Impact of Dairy Co-operative Societies on Milk Producers’ Economy

The study has estimated the costs and returns in milk production and has documented the problems being faced by the members of milk producer's co-operative societies in production and marketing of milk in the Dharwad district of Karnataka. Following multistage sampling procedure, 120 milk producers were selected, from whom data were collected for the agricultural year 2013–14. Budgeting and Garrett ranking techniques have been used to analyze the data. The study has revealed that the net returns in milk production were 10,532 animal/annum, leading to an undiscounted benefit-cost ratio of 1.25. The major constraints identified included high cost of cattle feeds, lack of good quality concentrates, non-availability of emergency veterinary services and artificial insemination facilities. With respect to milk marketing, the majority of farmers opined that the price fixed by milk producer's cooperative society was not remunerative and grading of milk was not proper. To enhance the economic status of milk producers, co-operative efforts are required to produce green fodder, concentrates and supply a balanced cattle feed to the farmers in time at reasonable price.