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Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Biosciences (IJPAB)
Year : 2020, Volume : 8, Issue : 6
First page : (107) Last page : (114)
Article doi: : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2582-2845.8416

Pattern of Bovine Population and Milk Production in Rural Areas of Bikaner District of Rajasthan

Dropati Saran^1* and Madhu Sharma^2
1PhD Scholar, ²Professor and Head,
Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, SKRAU, Bikaner
*Corresponding Author E-mail: dropati.saran4@gmail.com
Received: 15.09.2020 | Revised: 23.10.2020 | Accepted: 27.10.2020 

 ABSTRACT

Livestock rearing is one of the most important economic activities in the rural areas providing stable and supplementary income round the year. There are large inter-regional and inter-state variations in milk production as well as per capita availability in India.  The total milk production in Rajasthan was 23.68 million tonnes in 2018-19, and ranked second in India. In spite of high livestock population and total milk production in India, per animal average milk production is low. The present study was undertaken with the objective to study growth of livestock population in Rajasthan as well as in Bikaner district, pattern of bovine population and milk production in rural areas of Bikaner district of Rajasthan. The Bikaner district of Rajasthan was selected for the study purposively for having largest cattle population in Rajasthan. Out of eight tehsils in Bikaner district, one tehsil having highest cattle population in each of three distinct types of irrigation conditions was selected purposively. Total 180 farmers were selected from the six selected villages. The selected farmers were categorized into small, medium and large herd-size categories using cumulative square root frequency method. Considering the differences in regional endowments of animal wealth and species, the animals have been converted into SAUs. The secondary data required for estimation of growth rate were collected for the period from 1987-88 to 2018-19. The primary data were collected from the sample farmers for the year 2019-20. Growth in livestock population was estimated using compound growth rates of livestock population for Rajasthan and Bikaner. Total livestock population of Rajasthan during the census’s 1956 to 2019 registered compound growth rate of 5.0 % per census, respectively. The growth rate estimated revealed that cattle and buffalo population of Bikaner had enrolled a growth of 13.0 per cent per census. Size of herd was slightly higher in canal irrigated area and productivity of milk was highest in case of crossbred cows.

Keyword: Livestock population, Growth, Milk production, Cattle population, Herd-size categories.

Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782

Cite this article: Saran, D., & Sharma, M. (2020). Pattern of Bovine Population and Milk Production in Rural Areas of Bikaner District of Rajasthan, Ind. J. Pure App. Biosci. 8(6), 107-114. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2582-2845.8416