Impact of Vocational Trainings on Adoption of Dairy Enterprise in South-Western Districts of Punjab

The economic contribution of livestock is quite substantial in the agricultural economy as well as in the national economy. The basic objective of all the vocational trainings is to create self employment in the dairy farming with recommended technologies of feeding, breeding, housing, disease control, management and marketing. To study the impact of vocational courses organized, three south–western districts namely Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur of Punjab were selected. A total of 866 dairy farmers who acquired vocational trainings on dairy farming from KVK, Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur during the year 2011, 2012 and 2013 were selected for the collection of data. The information filled in a questionnaire from the trained farmers by visiting and discussing with them personally was analyzed for adoption status in dairy enterprise. The farmers were categorized in seven categories i.e. domestic (1–2 animals), marginal (3–5 animals), small (5–10 animals), medium (10–20 animals), large (20–100 animals), commercial (above 100 animals) and others who did not adopt the enterprise. The results revealed that 24.7 per cent farmers adopted this vocation as domestic, 16.8 per cent as marginal, 11.5 per cent as small, 7.0 per cent as medium, 04.1per cent as large, and 1.9 per cent on commercial scale while 16.9 per cent did not adopt dairy farming. It was also concluded that trainings on dairy farming play a significant role in bringing improvement in the socio-economic status of the farmers.