PREFERENCE ON DAIRY HUSBANDRY SERVICES AMONG VARIOUS SERVICE PROVIDERS IN SALEM DISTRICT

Abstract

Milk marketing agencies (Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Marketing (TNCMM) co-operatives and private agency) and Department of Animal Husbandry (DAH) of the Government of Tamil Nadu were providing different services viz., breeding, therapeutic, preventive, input and extension services related to dairy farming. Availability and accessibility of the above services to the dairy farmers need to be judged from the perspective of the dairy farmers, so as to streamline the services in a more efficient manner. This study was conducted following exploratory research design to understand the perceptions of the milk producers on the availability and accessibility of these services in Salem district. Multistage random sampling was adopted for selection of 150 respondents (75 milk pourers of TNCMM co-operatives and 75 milk pourers of private agencies) from the blocks of Salem district. Randomly selected respondents were interviewed personally for collection of primary data. Majority of the respondents (80 %) of both the groups perceived that AI services were accessible to them both at institution as well as at doorstep. The study also reveals that none of the agencies were able to deliver the dairy husbandry services to the farmers in a comprehensive manner. The dairy farmers preferred to have services delivered at their doorsteps for the obvious reason of the difficulty of taking the animal to the established centres.