Strengths and weaknesses of small dairy farms. A comparative study in a taluka of Anand district, Gujarat. 12. Agricultural Science Congres

Aubron, C.

Lucas, C.

Aubron, Claire

Lucas, Corentin

HAL-CIRAD

Strengths and weaknesses of small dairy farms: A comparative study in a taluka of Anand district, Gujarat

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IntroductionThe district of  Anand is well known in India for having given birth in the late 1940s to the cooperative model Amul considered as very inclusive for the smallholder dairy farmers. This issue is crucial in India, which has 70 millions of  farms producing milk, 80% of  them having less than one hectare of  land. But what are these Indian small dairy farms? What are their strengths in the current context, but also their weaknesses compared to other farms? Materials and methodsTo answer these questions, we led an agrarian system analysis in Petlad taluka, Gujarat, based on an intensive 4-months field work and in-depth interviews with farmers about their livestock practices. The characterization of  the ecosystem resources and the reconstitution of  the history of  their tenure and use by the local population enabled us to capture the diversity of  farms, which was then expressed through the modelling of  farm archetypes and the assessment of  their technical and economical results. These farms are here compared using three main indicators of  productivity: the gross value added per animal, per hectare of  land dedicated to livestock and per working day. Results 2 – Compared productivitiesConclusionsAs expected, the animal productivity is higher in the dairy farms rearing crossbred cows than in the small and landless farms with buffaloes. However, biggest dairy farms (> 75 cows) face troubles for management reasons, with consequences on animal productivity. Landless and pastoral farms appear to be more efficient in terms of  land productivity than all the dairy farms, which make them very relevant in a context of  low availability of  land and food feed competition. However, the very low labour productivity of  the small and landless farms –Rs. 100 to 200 per working day dedicated to livestock – shows that they are highly work demanding for spontaneous fodder collection. That is the reason why some daily agricultural workers quit livestock farming, thus losing this helpful income and questioning the future inclusiveness of  the dairy sector. Claire AUBRON1 and Corentin LUCAS21 Montpellier SupAgro (France, associate professor) and ILRI (India, visiting researcher): aubron@supagro.fr 2 CIRAD (France, master student) Results 1 – Dairy farms typologyFarm type Surface (ha)*Livestock Feeding practices Milk production(L/yr/fem.)Big dairy farms1-6 12-200 CCFodder crops (alfalfa, maize, sorghum)Purchased wheat chopped strawPurchased concentrates 2500Medium diversified farms0,4-2 4-12 CCCultivated napierMillet and rice strawPurchased concentrates 1800Small dairy farms0,08-0,253-4 CC and SBCultivated napierMillet and rice strawPurchased concentrates 1800Small diversified farms0,08-0,4 1-2 SBSpontaneous green fodder, napierMillet and rice strawPurchased concentrates 1000Sharecroppers0 (0,5-3 sharecropping)0-2 SBSpontaneous green fodder, napierMillet and rice strawPurchased concentrates1000Daily agricultural workers0 0-1 SBSpontaneous green fodder from field borders and weedingPurchased concentrates 800Pastoral farmers0 5-35IC and SBPastoral managementPurchased straw or green fodderPurchased concentrates1100CC: Crossbred Cows; SB: She-Buffalo; IC: Indigenous Cow* Almost all of  the land in the taluka is irrigatedINR / yr/ femaleLakh (105 ) INR / yr/ haINR / working daydaily average wage in the area Strengths and weaknesses of small dairy farms A comparative study in a taluka of Anand district, Gujarat

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Strengths and weaknesses of small dairy farms: A comparative study in a taluka of Anand district, Gujarat

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