Development and Standardization of Knowledge Test on Organic Dairy Farming (ODF) Practices in Sub Tropics of Jammu Region of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (India)

Organic farming is becoming very popular worldwide and being practiced in 179 countries of the world. In India too, the cultivated area under certified organic farming has increased exponentially over a decade. Intensive chemical based farming especially after green revolution has produced deteriorating effect on soil productivity and soil/animals/ human health. Organic dairy production systems are knowledge and skill intensive, where the producers are expected to be knowledgeable about production norms, standards and practices for production and processing prescribed under approved standards. National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) standards for organic livestock, poultry and products, 2014; International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement, Germany ( IFOAM) Norms for Organic Production and Processing, 2014 and Organic Animal Husbandry Development in Sikkim: The Road Map, Sikkim Organic Mission, Government of Sikkim, 2015 formed the basis for the subject matter of Knowledge test on organic dairy farming. As the knowledge plays a vital in role in promoting and promulgating the practices of any farming. Therefore, a tool in the form of knowledge test was developed and standardized for measuring the knowledge of stakeholders regarding organic dairy farming practices. A total number of 55 statements were collected in the form of open-ended and multiple choice questions which were served to 30 dairy farmers of village Suchetgarh of block R.S. Pura in sub tropics of Jammu region for their response. Data were analyzed for calculating difficulty and discrimination index and 34 statements falling between the difficulty index of 30 to 80 and discrimination index of 0.30 to 0.55 were selected for calculating reliability and validity. Split-half reliability was calculated using Spearman Brown Prophecy Formula and was found to be 0.935. Internal consistency of the knowledge test was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha (α) and the value was calculated to be 0.830 and was significant (p<0.05), as Cronbach Alpha can be employed significantly for both binary-type (dichotomous) and large-scale data to judge the internal consistency of the instrument. The validity of knowledge test was established through content validity. Therefore, the final knowledge test containing 34 statements related to different aspects of organic dairy farming standards such as origin and conversion period, breeds and breeding aspects, Housing management, Feeding management, Animal Health Management, dairy animal welfare and Organic dairy Certification were standardized. This test is suitable for assessing the knowledge level of the stakeholders for organic dairy farming practices and suitable interventions can be made for enhancing the knowledge, thus converting conventional dairy farmers to organic dairy farmers.