Information Needs Assessment and Prioritization of Dairy Farmers

Among the different sectors of agriculture livestock based information was the most sought information by the farmers in our country. It was reported that hardly five percent of the farm households in India were able to access the information on animal husbandry as against forty percent on crop farming. It was primarily due to the lack of efficient livestock extension system in place. Hence before developing any advisory modules to the farmers, assessment of their informational needs should be prior step. In the present study, a survey was carried out to elicit the present level of knowledge and future information needs of dairy farmers. The study revealed that majority of the farmers i.e. 76.7 per cent of them possessed medium level of knowledge on dairy farming practices. Based on the weighted mean score of each subject area, dairy farmers informational needs were prioritized as most wanted information regarding, nutrition and feeding (2.22), breeding and reproduction (2.15), general management (2.12), health care management (2.08) and fodder production (1.94) respectively. The present status demand the effective livestock extension system in place especially deployment of information communication technologies to address the most sought information needs of the dairy farmers.