ADOPTION LEVEL OF IMPROVED DAIRY FARMING PRACTICES BY RESOURCE POOR DAIRY FARM HOUSEHOLDS

The level of adoption of improved dairy farming practices would reveal the interest and enthusiasm of any individual farmer. A study was carried out in Haryana to determine the degree to which the chosen resource poor dairy farmers have adopted improved dairy farming practices. The purpose of the study was to ascertain how resource-poor dairy farmers were implementing new techniques. It was established what degree of acceptance the four main facets of dairy farming—breeding, feeding, healthcare, and management practices—had by resource-poor dairy producers. In the years 2021–2022, the research was carried out in the districts of Karnal, Jind, and Jhajhar in the state of Haryana, which correspond to three distinct agroclimatic zones. This was followed by selection of cluster of villages in each district with the predominance of resource poor dairy households and then 40 respondents randomly from each cluster. Thus, study constituted a sample size of 120 respondents. Data were collected using structured interview schedule which was later analysed by using frequency, percentage and regression. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of adoption of breeding practices (54.17%), feeding practices (60.00%) and healthcare practices (57.50%). Majority of respondents (65.00%) possessed medium level of adoption of management practices too. Most of respondents (47.50%) belonged to medium level of overall adoption of improved dairy farming practices. About 54.6 per cent variance on dependent variable is due to the independent variables taken for the study. This implies the need for undertaking intensive education of resource poor farmers along with facilitation of critical inputs for profitable dairy farming.