Concentrate feeding to dairy cattle in India: Practices and implications for Indian dairy industry

The shaping of agriculture and allied sectors is possible as a result of research and development (R&D) efforts by offering new ideas, innovations, products and technologies. However, it is also observed that majority of the technologies developed by scientists are irrelevant and inappropriate for field conditions leading to poor diffusion and adoption. This issue is also aggravated by the fact that there is poor linkage of research-extension and farmers. With this theoretical background, the present study has focused on the ground realities or practices, perception of multi-stakeholders viz. dairy farmers, scientists and extensionists about concentrate feeds and has proposed certain policy implications for Indian dairy industry. The study included 360 dairy farmers, 80 research scientists and 40 extensionists in India. The primary data was collected by both qualitative and quantitative method using interview schedule, questionnaire, focus group discussion and observation method. The study revealed that scientists and extension experts were more favourable towards relevance, profitability and sustainability of concentrate feeds, while the perception of farmers was less favourable towards concentrate feeds. The study also observed that there was a wide gap (higher per cent gap) among farmers-scientists and farmers-extensionists with regards to relevance, profitability and sustainability of concentrate feeds, while the gap was very narrow among scientists and extensionists. Hence, the study concluded that scientists have to generate and transfer field relevant, profitable and sustainable dairy innovations for higher diffusion and adoption at field conditions. The study also recommends to involve farmers as the partners of research and extension for effective generation and transfer of dairy innovations leading to higher productivity in Indian dairy sector.