Enhancing tribal dairy farming: From tradition to innovation

Abstract

The present study was carried out in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, focusing on tribal dairy farmers. Data were collected from 100 respondents from selected villages namely Jaganpuri, Garadpur, and Sadhunagar in Sitarganj block. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents belonged to the middle age group, were from the tribal community, had varying levels of education from primary to higher education, and most of them lived in joint families. Their primary occupation was agriculture along with dairy farming and wage labour. Most farmers belonged to the small landholding category and kept dairy animals mainly for household consumption and supplementary income. Dairy was a significant contributor to their livelihoods. However, many faced challenges such as limited access to veterinary services, inadequate market linkages, and dependence on traditional methods of dairy farming. The following tables present the socio-economic and dairy-related characteristics of the respondents.