Constraints perceived by the tribal dairy farmers and NGO personnel for sustainable livelihood generation in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

The present study revealed the constraints perceived by the tribes and NGO personnel for sustainable livelihood generation through dairy farming in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra. Responses were collected from 64 tribal dairy farmers and 20 NGO personnel. The important constraints faced by tribal dairy farmers were inadequate knowledge about balanced feeding (85.93) followed by tick/worms infestation, problem in heat detection, high cost of concentrates and incidence of reproductive disorders in the milch animals in order of severity, low productivity of animal, repeat breeding in cows, relatively low conception rate through AI, poor quality of bulls at village, low availability of green fodder round the year, low price of liquid milk in order of severity. Among the constraints perceived by the NGO personnel, poor purchasing power of the tribes (83.33), transportation problem, lack of commitment among tribal farmers, insufficient availability of fund to carry out the programme, inadequate staff at field level, inadequate and untimely supply of semen, vaccine, medicines, etc. were the important in order of seriousness. These constraints cannot be solved with the single effort of NGOs and both government and private agencies should join hands for generation of sustainable livelihood for tribes through dairy farming.