The study further showed that average herd size of milch animals and average household milk production in Jammu was higher compared to Kashmir region. A considerable proportion of member farmers were disposing milk to other agencies besides dairy cooperatives in both regions of J&K. The price offered for milk by different stakeholders varied significantly and thus influenced the members to adopt other agencies for sale of their marketed surplus besides being co-operative society members.