Crossbred cattle adoption and market participation behaviour of smallholder dairy farmers in Assam

Smallholder production system and informal milk marketing being predominant in Assam, the present study tries to understand the changing market participation behaviour of smallholder dairy farmers with adoption of high yielding crossbred cattle. The study is based on information collected from a sample size of 245 smallholder dairy farmers using structured and pre-tested interview schedule. The study has shown that with adoption of crossbred cattle, surplus milk is generated and thus larger number of farmers becomes market participant. Furthermore, the study points out that crossbred cattle adopters seem more commercially oriented as more than 70% of the marketed surplus is absorbed in selling self to the market and dairy cooperatives society together. While non-adopters’ market participation is found to be minimal as many of them are found to dispose the surplus milk by selling retail to their nearby households. It is again found that marketed surplus of milk increased by 14.60% due to crossbred cattle adoption for the smallholder dairy farmers in the state. Thus, the study suggests that diffusion of crossbreeding technology is important in order to encourage farmers to increase their market participation