Thesis Abstract of AGS Students

Shyam Prasad Poudyal (1997)

Promotion of dairy farming in the mid-hills region of the country to meet the increasing demand for milk has been the policy of government of Nepal. However, achievements toward this end has not been very encouraging. Present study aimed to assess the economic potentiality of promoting dairy farming in the high value crop based farming systems in the eastern mid-hills region of the country.

Employing stratified sampling technique, 6 village development committees of Illam district were selected and survey was carried out to collect data using structured questionnaire. Of the total sample size, 100 households were selected from inside the Dairy Development Corporation’s (DDC) operation area and remaining 50 households from outside the DDC area.

Farmers accorded highest priority to high value crops followed by dairy and lastly to cereal crops in both inside and outside DDC areas. Farmers order of priority was found consistent looking into the contribution of these components to the household income. Livestock contributed 27 % and 21 % to the total household income in inside and outside DDC areas respectively and major share of the contribution was from milk.

Farmers’ reasons for integration of dairy and high value crops show the supplementary relationship between them. Dairy animals did not compete for land as uncultivated upland was the major source of fodder and animals were completely stall fed however increase in herd size would compete for the family labor. Significant difference was observed in amount of milk produced, sold and consumed by the farm families between inside and outside DDC areas.

The types of feed resources used in animal feeding across study sites were found comparable but the productivity of fodder trees was found higher in outside DDC area. In terms of total DM requirements, 32 % households in inside DDC area and 22 % in outside DDC area were found to be deficient.

Ranking and scoring technique employed to analyze farmers’ problems in production and marketing of high value crops and milk showed that although the nature of problems did not vary much but the priority attached to the problems by farmers were found to be different. In case of dairy farming, the descending order of priorities to the problems were reported to be low milk price, high incidence of diseases and limited market outlet in inside DDC area. Where as in outside DDC area, the order of priorities to the problems were no access to sell fresh milk, lack of transportation service and high incidence of diseases.

Production function estimation revealed that concentrate feed, fodder and labor contributed positively and significantly to the milk yield. Significantly lower milk yield was found for the areas where farmers grew broom as cash crop than where use broom grass for fodder. Farmers in inside DDC area got significantly higher milk yield from concentrate feeding. Elasticity of substitution between fodder and concentrate was found very negligible.

The net return per cow per year is significantly higher in inside DDC area but return to labor from high value crops was found much higher compared to milk in both inside and outside DDC areas.

The findings of the study suggest that in outside DDC area, unless road access is reliable and farmers have access to sell fresh milk on a regular basis crossbred dairy cows are no longer suitable on economic grounds. Therefore, as an immediate measure, supporting farmers in Ghee production from buffalo milk specifically on higher recovery and enhancing the keeping quality would be an alternative. However, to capitalize the opportunities in the long run, provision of access to sell fresh milk is a must.

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