Attributes of Public Livestock Services System in Tamil Nadu: A Pilot Study G Kathiravan*, M Thirunavukkarasu**, N K Sudeepkumar*** and A Kalaikkannan**** Livestock plays an important role in the national economy as well as socioeconomic development of millions of households. However, the Indian livestock production system is vulnerable to liberalization because of the dominance of the smallholder system which is constrained by poor access to improved technology, quality feeds and fodder, and livestock services, besides struggling with low productivity. Although public institutions are the major providers of livestock services, the possibility of extending the quality and timely public livestock services is less in the context of fiscal pressures exacerbated by huge subsidy and less cost recovery for the services. Hence, the present study is concerned with the status quo levels of seven quality attributes of public veterinary services, viz.; (i) geographical proximity; (ii) waiting time; (iii) attitude of staff; (iv) service provider-farmer relationship; (v) drug availability; (vi) chance of recovery; and (vii) chance of conception. The importance attached to each factor with its preferred level and the farmers willingness to pay for the ideal levels of services were analyzed in sample districts of Tamil Nadu. Garret s ranking analysis of quality attributes indicated that the geographical proximity of public veterinary centers was the most important issue, followed by chance of conception, chance of recovery, being able to find prescribed treatments, waiting time before meeting the service provider, attitude of staff in the centers, and receiving adequate information on the sickness and treatment of animals. The existing levels were satisfactory to only a small part of the farming community, which in turn, calls the attention of policymakers. The study also identified that the farmers were willing to pay for improving the quality of livestock services that the public institutions deliver currently in order to raise it to the desired level. Introduction Livestock is an integral component of Indian agrarian economy. It plays an important role in the national economy as well as in the socioeconomic development of millions of households. Livestock, besides being an eminent source of animal protein, also provides drought power, manure and fuel, and a stock of wealth to the nation. The Indian livestock sector has Part of the PhD Thesis of the first author submitted to TANUVAS, Chennai. * Assistant Professor (SS), Department of Animal Husbandry Statistics and Computer Applications, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, India. E-mail: drkathir@yahoo.com ** Professor and Head, Department of Animal Husbandry Statistics and Computer Applications, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, India. E-mail: drthiruarasu@yahoo.com *** Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension and Entrepreneurship, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, India. E-mail: sudeep66@hotmail.com **** Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Husbandry Statistics and Computer Applications, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, India. E-mail: akalaikannan@gmail.com Attributes 2007 The of Icfai Public University Livestock Press. All Services Rights Reserved. System in Tamil Nadu: A Pilot Study 39
witnessed significant expansion in output under the umbrella of regulated domestic markets that has been protected from the entry of external market elements. However, globalization provides both opportunities and threats to this expansion. The Indian livestock production system is vulnerable to liberalization because of the dominance of the system which is constrained by poor access to improved technology, quality feeds and fodder, and livestock services, besides struggling with low productivity (Ahuja and Redmond, 2001). In order to make the production system more efficient, the quality and availability of the livestock services have to be improved. Although public institutions are the major providers of livestock services, the possibility of extending the quality and timely public livestock services is less in the context of fiscal pressures exacerbated by huge subsidy and less cost recovery for the services. Many policy makers defer the option of cost recovery with the assumptions that the farmers would not be willing to pay for the livestock services. At this critical stage, a pioneering attempt has been made in the present study to analyze the status quo levels of quality attributes of the public institutions delivering livestock services along with their preferred level and the farmers willingness to pay for the ideal services. Methodology The districts of Tamil Nadu State were categorized as Livestock Developed (LD) and Livestock Underdeveloped (LUD) based on initial baseline data, which were gathered using the value of livestock output, rural human population and common property resources available for livestock farming. Four districts, two from livestock developed (Coimbatore Table 1: Parameters of Quality Attributes Used in the Study Quality Parameters Geographical proximity to public veterinary center Waiting time before meeting the service provider Attitude of the public veterinary center s staff Receiving adequate information on the sickness and treatment of animals Levels of Attributes Very far, far, average, close, very close Very long, long, average, not long, not long at all Good, fair, bad, very bad Service Provider (SP) spent sufficient time and explained: the health status/heat stage, how to use the medicaments, what to do to prevent/not to complicate; information was clear and sufficient. Scoring/Measurement Scale 1-very far; 0-otherwise 1-far; 0-otherwise 1-average distance; 0-otherwise 1-very long; 0-otherwise 1-long; 0-otherwise 1-average; 0-otherwise 1-very bad; 0-otherwise 1-bad; 0-otherwise The service provider-farmer relationship: Multi-item Likert scaling average of five items scores multiplied by 20, range (20,100) (Contd...) 40 The Icfai Journal of Consumer Behavior, Vol. II, No. 2, 2007
Table 1: Parameters of Quality Attributes Used in the Study (Contd...) Quality Parameters Levels of Attributes Scoring/Measurement Scale Being able to find the prescribed treatment/ai Chance of recovery after visiting the center Chance of conception after inseminating at the center All, some of them, None SP at centre is competent, recovered after treatment at center, not recovered and sought for re-examination by others, others SPs are competent. Animal becomes pregnant after inseminating at this center, calves born are superior at centre, not conceived and went to private, private insemination calves are superior, prefer natural service. 1 - none of them; 0 otherwise 1 - some of them; 0 otherwise Multi-item Likert scaling average of five items scores multiplied by 20, range (20,100) Multi-item Likert scaling average of seven items' scores multiplied by 20, range (20,140) converted into percentage (100% = 140 score) and Villupuram districts) and two from livestock underdeveloped (Thanjavur and Sivagangai districts) areas were selected randomly. From the selected districts, a total number of 320 farmers (80 from each district) were chosen by adopting the multistage random sampling technique. Following Mataria et al. (2004), these respondents were asked to characterize the status quo level of the seven attributes of public livestock services and assess a transition from the status quo to the preferred state. The seven listed attributes of public livestock services were: (i) geographical proximity, (ii) waiting time, (iii) attitude of staff, (iv) service provider-farmer relationship, (v) drug availability, (vi) chance of recovery, and (vii) chance of conception. The levels of listed attributes are presented in Table 1. After ascertaining the status quo levels, the farmers were asked whether they would be willing to pay any extra user fee to receive their preferred level of service. The responses were analyzed using Garret s ranking technique and conventional descriptive analysis. Garret s Ranking Technique Garret s ranking technique was adopted to analyze the farmers priorities of quality attributes in public livestock services. The respondents were asked to rank the given attributes that seemed to be more important. The orders of merit given by the respondents were converted into ranks by using the following formula: Percentage position = where, 100 R 00. 5 R ij Rank given for i th factor by j th individual N j Number of factors ranked by j th individual ij N j Attributes of Public Livestock Services System in Tamil Nadu: A Pilot Study 41
The percentage position of each rank obtained thus was converted into scores by referring to the table given by Garret and Woodworth (1969). Then for each factor, the scores of individual respondents were added together and divided by the total number of respondents for whom scores were added. These mean scores for all the factors were arranged in descending order, ranks were given, and the most important attributes were identified. Results and Discussion Ratings of Quality Attributes of Public Veterinary Centers The farmers in this study area were asked to rank the seven important attributes of public livestock services and their responses were analyzed through Garrett s ranking technique. The results of the ranking procedure, as presented in Table 2, indicated that the geographical proximity of public veterinary centers was an important attribute, which fetched an overall score of 66.94 both in LUD and LD districts. Chance of conception after insemination at the center was the next major attribute, followed by chance of recovery after visiting the center, being able to find the prescribed treatments, waiting time before meeting the service provider, attitude of staff in the public veterinary centers, and receiving adequate information on the illness and treatment of animals. Table 2: Rating of Quality Attributes of Public Veterinary Centers for Improvements Sl. No. Characters LUD Districts LD Districts Overall 1. Geographical proximity of the public 1 st 1 st 1 st veterinary center (64.15) (69.73) (66.94) 2. Waiting time before meeting the 5 th 5 th 5 th service provider (51.88) (51.51) (51.70) 3. Attitude of the public veterinary 6 th 6 th 6 th centre s staff (33.98) (33.96) (33.97) 4. Receiving adequate information on 7 th 7 th 7 th the sickness and treatment of animals (25.65) (25.88) (25.76) 5. Being able to find the prescribed 4 th 4 th 4 th treatments (53.39) (55.66) (54.53) 6. Chance of recovery after visiting 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd the center (60.59) (57.95) (59.27) 7. Chance of conception after insemination 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd at the center (64.01) (61.52) (62.77) Note: Figures in parentheses indicate Garret s scores. 42 The Icfai Journal of Consumer Behavior, Vol. II, No. 2, 2007
It is imperative to note that the farmers in LUD and LD areas did not differ in their views on the grades of importance of public veterinary centers attributes. The results implied that the number of veterinary institutions delivering livestock services should get augmented, besides ensuring their presence amidst rural habitations. The second rank attributed to the chance of conception of bovines after insemination at the public veterinary center explained the degree of problem that farmers faced and the importance of the factor to them. Therefore, efforts could be made to augment conception in bovines by ensuring good quality insemination, besides imparting extension programs to update the farmers knowledge on bovine breeding. The chance of quick recovery depends on adequate diagnostic infrastructure, in addition to the updated technical efficiency available with the service provider. Hence the farmers in the study area ranked this as a third major attribute to get their service center improved by equipping it with necessary infrastructure and by imparting the latest technical know-how to the service provider. In order to complement the fourth major attribute, i.e., receiving prescribed treatments, the centers should be stocked with adequate and relevant medicaments, considering the agro-climatic and endemic animal health factors. The fifth ranked attribute, waiting time, envisaged that the organization of public veterinary centers might be modified in such a way that more manpower could render quick services. Among the other attributes, the attitude of staff in the public veterinary center could be improved to ensure the timely delivery of information that the farmers seek. Status Quo and Preferred Levels of Livestock Services Attributes Geographical Proximity Almost all the farmers who visited public veterinary centers either for receiving animal health services or breeding their bovines reached the center on foot, except a few who Table 3: Status Quo Levels of Quality Attributes Attributes Categories No. of Respondents Willing to Pay (%) Geographical proximity Very far 43 (13.44) 97.67 Far 153 (47.81) 89.54 Average distance 77 (24.06) 63.64 Close or very close 47 (14.69) 19.15 Waiting time Very long 7 (2.19) 100.00 Long 128 (40.00) 92.19 Average 156 (48.75) 80.77 Not long or Not long at all 29 (9.07) 41.38 Staff attitude Very bad 65 (20.31) 100.00 Bad 74 (23.13) 98.65 Good 181 (56.56) 5.52 (Contd...) Attributes of Public Livestock Services System in Tamil Nadu: A Pilot Study 43
Table 3: Status Quo Levels of Quality Attributes (Contd...) Attributes Categories No. of Respondents Willing to Pay (%) Drug availability All 211 (65.93) 24.64 Some 74 (24.13) 89.19 None 35 (10.94) 94.28 Service provider-farmer relationship Mean score: 76.43 320 39.06 Chance of recovery Mean score: 72.63 320 53.75 Chance of conception Mean score: 48.28 282 79.69 Note: Figures in parentheses indicate percentages to respective attributes. brought their small ruminants and calves on a cycle or bullock cart. It took 34.41 ( 1.22) minutes, on an average, for them to reach the center. As Table 3 shows, this was perceived as very far and far by more than half of the respondents (very far: 13.44%; far: 47.81%). On the other hand, respondents declared a mean preferred travel time, and the one that they estimate as very close was 14.69 ( 1.10) minutes. Enquiries also exhibited that 97.67% of the respondents who declared the distance as very far were willing to pay for improving the geographical proximity. Similarly, of the farmers who declared the distance as far, average and close or very close, 89.54%, 63.64% and 19.15% respectively were willing to pay for reducing the distance. The results, in turn, exhibit the intensity of the problem the farmers face in the study area. Waiting Time On an average, the farmers waited 32.16 ( 0.59) minutes prior to the veterinary consultation or bovine breeding at public veterinary centers. This was perceived as very long by 2.19% of the respondents and long by 40%. Farmers declared that a waiting time of 19.50 ( 2.6) minutes would be perceived as not long at all, which is to be considered as a preferred state. To the question whether farmers would be willing to pay any amount for reducing the waiting time in public veterinary centers, all the farmers who complained that the waiting time was very long were willing to pay, while 92.19% of farmers who declared waiting time as long and 80.77% of the farmers who expressed the waiting time as average were willing to pay some amount. As ascertained from the farmers, it was understood that the waiting time, on occasions, even extended to a few hours because of uncertainty over the service providers visits and hence, they responded positively to the question on willingness to pay. Attitude of Public Veterinary Center s Staff Of the 320 farmers interviewed, 65 (20.31%) farmers complained that the attitude of the center s staff was very bad, while 74 (23.13%) farmers reported that the attitude of the staff was bad. However, more than half of the respondents (56.56%) declared that they were received and treated in a good manner at the center. The farmers in the study area, 44 The Icfai Journal of Consumer Behavior, Vol. II, No. 2, 2007
who stated that the public veterinary center staff s attitude was very bad were willing to pay for rectifying this disgusting attitude, while 98.65% of farmers who declared the staff s attitude as bad and 5.52% of those who said it was good were prepared to contribute to get the benefit of the improved attitude of staff. Drug Availability All the prescribed or required drugs (or semen straw) for treatment (or insemination) were reported to be available for 65.93% of the respondents, while some of the drugs alone were available for 24.13% of the users. 10.94% of farmers did not find any prescribed drug in public veterinary centers. 24.64% of farmers, who secured all the drugs from public veterinary centers, were willing to pay for ensuring similar availability of all drugs in public veterinary centers at all times. Whereas, 89.19% of those who found only some drugs and 94.28% of farmers who did not find any drug were willing to contribute for the same. Service Provider-Farmer Relationship (SPFR) The farmers answers to the different Likert scaling questions led to the percentage estimation of a mean SPFR score of 76.43 ( 0.43), which indicated that most of the farmers had a good relationship with the service provider, stayed sufficiently in the center and had got the required information on the health/heat status of their animals. In order to establish a smooth relationship with the service provider in public veterinary centers and to get all the required information on the health status and treatment of animals, 39.06% of respondents were ready to pay some amount. Chance of Recovery The mean score percentage of chance of recovery attribute worked out from the responses of farmers to the different Likert scaling questions was 72.63 ( 0.45). The results indicated that there is scope improvement in the chance of recovery attribute in the centers by establishing adequate clinical infrastructure and infusing recent technical know-hows to the service providers. In this context, it is worth noting that 53.75% of sample farmers were willing to pay some amount to ensure speedy recovery of their ailing animals. Chance of Conception The respondents views to the different Likert scaling questions constructed gave the percentage estimation of a mean chance of conception score of 48.28 ( 0.44). The results apparently exhibited that the chance of conception after insemination at the centers was not up to expectations, which had forced the farmers to seek alternate avenues such as private insemination, home services by veterinarians and para-veterinarians, and natural breeding for their bovines. More importantly, 79.69% of respondents were very much willing to pay for improving the chance of conception by some means. The results revealed the intensity of problems faced by the farmers owning breedable bovines. Attributes of Public Livestock Services System in Tamil Nadu: A Pilot Study 45
Conclusion The quality attribute ranking study indicated that the geographical proximity of public veterinary centers was the most important factor, followed by chance of conception, chance of recovery, being able to find prescribed treatments, waiting time before meeting the service provider, attitude of staff in the centers and receiving adequate information on the illness and treatment of animals. The farmers were also inclined to pay for improving the quality of livestock services that the public institutions deliver currently in order to raise it to the desired level. Reference # 46J-2007-06-04-01 References 1. Ahuja V and Redmond E (2001), Economic and Policy Issues in Livestock Service Delivery to the Poor: Background Paper for the FAO Project Memorandum, Pro-poor Livestock Policy Initiative: Fostering the Policy Dialogue in Support of Equitable, Safe and Clean Livestock Farming, pp. 1-32. 2. Garret H E and Woodworth R S (1969), Statistics in Psychology and Education, Bombay Vkils, Feffer and Simons Pvt. Ltd., p. 329. 3. Mataria A, Donaldson C, Luchini S and Moatti J P (2004), A Stated Preference Approach to Assessing Healthcare-quality Improvements in Palestine: From Theoretical Validity to Policy Implications, Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 23, pp. 1285-1311. 46 The Icfai Journal of Consumer Behavior, Vol. II, No. 2, 2007