Abstract

India has apex position in livestock population and milk production in the world, but per capita milk production is low due to certain reasons. In India, most of livestock farmers belong to small house hold farming community and carrying out traditional practices. This study was carried out to know the main constraints faced by the livestock farmers in adopting dairy farming technology at grass root level. Study was limited to only twenty (20) villages of the Mahuwa taluka of Bhavnagar district in Gujarat. From each village, ten (10) farmers were randomly interviewed and thus it comprises of total two hundred (200). The study was carried out by using an ex-post facto design. About half of the farmers belonged to middle age group and had primary level education. Most of them had large family size and belongs to joint family. Majority of livestock farmers kept buffalo as a livelihood source. Nearly half of them had small land holding with medium (Rs.80, 001 to 2, 50,000) annual income. Major constraints found during this study were high cost of technology, high expenses in other inputs of livestock farming, low profit in dairy farming, poor economic condition and small herd size.

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