Perception of multi-stakeholders towards clean milk production practice at field conditions in Indian dairying

Abstract

Government of India (GoI) efforts in making Clean Milk Production (CMP) as a practice of socio-economic importance, still needs to be emphasized by highlighting the field level realities, and study the perception of multi- stakeholders, viz. dairy farmers, scientists and extensionists towards CMP in Indian dairying. Hence, the present study was designed to know the efforts of GoI for promoting CMP, perception and per cent gap among multi- stakeholders with regards to relevance, profitability and sustainability of CMP in dairying. The study included primary data of 360 dairy farmers, 80 research scientists and 40 extensionists in North India and also relevant secondary data. The study revealed that perception of scientists and extension experts was more favourable towards relevance, profitability and sustainability of CMP, while the perception of farmers was less favourable towards CMP. It was also observed that there was a wide gap between farmers-scientists and farmers-extensionists with respect to relevance, profitability and sustainability, whereas the gap was very narrow among scientists and extensionists. It was concluded from the study that researchers and extension experts must create awareness about the practice of CMP and its advantages for the farmers and the consumers. Further, a need based long-term study under field conditions is very essential with the involvement of farmers so that CMP can be adopted and diffused effectively at field conditions to achieve the target of GoI.