Resource productivity in milk production at farm household level in Kumaon region of Uttarakhand

The study was carried out in two districts, viz. U.S. Nagar (located in the plains) and Almora (located in hills) of Kumaon region of Uttarakhand to compare the resource productivity in milk production at farm household level among different herd-size categories across member and nonmembers of Milk Producers’ Cooperative Societies. A total of 150 milk producing households having proportionate representation from different herd size categories across member and non-member groups were selected for the study. In order to consider the effect of various species/breed of milch animals kept by farm household, standard animal unit (SAU) was derived to standardize output of different farms with different species of dairy animals. Linear and Cobb-Douglas functions were tried to study input-output relationship. The linear equation gave better fit and was therefore selected for further analysis. The findings of the study indicated that there is a lot of scope for re-allocation of existing resource base for their optimum utilization. In some cases, inputs were over utilized, while in other cases, they were underutilized. The variables contributing most to variability in milk production were identified which have crucial policy implications in resource use readjustments in milk production.