Analysis of knowledge and adoption level of the dairy farmers regarding clean milk production (CMP) practices

Abstract

The milk quality is determined by aspects of composition and hygiene of milk, where breeding, feeding, management of healthcare, fodder production, and many such facts mainly influence the compositional quality. Dairy farmer is the key client in this process, who decides the quality of milk from feeding of the milch animal to dairy product supply chain. This study was conducted to know the level of knowledge and adoption of dairy farmers regarding clean milk production practices. Rajasthan state was selected purposively for this study, where 120 dairy farmers from the milk shed area of four districts milk union were selected. The results of the study revealed that 55.84 per cent of the dairy farmers had medium level of knowledge in various aspects of CMP, followed by 33 and 20 per cents of them having low and high level of knowledge, respectively. They had highest knowledge in ‘Housing’ [Knowledge Index (KI) =85.83], followed by ‘Milking’ (KI=76.66). However, they had poor knowledge in ‘Cleaning of animal’ (KI=50.41) and ‘Cooling of milk’ (KI=57.91). It was observed that 71.67 per cent of the dairy farmers had medium level of adoption in various aspects of CMP, followed by 13.33 and 15.00 per cents of them having low and high level of adoption, respectively. It was also found that they adopted recommended practices of ‘Transportation’ up to maximum extent with Adoption Index (AI) of 86.50, followed by ‘Feeding’ (AI=68.68), however, extent of adoption regarding ‘Cleaning of utensil’ (AI=43.40) and ‘Healthy herd management’ (AI=45.23) was found less.