Adoption of hygienic milk production practices and perceived constraints by dairy farmers

Introduction

Livestock rearing is one of the most important economic activities in the rural areas of the country. India continues to be the largest producer of milk in world with an annual production of 230.58 million tonnes (Annual Report, 2023-24) [1] . The nature of milk is perishable in nature. The quality of contaminated milk deteriorates quickly and produces diseases if consumed. Therefore, care has to be taken in production, storage, and transport of milk. Good quality milk is essential for production of good quality dairy products. Consumers all over the world have become quality conscious and prefer good quality milk and its products (Singh and Gupta, 2014) [7] . The good quality milk can be produced thorough hygienic measures adopted at all phases of milk production at farm level. Essentially hygienic milk production practices are critical in preventing the transmission of disease from animals to man, preventing the transmission of communicable diseases of man through milk and improving the nutritional quality of milk. Milk synthesized in udder is almost sterile, but taken out through milking, microorganisms enter from various sources like milch animal itself, milker, milking barn, milking utensil, farm water, equipment, storage and transportation. Therefore, for the farmer to produce good quality milk they must adopt the hygienic milk production practices. Dairy farmer is the key client in this process, who decides the quality of milk from milking stage at farm level to milk supply chain. Hence, the present study was undertaken to study the adoption level of hygienic milk production practices and barriers in adoption of hygienic milk production practices by using scientific survey methods.

Materials and Methods

The study was carried out in the Junagadh district of Gujarat state. It is to be noted that the Junagadh district was purposively selected due to the larger share of dairy farmers in the study area. Two talukas were selected namely Junagadh and Keshod for the study purpose keeping in view the objective of the study. From each taluka, three villages were selected. In this way six villages were selected. From each village thirty farmers were randomly selected for the study. Thereby, the study involves a sample size of 180 dairy farmers. The farmers were selected on the basis of their primary occupation being dairy business or at least 50 percent of the annual income being derived from the dairy business. An exhaustive list of hygienic milk production practices was collected. There was a total of 39 hygienic milk production practices identified using literature study and expert discussions. From the list of collected practices, finally those were selected which were considered more relevant for the farmers by subject experts and scientists of the relevant field. Finally, ten practices were selected for the study purpose. For collection of data a structured interview schedule was prepared and pre-testing of interview schedule was done on non-sample population. The data were coded, classified, tabulated and analysed using the software with appropriate statistical methods like mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage etc. to derive the relevant information.

Results and Discussion

Adoption of hygienic milk production practices Among the highly adopted hygienic milk production practices, the practice of cleaning the shed floor by washing with water or dry cleaning 10-15 minutes before milking was found to be widely adopted (90.56%) followed by suitable size lid should always be used to cover the utensils (88.89%); milking Utensils should be cleaned and sanitize before and after their use and kept dry (86.11%); milk should bring to disposal point as quickly as possible after milking to avoid multiplication of harmful bacteria (83.33%) and Chewing, smoking and spitting with tobacco should be avoided during milking (83.33%) (Table 1). The findings are in line with result of Yankam and Bhanotra (2018) [4] that majority (83.33%) of the dairy farmers washed their dairy animals. The practice of cleaning of udder with water before milking was done by almost all the 100 percent of dairy farmers Shivkumar and Bhanotra, 2018 [4] ; Bainwad et al., 2007 [3] ; Singh et al., 2015 [5] that cleaning of udder before milking was done by 93.89 percent of the respondents and that too only with water. Though wide adoption of these practices can ensure quality milk production, the large-scale adoption of remaining hygienic milk production practices strategies may not only yield safe milk but also improve income levels of the households through quality milk production and avoid spoilage losses. Lack of good manure disposal system was perceived by majority of the dairy farmers as a major constraint as it is evident from table 2. Further, lack of awareness on testing the animal for tuberculosis and brucellosis at least once a year, lack of availability of separate milking area, lack of training on milking animal management and lack of knowledge on various aspect of hygienic milk production practices were some of the major constraints which were major obstacles in adoption of hygiene milk production practices.

Constraints perceived by dairy farmers in adoption of hygienic milk production practices

Conclusion

Dairy farmers have adopted most of the selected hygienic milk production practices at their farm with the variation of adoption percentage within 72-92. Further, there are wide scope to increase adoption percentage of remaining practices which were not adopted by farmers. Manure disposal management system and health care facility as well as awareness level needed to be strengthened to improve adoption of hygienic milk production practices. For widespread adoption efforts should be made to convince dairy farmers about the importance of adoption of preventive measures likewise cleanliness of milch animal, personal hygiene of milking person, cleaning of milking place and shed, cleaning of milking vessel and utensils of milk collection at the society for quality milk production.

References

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