SOCIO ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH POOR ADOPTION OF LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY ENTERPRISE N. Narmatha 1, A. Manivannan 2, V. Uma 3 and C. Pandiyan 4 Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal. ABSTRACT The present study was conducted with objectives to study the various problems associated with poor adoption of livestock enterprise and to suggest suitable strategies to overcome the problems. Totally 150 farmers, comprising of 50 poultry farmers, 50 dairy farmers and 50 sheep and goat farmers were selected as a sample from Namakkal, Salem and Dharmapuri districts of Tamil Nadu since these districts possess more poultry, dairy cattle, sheep and goat population respectively. Data were collected by using well structured and pre-tested interview schedule. The problems related to marketing aspects (98 per cent) ranked first followed by economic (69 per cent), technological (37 per cent), psychological (31 per cent) and social (14 per cent) aspects as perceived by respondents towards poor adoption of livestock enterprise. In marketing, almost all the respondents perceived problems on nonremunerative price for livestock produce/products, market fluctuation and exploitation by middlemen. Three-fourth of the respondents perceived problems in high capital, complicated loan obtaining procedure, high labour intensive, lack of finance and high risk under economic related problems. Key words: Livestock enterprise, Poor adoption, Socio-economic and psychological problems INTRODUCTION Livestock sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, particularly for the welfare of the rural population of India. It has become a crucial element in improving the life standard of rural people by means of providing cash income, employment, asset value and maintaining health status of people through supply of animal protein even during crop failure due to adverse climatic condition. Among livestock sector, poultry rearing on commercial basis has almost become a viable industry due to the multiplicity of factors involved. On the contrary, other areas like dairying, sheep and goat rearing are largely practiced as rural activity and have not blossomed like poultry sector. Hence, livestock farming is to be boosted up to get maximum gain for the development of the country. Universities / research institutions concerned with livestock sector have identified many new/modified technologies/methods/practices, which are useful to the farming community. Whatever the technologies/methods/practices developed, these are to be communicated to the farmers for ultimate adoption at the field level. Adoption of recommended practices is a critical point in farming. Non-adoption of recommended practices would lead to confining of new methods within the laboratories itself. 1. Professor and Head, 2, 3 & 4. Assistant Professors, Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal 637 002. 210
Narmatha et al., Farming people have their own way of assessing the new technologies released/ communicated. Majorities of the farmers have a tendency to adopt a practice if it is beneficial to them and have relative advantage over the existing practices. In such a context, the farming community is exposed to various constraints /obstacles/ problems at field level while adopting the practices. These problems play an important role in rejection of innovations at farmers level. Chantalakhana (1999) reported that the farmers who keep cattle and buffalo in villages are generally not interested in the use of mineral supplements or deworming, while small holder dairy farmers ignore milk recording or strip test for mastitis. The reasons behind these are related mainly to complex socio economic factors, which are real challenge to animal production development. On one hand, researcher will become cognizant about the existing problems so that the research activity could be initiated and on the other hand, farmers are also to be taught about how to deal with such problems. Keeping the above aspects in mind, the present study was conducted with the following objectives: 1. To study the various problems associated with poor adoption of livestock enterprise. 2. To suggest suitable strategies to overcome the problems. METHODOLOGY Namakkal, Salem and Dharmapuri districts of Tamil Nadu were selected as the study area since these districts possess more poultry, dairy cattle, sheep and goat population respectively. Namakkal, Thalaivasal and Pennagram blocks of Namakkal, Salem and Dharmapuri districts were selected again by using the same criteria of highest poultry, dairy, sheep and goat population respectively within the districts. Totally 150 farmers, comprising of 50 poultry farmers, 50 dairy farmers and 50 sheep and goat farmers were selected based on the simple random sampling technique. Data were collected by using well structured and pre-tested interview schedule. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The problems related to poor adoption of livestock enterprise as perceived by the respondents are discussed in two ways namely domain-wise and item-wise. The domain wise categorization of problems in livestock enterprise as perceived by the respondents is presented in the Table 1. It could be seen from the Table. 1 that problems related to marketing aspects (98 per cent) ranked first followed by economic (69 per cent), technological (37 per cent), psychological (31 per cent) and social (14 per cent) aspects as perceived by respondents towards poor adoption of livestock enterprise. It is obvious that livestock are maintained principally for economic benefits rather than any other factors hence marketing aspects in livestock rearing were perceived as a major problem by the respondents. The item-wise distribution of problems in livestock enterprise as perceived by the respondents is presented in the Table 2. In marketing, almost all the respondents perceived problems on non-remunerative price for livestock produce/products, market fluctuation and exploitation by middlemen. The respondents opined that they were not getting the right price for the livestock products particularly milk and meat due to exploitation by brokers and middlemen. This might be due to the fact that, no organised sector is available to channelise the livestock products except 211
Socio Economic and psychological... Table 1. Domain wise distribution of problems in livestock enterprise as perceived by the respondents S.No. Domains Percentage * Rank 1 Marketing 98 I 2 Economic 69 II 3 Technological 37 III 4 Psychological 31 IV 5 Social 14 V in case of milk. Although milk is marketed through cooperative society, the price offered for the milk is not remunerative, since the cost of production of milk increases regularly due to continuous increase in feed cost. Sudeepkumar (1992) also reported that unremunerative price for milk as a constraint in dairy farming. Under economic related problems, three-fourths of the respondents perceived problems in high capital, complicated loan obtaining procedure, high labour intensive, lack of finance and high risk. High capital is always an issue for farmers when they want to start a livestock enterprise due to low annual income. Lack of knowledge in the areas of obtaining credit from various institutional sources for livestock enterprise might be due to low level of education of the respondents. Most of the labourers in the rural areas prefer to work in the industries other than agriculture and livestock enterprise, hence it is difficult to hire labourers for livestock enterprise. Apart from this, the labour cost is increased nowadays due to shortage of labourers. Increased cost of production, disease occurrence, perishable nature of livestock products etc. are contributing factors for high risk in livestock enterprise. Lack of credit facility and inadequate input distribution were identified as the predominant constraints encountered by majority of dairy farmers (Kumaravel, 2000). In technological problems, the respondents perceived major problems in mastitis, foot and mouth disease, repeat breeding in cattle, Raniket disease among desi birds and low SNF content of milk in crossbred cows. Negligible per cent of respondents perceived problems on calf mortality and lack of grazing facilities. Non-adoption of clean milk production practices, vaccination schedule and balanced feeding might be the reason for the technological problems. Hamadeh et al. (1996) reported in a study that animal health problems were ranked as the major obstacle faced by sheep and goat farmers, followed by feed availability and prices and marketing of products. Low motivation of farmers in livestock enterprise as the major problem perceived by the respondents under psychological problems. It is very difficult to motivate the farmers unless they get personal success in livestock enterprises. More over involving of high capital investment, marginal 212
Narmatha et al., Table 2. Item wise distribution of problems in livestock enterprise as perceived by the respondents (n = 150) S. No. Items No. of persons Percentage * SOCIAL 1 Rearing desi birds in backyard 88 59 2 Following of traditional /indigenous practices 22 15 3 Ban against goat rearing 19 13 4 Reluctance in consuming beef 12 8 5 Reluctance in consuming pork 10 7 6 Witch-crafting in animal care 9 6 7 Others 4 3 8 Non-disposal of unproductive animals 1 1 ECONOMIC 9 High capital 125 83 10 Complicated loan getting /sanctioning procedure 115 77 11 Labour intensive 112 75 12 Lack of finance 109 73 13 High risk 107 71 14 Insurance of livestock 56 37 PSYCHOLOGICAL 15 Low motivation of farmers in livestock enterprise 118 79 16 Decision making by male members only 48 32 17 Negative attitude towards innovative technologies 24 16 18 Inherent reluctance to adopt scientific practices 19 13 19 Acquaintance towards traditional practices 20 13 TECHNOLOGICAL 20 Foot and Mouth Disease 128 85 21 Mastitis in cattle 128 85 22 Repeat breeding in cattle 115 77 23 Ranikhet disease in desi birds 90 60 24 Low SNF content of milk in crossbred cow 75 50 25 Sudden outbreak of diseases like bird flu 11 7 26 Difficulty in adopting innovative techniques 6 4 27 Lack of grazing area 4 3 28 Calf mortality 4 3 29 High mortality in sheep/goat during rainy season 0 0 MARKETING 30 Market fluctuation 148 99 31 Non- remunerative price for livestock produce/products 148 99 32 Exploitation by middlemen 145 97 * Multiple responses 213
profit and high risk in the livestock enterprise also pose a threat to the farmers and resulting in low motivation. Although the respondents preferred social problems at the least level on overall basis, more than half of the respondents expressed that rearing desi birds in backyard as a problem. This could be due to that desi chicken used to wander freely and cause extensive damage to crops grown in the agricultural fields and thus resulting in frequent quarrel between neighbours. CONCLUSION It could be concluded from the study that marketing was the major problem as perceived by the respondents followed by economic, technological, psychological and social problems. The policy makers, administrators, researchers involved in animal husbandry development should take into cognition on the marketing problems expressed by the respondents and make efforts to solve them. Awareness programmes on available credit facilities and procedure for getting loan from financial institutions could be organised by nationalized banks. More extension programmes/ activities are to be executed by the institutions/ departments involved in livestock sector so that the various issues related to technological and social aspects in livestock rearing could be easily tackled by the farmers. Further, popularising the successful cases of livestock farmers in various Socio Economic and psychological... media like print and electronic media would motivate the farmers to adopt livestock enterprise. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University to conduct the study REFERENCES Chantalakhana, C. 1999. Research priorities for smallholder dairying. In smallholder dairying in the tropics, edited by L. Falvey and C. Chantalakhana. ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya. Hamadeh, S.K., Shomo. F., Nordblom, T., Goodchild. A. and Gintzburger. G. 1996. Small ruminant production in Lebanon s Beka a Valley. Small Ruminant Research 21 (3): 173-180. Kumaravel, P. 2000. Impact of DANIDA- Pudukkottai livestock development project on target farmers. Unpub. Ph.D., Thesis, TANUVAS, Chennai. Sudeepkumar, N.K. 1992. Effectiveness of training on dairy farming technology. Unpub. M.V.Sc., Thesis, TANUVAS, Madras. 214