Assessment of tribal dairy farmers’ perceived importance, level of awareness and constraints in the adoption of good feeding practices using exploratory factor analysis

This investigation was undertaken to explore the tribal farmers’ perceived importance, awareness, adoption and constraints for good feeding practices (GFPs) of dairy animals in northern hilly zone of Chhattisgarh. To study the perceived importance towards good feeding practices, the pattern matrix of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was administered. It revealed that the Factor 1 (semi intensive approach) explained maximum variance (35.24%) and had highest eigen value (2.77). Awareness study revealed that about one-fourth (27.67%) of the tribal farmers were aware about green fodder varieties, nearly half (43.0%) of the respondents were aware about the importance of colostrum feeding to calf with proper timing and quantity. The adoption results clearly indicated that about 24.66 per cent of the respondents cultivated cumbu napier green fodder varieties such as CO 3, CO(CN) 4 and CO(BN) 5. Regression analysis showed that the variables like age, occupational status, farm size, milk production and social participation had positive and significant relationship with good feeding practices. Constraints analysis revealed that majority (75.70%) of tribal farmers expressed the higher cost of concentrates, mineral mixtures and vitamin supplements as the major constraints in the feeding management of animals.