Marketable surplus, pattern and constraints faced by smallholder dairy farmer in Punjab Kashish, Kaur Manjeet, Sekhon M K, Dhawan Vikrant* Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India *Corresponding author: kashish_arora09@yahoo.com
Online published on 5 January, 2015. Abstract The present study examined marketed surplus, disposal pattern of milk and constraints faced by smallholder dairy farmers in Punjab. For the purpose Amritsar district was selected and a sample of 80 dairy farmers consisting of 20 dairy farmers each from landless (LL), marginal (MR), small (SM) and others (OT) categories were selected from two blocks and four villages of Amritsar district. It was found that milk production, consumption and marketed surplus has direct relationship with farm size. The average production of milk was 27.55, 37.05, 40.95 and 45.2 litres/day for LL, MR, SM and OT dairy farm and per capita availability of milk was 690, 843, 869 and 935 gm/day which was quiet above the national average of 290 gm/day and minimum recommendation of ICMR of 250 gm/day. On an overall basis 11.26, 6.40, 7.40 and 18.12 litres of milk/day was sold by sample households through dairy cooperatives, private milk processors, milk vendors, consumers and halwaiis. Except MR farmers rest all of the selected dairy farmers sold their produce through modern milk marketing channels which includes milk cooperatives and private milk processor in the study area. Thus SM holder dairy farmers have equal access to modern milk marketing channel in the study area. Various constraints ranked by dairy farmers as costly feed and fodder ranked first followed by lack of A.I. and veterinary facilities in village. The lack of organized milk marketing was at the bottom of the constraints identified by dairy households. The sample dairy farmers faced all the constraints with almost equal intensity irrespective of the size categories. Top Keywords Smallholder dairy farmers, marketing channels, marketable surplus and constraints. Top |