Beyond economic motives: Value of indigenous dairy cattle breed for the livestock keepers in India
2022
Gunjan Bhandari | B S CHANDEL | R MALHOTRA
Indigenous cattle not only provide milk, dung and draught power but are also a crucial part of India’s ecological and cultural heritage. Despite this, they are facing threat of extinction. Absence of information regarding their multiple roles and monetary estimates of the benefits, obstructs the investment for their conservation. Current study attempts to assess the economic value of different benefits of one of the best indigenous cattle breeds of India, Sahiwal. Choice experiment was used for collecting primary data from 168 dairy farmers which was then analyzed using random parameter logit model. ʽCultural valueʼ of Sahiwal occupied the major share (29.93%) of total economic value followed by ʽindirect use value (21.25%)ʼ and ʽexistence value (18.40%)ʼ. Interestingly, share of ʽdirect consumptive use valueʼ was comparatively lower. This indicates that any decision on conservation taken solely on the basis of direct consumptive use value is unlikely to maximize the societal welfare. Development of specific market for milk and milk products of Sahiwal, promotion of the breed as symbol of peace and unity through various cultural and heritage parks, and revival of organic farming can incentivize the Sahiwal rearing farmers which can then supplement the conservation efforts of the government
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