Perception of dairy farmers and officials towards dairy venture capital fund scheme in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India

The present study was conducted to know the perception of dairy farmers’ and officials’ towards Dairy Venture Capital Fund (DVCF) Scheme in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Total 120 dairy farmers, who were beneficiaries of DVCF Scheme and 40 officials involved in implementing the scheme, were selected as respondents. Majority of beneficiaries perceived awareness regarding scheme as inadequate whereas they were also unsatisfied with benefits specified in the scheme. More than half of beneficiaries (63.33%) agreed to the statement that ‘The scheme sustains the interest of young farmers’ and they were optimistic about future of dairying in the state. Majority of the beneficiaries (61.67%) were satisfied with the present mode of functioning of the scheme. A higher percentage of beneficiaries (69.17%) perceived loan obtaining procedure as laborious and 81.67 per cent agreed to the statement that ‘unit cost need to be increased’. A large number of officials (90.00%) were of the view that there is proper flow of information from officials and all of the officials (100.00%) were optimistic that the scheme shall encourage dairying in the state. Regarding financial attribute of the perception 70.00 per cent of the officials agreed that there is need to increase unit cost of the items and a bulk of the officials (90.00%) perceived present mode of collection of finances as appropriate.