Livestock Service Delivery by Dairy Cooperatives

An ex-post facto exploratory study was conducted to explore and address the perception of dairy farmers about livestock service delivery by dairy cooperatives in Western Maharashtra, India by personal interview of 150 dairy farmers using pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule. The study revealed that Gokul cooperative provided 46 livestock services under seven broad heads viz., animal health care, animal breeding, production and management, feed and fodder production, extension, marketing and miscellaneous/others. With regards to availability, 72.87 per cent respondents perceived that services were timely available. In the study area, 58.26 per cent farmers perceived that livestock services were free of cost. The study reported that 44.63 per cent farmers were satisfied and 42.97 per cent were partly satisfied with the service delivery. The farmers faced constraints like human resource, financial, policy related and administrative constraints while obtaining the livestock services. Among various other constraints,high cost of concentrates, non remunerative price for milk, procedural complications for insurance and subsidy were the major constraints in dairy farming.