Practice-wise adoption of clean milk production practices and its correlation among tribal dairy farm women in Chhotaudepur district of Gujarat state

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the practice-wise adoption of clean milk production (CMP) practices and to determine the relationship between the adoption level and selected socio-economic characteristics of tribal dairy farm women in Chhotaudepur district of Gujarat. The study was conducted in Pavi-Jetpur and Bodeli talukas of Chhotaudepur district. From each taluka, three villages were selected and 20 tribal dairy farm women were selected from each village, resulting in a total sample of 120 respondents. Data were collected through a pre-tested structured interview schedule. The adoption of clean milk production practices was measured using a three-point continuum of “always”, “sometimes,” and “not at all”, assigned scores of 2, 1 and 0, respectively. The collected data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean score, rank and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The findings revealed that, among the different clean milk production practices, care to be taken by the milker during milking and care of milking utensils ranked first, with a mean score of 1.10 each, followed by care after milking (0.90), care of animal shed (0.70) and care of milch animals (0.50). The majority of respondents (70.83%) belonged to the medium adoption category, followed by 15.83 per cent with low adoption and 13.34 per cent with high adoption. Correlation analysis revealed that annual income (r = - 0.1969**) and milk production (r = - 0.2048**) had a negative and highly significant relationship with the adoption level of clean milk production practices. In contrast, education (r = 0.3759**), experience in animal husbandry (r = 0.1902**), occupation (r = 0.2130**), social participation (r = 0.2083**) and mass media exposure (r = 0.2379**) showed a positive and highly significant relationship with the adoption level of clean milk production practices. The findings indicate the need for strengthening education, extension support, social participation and access to mass media to improve the adoption of clean milk production practices among tribal dairy farm women and thereby contribute to improved milk quality and sustainable dairy development.