Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
SA Khandi, Bharat Bhushan, RA Bafanda, RA Rafiquee, Rizwan Jeelani and Mandeep Singh Azad

Abstract:
A study was conducted to find the knowledge level of pastoralists regarding improved small ruminant practices. The data was collected from 400 pastoralists belonging to Kathua, Jammu, Anantnag and Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh with the help of structured interview schedule containing selected dependent and independent variables, through personal interview technique. Majority of the pastoralists were middle aged, having poor education, engaged in caste occupation and were having marginal landholding and possessed medium herd size of 58 small animals. Further, most of the respondents had medium family size, with average of 6 family members. The social participation and mass media exposure of majority of the respondents were medium. They had poor extension contact. The income of the majority of respondents from livestock rearing was ₹59290 per year and were having 31 years of average experience in livestock rearing. Pastoralists fared well in terms of economic motivation. However, majority had semi-nomadic pastoral system. The marketing system was rather limited. None of the pastoralists had obtained any formal training in improved small ruminant rearing practices. Majority of respondents (57.75%) were having medium level of knowledge (49.86%), whereas, 24 percent had low knowledge (49.27%) and only 18.25 percent respondents had high knowledge level (56.46%). Positive significant association of knowledge with education, occupation, landholding, herd size, social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, income from livestock rearing, economic motivation, and marketing system was observed. However, negative significant association of knowledge with pastoral system was observed.