Socio-economic status and information dissemination behaviour of dairy farmers of rural Punjab

People belonging to different social strata have different needs and different reach to information sources. Late adopters and laggards depend upon progressive dairy farmers and early adopters to first use and then tell them about the technology. Information dissemination behaviour of end users, help in disseminating of information through localite channels. So, it is imperative to study the dissemination behaviour of dairy farmers. Hence, this study was carried out to compare the socio-economic status and information dissemination behaviour of male and female dairy farmers of rural Punjab. The research was carried out in Punjab. One block each from Majha and Doaba while two blocks from Malwa were selected for rational distribution. From the selected blocks, 160 dairy farmers comprising of male as well as female were selected randomly for the study. The results of the study reveal that majority of the respondents were middle aged, married and educated either up to matric or senior secondary. Results showed that the majority of respondents belonged to general caste, nuclear families with small or marginal land holdings and had low income. They were dependent upon agriculture along with dairy for livelihood. Regarding information dissemination behaviour, dairy farmer always shared information with those who came to them. Female dairy farmers significantly disseminate more information than male dairy farmer by lending printed literature to others. Feeding practices were discussed the most among all dairy practices. Male discussed more about marketing of milk as compared to female. Marital status as well as caste was found to be significantly associated with information dissemination behaviour.