Development and Application of a Psychometric Scale to Measure Awareness of the Dairy Farmers on Animal Waste Management in Urban and Peri-urban Areas of National Capital Region (NCR), India

This study has been undertaken to measure the awareness of urban and peri-urban dairy farmers regarding the dairy animal waste management. A scale has been developed by summated rating method suggested by Edward (1969) with little modifications. It was then administered to 252 dairy farmers from four different sub-regions of National Capital Region, India equally covering urban and peri-urban dairies. The data was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U Statistic and Duncun Multiple Range Test. The dairy farmers were grouped into low, medium and high categories of awareness level and highest number of the farmers belonged to low awareness category (35.71%) followed by medium (35.32%) and high (28.97%) awareness category. Overall, in NCR, there exist a significant difference at 1 per cent level (P value=0.001; <0.01) between the awareness of respondents in urban and peri-urban areas. The dairy farmers in Delhi were found to be more aware regarding the dairy animal waste management with mean value of 33.76±1.20 followed by Rajasthan (25.06±1.84), Haryana (23.70±1.17) and Uttar Pradesh (23.17±1.84). This study will provide a significant tool for the researchers to measure the awareness of dairy farmers on animal waste management. It will gain attention of policy makers to adopt strategies for improving the awareness of dairy farmers and thus minimize the risk caused by dairy farming in urban areas.