Abstract

A study was conducted in 10 blocks representing five agro-climatic zones of Kerala to analyse the experience level and pattern of capacity building by dairy farmers. The target group was members of dairy co-operatives enrolled under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Government of Kerala. Using a stratified multistage random sampling procedure, 350 farmers were selected with representation from small, medium, and large categories of farms. The results indicated that 70-80 percent of the farmers had not received any special training in dairying in all farm sizes. The results revealed that government departments played an important role in imparting training to dairy farmers. The average duration of training received by the farmers was 1.05 ± 0.13 days. Analysis of farmers’ participation in extension programmes showed that 41.1, 67.0, and 68.0 percent, respectively from small, medium and large farms did not participate in any extension programmes during the previous year of study. The results indicated that most of the farmers and their families
were having a medium level of experience in dairying in all farm sizes. The extent of information utilisation by the farmers from different communication or mass media sources was observed to be at medium level. Results indicated that 70.3, 23.4, and 6.3 percent of the farmers had low, medium and high levels of social participation, respectively.

Keywords : Dairy Farming, Experience level, Training