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Adoption Level and Training Need In Scientific Feeding Management Practices among Hill Korwa Tribes of Chhattisgarh

Maousami B.P. Singh Rajesh Kumar Vijay Kumar J. K. Chaudhary
Vol 7(9), 134-139
DOI- http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/ijlr.20170707055450

The present study was aimed at finding out the level of adoption of scientific feeding management practices among Hill Korwa tribes with relation to the independent socio-economic variables and also the perceived training need in feeding management practices. Data were collected from 160 respondents of Surguja district, Chhattisgarh, through a pre-tested structured interview schedule. Results depicted that majority of respondents were partial adopter (48.8%) followed by low (43.1%) and high (8.1%) adopters. Total annual income, income from livestock, extension agency contact and mass media exposure had positive and significant correlation with adoption of feeding management practices whereas, age and material possession had negative and significant correlation with adoption of feeding management practices. In the area of training, the feeding of sick animals was ranked first with a mean score of 2.70 followed by feeding of newly born calf (2.24), feeding of pregnant animals (2.09), preparation of balanced ration (1.86), importance of clean drinking water (1.42) and preparation of mineral mixture (1.39), were as perceived by the farmers in study area.


Keywords : Adoption Level Feeding Management Korwa Tribes Training Needs

Introduction

Dairying is one of the most important and economically viable occupations for socio-economic development of the tribal households, which helps them to sustain their livelihood through providing a sustainable source of income (Avinashilingam et al., 2010). Dairy farming is an important enterprise dominates the economic activities of the tribal people in the rural areas of India (Mohapatra et al., 2012). Increasing demand for milk and milk products in recent years intensifies dairy farming as advantageous enterprise for tribals. However, farmers do not adopt improved dairy management practices at the desired level which hinders the success of dairy. Tribal dairy farmers are deficient in knowledge regarding improved dairy farming practices in all the areas like breeding, feeding, management and health care (Eqbal et al., 2013). Among this, feeding management is one of the most essential aspect in accomplishing a successful dairy farming. Like any other livestock, dairy cows require feed nutrients for maintenance, growth, lactation and reproduction. It has been empirically evident that good management of cows with superior genetic potential, combines with good nutrition give most efficient response (Krober et al., 1998). Adoption of scientific feeding is very crucial factor to make dairy farming a profitable enterprise. There are various socio-economic factors viz. education, land holding, herd size, income which have influenced upon the adoption process. Apart from them, training in scientific dairy farming practices is considered as an important input in increasing the knowledge level, which facilitates to make dairying a self-sufficient and viable enterprise (Kumar et al., 2013). The present study was carried out to find the level of adoption of feeding management practices by Hill Korwa tribal dairy farmers and to know perceived training needs related to feeding practices.

Materials and Methods

For the present study, Surguja district from Chhattisgarh state was purposively selected because of the highest population of Hill Korwa tribes. Four blocks were selected randomly. Further from each block, 5 villages having more than 20 tribal households of Hill Korwas were selected randomly. From each village 08 respondents owning livestock were selected randomly to make the total sample size of 160 respondents which were interviewed personally with the help of a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule in order to get relevant and precise information on feeding practices of cattle. All the cattle farmers were classified into three categories on the basis of herd size of cattle (according to cattle equivalent score) as small herd owners (owning 0.4-3.4 cattle equivalent score), medium herd owners (owning 3.5-6.4 cattle equivalent score) and large herd owners (owning 6.5-9.4 cattle equivalent score) who were 55 percent, 36.3 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively of total selected respondents.

For this research, important practices related to scientific feeding management were selected and their score were allotted as 2 for high adopter, 1 for partial adopter and 0 for non adopter. The adoption index was calculated by the method used by Karthikeyan (1994) as-

Respondent’s total score

Adoption Index = ———————————- × 100

Total possible score

Depending upon the extent of adoption of scientific feeding practices, the respondents were categorized into low adopters (0-33.3%), partial adopters (33.3-66.6%) and high adopters (66.6-100%). The perceived training needs were measured on a three point continuum to which scores of 3, 2 and 1 were allotted based on the requirement of each trainings topic as perceived by the tribal farmers. Afterwards, for each topic the scores were added and divided by the total number of respondents. These mean score for all the factors were arranged in descending order and the most required factors were identified through the ranks assigned.

Results and Discussion

Distribution of Respondents According to the Extent of Adoption of Feeding Management Practices

The result of the study shows that overall majority of respondents belonged to partial adopter category (48.8%) followed by low adopter (43.1%) and high adopter (8.1%) categories. Similar finding was reported by Jiji and Vijayan (2012), Meena et al. (2004), Patel et al. (2009-10) and Veeranna & Singh (2004). Singh et al. (2014) reported that majority (55%) of the respondents of hill region was in the medium category of adoption of improved dairy husbandry practices in Manipur. Table further reveals that majority (51.1%) of small herd owners were low adopter of scientific feeding practices. Chi-square analysis shows that level of adoption had significant association with cattle herd size categories.

Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to the extent of adoption of feeding management practices

S. No. Level of Adoption Small (n=88) Medium (n=58) Large (n=14) Overall (N=160) Chi-square value
1 Low adopter (<33.3) 45(51.1) 19(32.8) 5(35.7) 69(43.1) 13.3*
2 Partial Adopter (33.3-66.6) 40(45.5) 29(50) 9(64.3) 78(48.8)
3 High adopter (>66.6) 3(3.4) 10(17.2) 0(0) 13(8.1)

Figures in parentheses indicate percentage *p<0.05

Correlation of Adoption of Scientific Feeding Management Practices with Selected Socio-Economic Variables

Table 2 reveals that total annual income, income from livestock, extension agency contact and mass media exposure have positive and significant correlation with adoption index of feeding management practices whereas, age has negative and significant correlation in small, medium , large and overall categories. Veeranna and Singh (2004) also reported that age, annual income, extension agency contact and mass media exposure exhibited positive and significant correlation with extent of adoption in Lambani tribes of Bidar district in Karnataka. Table 2 further reveals that material possession has negative and significant correlation with adoption index of feeding management practices in large and overall categories, whereas De et al. (2014) reported the adoption of feeding practices positively and significantly correlated with the material possession of the respondent. Patel et al. (2009-10) opined that the low adoption related with the economic condition and lack of positivism in terms of change agency contact, scientific orientation, risk orientation, knowledge and mass media exposure up to desired level.

Table 2: Correlation of adoption of scientific feeding management practices with selected socio-economic variables

S. No. Independent Variables Small (n=88) Medium(n=58) Large (n=14) Overall(N=160)
Coefficient of Correlation ®
1. Age -.562** -.825** -.586* -.700**
2. Land holding .208 -.113 -.345 .012
3. Experience in cattle farming .130 -.208 -.291 -.017
4. Total annual income .628** .813** .624* .733**
5. Income from livestock .968** .865** .548* .900**
6. Material possession -.167 -.123 -.700** -.193*
7. Extension agency contact .569** .951** 1.000** .780**
8. Mass media exposure .828** .846** .548* .831**

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Perceived Training Need for Feeding Management in Dairy Husbandry

It could be observed that with regard to several areas of training needed by respondents in feeding management the area of feeding of sick animals was perceived as most needed with a mean score of 2.7 and ranked first followed by feeding of newly born (2.24), feeding of pregnant animals (2.09), preparation of balanced ration (1.86), importance of clean drinking water (1.42) and preparation of mineral mixture (1.39) ranked II, III, IV, V and VI, respectively. Rajput et al.(2012) reported that training regarding feeding of mineral mixture and legumes was most required by dairy farmers, followed by balance feed and its composition and time of feeding in animals.

Table 3: Perceived training need for feeding management in dairy husbandry

Feeding Mean score Rank
a) Preparation of balanced ration 1.86 IV
b) Feeding of newly born 2.24 II
c) Feeding of pregnant animals 2.09 III
d) Feeding of sick animals 2.70 I
e) Preparation of mineral mixture 1.39 VI
f) Importance of clean drinking water 1.42 V

Conclusions

From present study, it can be concluded that majority of respondents had partial level of adoption followed by low and high level of adoption. The socioeconomic factors influence the adoption of technologies to a great extent as they determine the adoptability of any technology among the farmers. In this study, it was found that total annual income, income from livestock, extension agency contact and mass media exposure were positively and significantly related with adoption of feeding management practices whereas, age and material possession had negative and significant correlation with adoption of feeding management practices. Regarding training in feeding management the area of feeding of sick animals was ranked first by respondents.

References

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  2. De A, Goswami A and Mazumder D. 2014. Adoption Behaviour of Livestock Farmers in Paschim Medinipore District of West Bengal, India. International Journal Current Microbiolgical Applied Science. 3(8) : 666-672.
  3. Eqbal S, Singh MK, and Khan N. 2013. Information Needs as Perceived by Tribal Dairy Farmers of Chotanagpur Region in Dairy Farming. Indian journal of applied research. 3(6):506-507.
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  12. Singh S, Singh K, Chakravarty R and Imtiwati P. 2014. Differential Adoption of Improved Dairy Husbandry Practices in Hill and Valley Regions of Manipur (India). Iranian Journal of Applied Animal Science 4(3): 509-514.
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  14. Practices by Lambani Tribe. Karnataka J. Agri. Sci.17 (2):299-302.
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