Ranking of barriers to adoption of good livestock husbandry practices (GRP) in Arid zone of Rajasthan

Among the animals, large ruminant cattle i.e. cow of Tharparkar breed is most commonly reared for milk and other dairy products. Apart from cow, sheep, goat, buffalo and camel are also prominent in this area. Sheep and goats are generally reared in herds whereas camels are found singly or in groups of two to five. To identify the barriers in adopting good animal husbandry practices, survey was conducted in five tehsils of different villages of Jaisalmer district, viz. Tejwa of Jaisalmer, Phusasar of Bhaniyana, Phusasar of Fatehgarh, Sadrao of Mohangarh and Lava of Pokaran. For this study, 15 farmers were selected from each tehsil. Thus, in total 75 farmers from the selected five villages were selected based on the information received. Garrett ranking technique was used to measure the barriers in the development of animal husbandry. Livestock breeding has been identified as the major constraint, followed by feeding management in animals (MPS), health care, housing management and administration and marketing along with MPS. Removing these constraints can go a long way in adopting good husbandry practices for livestock and increasing livestock productivity and income of farmers involved in animal husbandry, thereby improving their livelihood conditions. Lumpy virus epidemic was observed as the major constraint among livestock farmers in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Pali districts of Rajasthan.