Factors influencing small holders’ participation in dairy cooperatives

A study was carried out in Udham Singh Nagar and Almora districts of Uttarakhand to ascertain the milk marketing pattern, factor influencing cooperative membership and proportion of milk output sold. Logit model was employed to identify the significant factors influencing cooperative membership, while multivariate linear regression equation was fitted to identify the factors influencing proportion of output sold by farmers. The findings of the study revealed that in the region having cooperative network, Dairy Cooperative Society (DCS) was the predominant marketing agency. In the region outside the milk route of dairy cooperative network, middlemen were the predominant agency in the plains, while, in hills, milk producer sold to village consumers. Distance to market and non-farm income significantly influenced cooperative membership. Landholding had positive influence on cooperative membership in plains. Price received for milk exerted negative influence on proportion of output sold, implying that households in plains which received lower price for milk sold a greater proportion of milk produced so as to compensate for lower price with higher volume and thus get higher returns.