Camel dairy related characteristics of farmers in Bikaner district of Rajasthan

As per 20^th Livestock Census of India, the total Camel population in the country is 2.5 Lakhs in 2019, decreased by 37.05% over previous Census (2012). Rajasthan and Gujarat are the major states that have a camel population. Decreasing camel population trends in India is a very serious issue in camel husbandry development. Therefore, the one hundred and twenty camel dairy farmers in Bikaner district of Rajasthan state were interviewed to study camel dairy related characteristics of farmers. Majority of the respondents had more experience (above 16 to 37 years) in farming; experience in entrepreneurship (above 4 to 12 years); medium socio-economic utility of camel; medium type dairy camel herd size (above 3 to 14), medium type of total camel herd size (above 1 to 50); other animal herd size (above 3 to 11); medium type of camel dairy milk production (above 4 to 16 lit. day⁻¹); dairy camel milk sale (above 3 to 9 lit. day⁻¹); medium size of number of camel males used for breeding purpose (1 to 3); unorganized (self-managed and partnership) and organized (co-operatives and company) type of entrepreneurship and beneficiary of govt. or bank scheme, medium level of knowledge about scientific management practices; medium level of socio-economic utility of camel, respectively, which were crucial observations can be very useful to analyse existing camel farming situations.