AN ASSIGNMENT ON

LIVELIHOOD PROMOTION

through

intervention in the dairy sector

INTRODUCTION

Dairy farming is one of the important activities of the rural population of our country. Dairy Enterprise, next to agriculture, not only provides continuous income and improves dietary standards of family, but also supplements the income and reduces unemployment to a large number of the rural poor. The advent of Operation Flood has made the farmers in rural areas to realize the importance of dairy units as the potential source of additional income and employment. The fact that dairy farming could play a more constructive role in promoting rural welfare and reducing poverty is increasingly being recognized . Milk production alone involves more than 70 million producers, each raising one or two cows/ buffaloes primarily for milk production . Dairying is an important source of subsidiary income to small/marginal farmers and agricultural laborers. Since agriculture is mostly seasonal, there is a possibility of finding employment throughout the year for many persons through dairy farming. Thus, dairy also provides employment throughout the year. The main beneficiaries of dairy programs are small/marginal farmers and landless labourers. Dairy development have been viewed by planners and policy makers as an effective instrument of social and economic change in the rural areas as they provide employment to the weaker sections and thereby help them in augmenting their incomes. There are clear indications to the effect that there exists a tremendous potential for livestock development in India and a properly organized and developed dairying sector can become a great help in redeeming a social and economic imbalance in the rural society. The livestock sector plays an important role in the national economy and also in the socioeconomic development of millions of rural households in India. It has a strategic role in ensuring food and nutritional security, income and employment generation and in balancing rural inequity.

AREA OF IMPLEMENTATION

The criteria of area selection were their progress in dairy performance, existence of contrasting milk production systems and geographic similarity. The present study was taken up in two drought prone districts leading in milk production, namely Kannur and Wayanad district of Kerela. The primary data were collected through the structured schedule, which was developed and administered for this purpose. From each district 40 respondents were selected randomly from dairy farmers of above villages and thus, the total sample size was 80. The variables of the study included the livestock holding, land holding, dairy type/category, herd size and composition, family labor utilization, annual family income, family milk consumption pattern, cost of milk production, cropping pattern, feeding practices, extension support and service delivery, technology adoption, productivity, access to market, price realization, market channels, effect of processing units/dairies, income and employment generation, etc.,

Data were also collected from secondary sources of information such as official documents, records, registers and reports of Department of Animal Husbandry, Milk Unions / Private dairies and DRDA.

OBJECTIVES
1. Employment creation in rural areas, both on farm and along market distribution and value chains. 2. To examine the potential role of dairy farming in further enhancement /sustenance of rural livelihoods. 3. To identify and study the feasibility of community action in bringing out efficiency in dairy output and, thereby, improvements in rural livelihoods. 4. To study the impact of sustainable dairy farming on the social development aspects of rural livelihoods. 5. To suggest measures to improve rural livelihoods through dairy farming. 6. Reliable income generation and asset accumulation for resource-poor farmers.

INTERVENTION
The state ranks average in milk production in the country and it is the home tract of some of the very good breeds of cattle. Dairy accounted for 8% of agricultural GDP in the state. According to the sample survey report of Department of Animal husbandry, 16% of milk produced by farmers was consumed by them, 11% was kept for conversion and 72% was sold either to organized dairy or to private vendors. Dialogues were initiated with Kerela Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation

Limited for promotion of co-operatives, for the purpose of marketing and they agreed to be a partner in marketing support. Kerela Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited is providing milk marketing support to dairy farmers in the state through 5 milk unions and direct federation units. The federation and district unions procure 35 crore litres of milk per annum through a network of 450 milk routes, 8000 milk collection centers covering 7500 villages.

Table showing challenges faced by dairy farmers

Problem % of farmers responded Kannur Lack of irrigation and 44 water Low milk price Manpower problems Diseases and problems Lack of service 14 26 Wayanad 24

22 8 23

fertility 13

Veterinary 3

High cost of feed and 5 fodder Less knowledge dairying No response on 4

19

32

Fodder shortage is a major impediment for dairy development in the state. Only 3% of the geographical area (5 lakh hectares) is under permanent pasture and grazing land against recommended 8%. Similar trend exists in the study districts also. In general, the Wayanad district has buffalo based dairy farming system and Kannur has crossbred (CB) cow based dairy system. Usually dairy animals whether crossbred cow or graded buffalo, they are fed with 20 kg of green fodder, 5 kg. of dry fodder and 1 2 kgs of concentrate feed for sustaining the milk yield of 7 10 litres of milk. There can be variations and adjustments in the quantity of feed among the types namely dry, green and grain residues / concentrate feed ingredients. However, a thumb rule in dairy farming with regard to feeding is that feeding green fodder at lib can sustain an average milk yield of 6-7 litres per day without inclusion of either dry fodder or concentrate feed. Grazing is also a common practice i.e. 79% of farmers in Wayanad and 70% of farmers in Kannur send their animals for grazing. Generally animals in milk are not sent for grazing in the first 4-5 months. The grazing hours varied from 4 to 10 hours i.e. 62 % of farmers in Kannur sent the animals for grazing for 4-6 hours and 27% for 8-10 hours. The common green fodder fed to dairy animals were Jowar, wild green grass in Kannur and Jowar (10%) and Subabul (22% of farmers) in Wayanad district. About 40% of Kannur farmers were feeding green fodder @ 10 kg per day per animal. Whereas in Wayanad, majority of farmers (53%) were feeding only 10 kg green fodder per day. In both the districts the common dry fodder is paddy straw, which was stored out of paddy crop after harvesting and used throughout the year. The majority of farmers were feeding their dairy animals with 5 kg of dry fodder per day in addition to the green grass either collected or grazed along with concentrate ingredients. The animals have to be free of any diseases for them to be productive. For this it is essential to have veterinary hospitals in the region.

Veterinary dispensary is available to 70% of farmers in Wayanad and 79% of Farmers in Kannur district within 2 km. range. Another 28% and 20% of farmers of Wayanad and Kannur respectively indicated that the veterinary facilities are available in the range of 3 to 5 kms. New technology has to be implemented for better productivity. It will also be helpful in speeding up many processes required in dairy farming. The level of technology adoption varied from district to district. The awareness levels were higher among the farmers of Kannur than the farmers of Wayanad. Practicing of technology to the advantage of farmers was more in Kannur compared to Wayanad i.e., usage of chaff cutter, milking machine, , cream separator, teat dip, washing of udder before milking and cleaning of shed and vaccination. Due to financial problems, 15% and 20% of farmers of Wayanad and Kannur were not inclined for these 15% of Kannur farmers and 10% of Wayanad farmers indicated that they adopt these technologies if some incentive was provided by government to purchase the instruments. The various credit sources in the districts for various purposes like crop production, purchase of animals, health and household purpose and working capital are cooperative banks, commercial banks, regional rural banks, self-help groups, moneylenders, relatives and private dairies. In total 35% of farmers of Wayanad and 38% of farmers of Kannur availed credit. In both the Districts, as in many parts of the State, the public sector milk procurement system became defunct and often either closed down or running in low capacity consequent upon economic reforms. Private dairies are dominating the milk market. On an average 10 lakh litres of milk is being produced in Kannur per day. On marketing side, around 7 lakh litres is procured by private dairies and 1.5 lakh litres by Balaji (Govt /NDDB) dairy, and the rest by milk vendors. Recently, DRDA established 19 BMCUs (Bulk Milk Cooling Unit) of 2000 litres per day capacity units. Farmers reported that BMCUs are paying comparatively good price than private dairies. All BMCUs are maintained by SHG s only. All BMCUs are functioning effectively with full capacity.

General average price paid by private dairies is around Rs.8/litre, where as BMCUs paid Rs. 9.40/ litre, which is again based on the quality of milk. Good pricing means profits for the farmers.

IMPACT

Impact on livelihoods was significant as sale of milk and milk products from villages in the area went up. There were lot of employment opportunities being generated in the region. Incomes of the farmers had increased manifold, thus improving their standards of living. The major activities involved in dairy farming include collection of fodder/cultivation of fodder, grazing the animals, feeding & watering, cleaning the animals and shed, milking and marketing of milk. All these activities require labour, most of the work was done by the family members themselves, thus sharing the workload. The income contribution from dairy farming to their personal income increased significantly. Also,the usage of Bulk Cooling Tanks have become popular in the recent past because it not only helps in increasing the shelf-life of milk but also provides systematic and simple way of the procurement of milk .

CONCLUSION

Dairying is an important source of subsidiary income to small/marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. Dairy farming has helped in achieving the objectives of employment generation and income generating work which is sustainable in the long run. Dairy farming has helped in reduction of rural unemployment. Such

projects also have a ripple effect in the economy, as increase in income means increase in spending power, thus demand for other goods and services also increases. The manure from animals provides a good source of organic matter for improving soil fertility and crop yields. The surplus fodder and agricultural byproducts are gainfully utilized for feeding the animals. Since agriculture is mostly seasonal, there is a possibility of finding employment throughout the year for many persons through dairy farming. Thus, dairy also provides employment throughout the year. The main beneficiaries of dairy programmes are small/marginal farmers and landless labourers. Dairy products form one of the fastest growing segments in the livestock product export. Having made a significant stride in production and processing, our country is topping the globe as the highest milk producer. This sector has immense growth potential as the demand for milk and milk products will only increase.