Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Kalyani Konch, Hemanjali Hazarika and Dhrubajit Hazarika

Abstract:
Dairy industry has been an imperative fraction of the agricultural set-up for thousands of years. In India, about 70 percent of its population living in villages and mainly depends on agriculture where livestock plays a vital role in the socio-economic life. Livestock farming is the most proficient livelihood in India and women play a very important responsibility in livestock farming practices in the country. A study was conducted on 60 rural women dairy farmers of Dhemaji districts of Assam to find out their knowledge level about various practices related to dairy farming. A planned interview schedule comprising questions on feeding practices, breeding practices, health care, general management and clean milk production were developed and same was filled during the personal interview with women farmers. The data revealed that majority (56.67%) of the respondents had medium level knowledge on various recommended dairy farming practices, 26.67% has low and only 16.66% has high knowledge level. With respect to breeding practices, 83.33 percent of the respondents had knowledge on sign and symptoms of heat and detection of heat followed by importance of artificial insemination (71.67%) and the correct time of AI /service (68.33%). Almost all (98.33%) of respondents possessed complete knowledge about importance of colostrums feeding to new born calf, followed by feeding of additional concentrate to pregnant cow/buffalo in the last stage of pregnancy (73.33%), daily requirement of green fodder to dairy animal daily (66.67%). A majority of the respondents (91.66%) had knowledge about the symptoms of foot and mouth disease followed by knowledge on vaccination schedule for dairy animals (70.00%). In the general management practices 83.33 percent of the respondents had knowledge on control of ectoparasites as this was the great bother for both the animal as well as the farmers. In clean milk production practices, most of the respondents (91.67%) had knowledge on importance of washing the udder before milking. The study concluded that dairy farmers had medium level of knowledge regarding recommended management practices. There is massive chance for the improvement in the knowledge of the dairy farmers. By organizing scientific training programmes, awareness camp, exhibitions, method demonstrations, vaccination camp, radio/TV talks, and message through social media can help to increase the knowledge level of the farmers.