*Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad-500 059
International Crop research Institute for Semiarid Tropics, Patancheru, India-502 324
Online published on 23 October, 2017.
The paper analyses interstate movement of graded Murrah buffaloes and sustainability issues in their rearing on urban dairy farms. The data related to buffalo rearing, channels of their supply and disposals were collected from randomly selected 48 dairy farms in Hyderabad, Telangana in the year 2009–10. The other data points were traders from Haryana stationed in Hyderabad, interstate traders from Hyderabad, local buffalo traders, butchers and trader-farmers. The sample consisted 19 small (with average of 6.15 buffaloes), 16 medium (14.5 buffaloes)and 13 large dairy farms (85.7 buffaloes). The majority of graded Murrah buffaloes were supplied from Haryana (Rohtak, Jind, and Hisar districts). The paper analysed the market channels, price spread, marketing efficiency and constraints at farm level. The study clearly deciphers the supply chain and brings out the factors that threaten the sustainability of such system of production and trade in the long term and proposes options for enhancing the sustainability of such production system. Large number of graded dry buffaloes which are culled every year for slaughter by the urban dairy units, if transferred to neighbouring rural areas, would help conserve the superior germ plasm and will have implications for enhancing milk production significantly.
