Assessment of Impediments for Dairy Farming in Punjab

A field level study was conducted in all the six agro-climatic zones of Punjab state of India to know about the various impediments for dairy farming. A total of 180 dairy farmers (30 from each zone) rearing more than five dairy animals were randomly selected. Respondents were personally interviewed with the help of a pre-tested interview schedule. Most of the dairy farmers (70.6%) were facing green fodder scarcity problem for some period of year. All the farmers revealed high cost of concentrate as a serious constraint in dairy farming when compared to the price, they receive for milk. Majority of the farmers (64.4%) were not dependent on labour. Training facilities regarding dairy farming were either not available (40.5%) or available far away from home (41.7%) to most of the farmers. Milk marketing facilities were available at optimal price (53.3%) and government schemes were easily available to only 2.8% farmers. Majority of the respondents (36.7%) were of the opinion that young generation does not take interest in dairy farming activities.