Study of contribution of women in dairy sector in Sultanpur and Amethi districts of Uttar Pradesh

India is the world's largest milk producer and primarily an agricultural society where animal husbandry is the backbone of the national economy.In rural parts of Uttar Pradesh, dairying provides livelihood to millions of marginal farmers and landless labourers making it a major economic activity. The dairy sector provides assured annual income to many families. Gender inequalities are evident in responsibilities shared and division of labour, with rural women contributing to a significant workload in domestic chores as well as in agriculture and livestock farming. Despite women’s substantial contribution to cattle management in the dairy sector, not only does it go unacknowledged, but they are not in the decision-making role. This research was conducted to study the contribution of women and men livestock farmers in the dairy sector after the project interventions were made. The study was conducted in Sultanpur and Amethi districts in Uttar Pradesh, which was the intervention area for the three-year livestock-based project that began in 2022 that aimed to increase the income of the livestock farmers by providing them with livestock breeding services and imparting training on fodder cultivation. The study sample consisted of one hundred livestock farmers, fifty of whom were women and fifty of whom were men. The primary data was collected using the Interview schedule. The findings revealed that women play a vital role in the management of dairy farming. The research highlighted women's significant involvement in various dairy farming activities. The major involvement of women was found in activities like feeding animals, preparing concentrate, feeding common salt to animals, cleaning animal sheds, washing animals, providing water, milking animals, dung management, etc. in dairy farming in rural area. The respondents confirmed that women are well aware of the benefits of green fodder, colostrum feeding and ingredients of concentrate. Activities like the sale of milk and cutting & chaffing of green fodder are mainly performed by men. Women take the help of male members in calling AIT and Vet for inseminating and treating the animals and taking care of animals while grazing; they have relatively limited awareness of deworming, mineral mixture feeding and serious illness of animals.