A CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN SOCIO-ECONOMICVARIABLES AND DAIRY MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF WOMEN DAIRY CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY MEMBERS IN ODISHA

ABSTRACT 100 WDCS members, having done dairying activities for 1 year or more were selected from 10 WDCS, through purposive sampling techniques. The majority of WDCS members (55 percent), belong to the middle age group (36-50 years). 16 per cent of WDCS members had high level knowledge on housing, followed by 69 per cent of WDCS members had medium level knowledge and 15 percent had low level knowledge of housing activities. 67 per cent of women dairy farmers had medium level knowledge on feeding, 19 percent members had a high level of knowledge on feeding and 14 per cent having low level knowledge on feeding practices, 72 percent women had medium knowledge about breeding practices as well as A.I., 13 percent were having low level of knowledge and 9 per cent women members were having a high level of knowledge on breeding practices. 73 percent of WDCS members had medium knowledge of health care practices of dairy cows, followed by 15 percent having high knowledge on dairy health care practices. Only 12 percent of WDCS members had low level knowledge on dairy health care practices. 62 per cent of WDCS members were having a medium level of knowledge on marketing of milk, followed by 23 per cent of WDCS members possessing high level knowledge. However, only 15 percent of WDCS members were having low level knowledge. When mean knowledge level is calculated among 5 activities of management practices, data revealed that highest mean (5.55 marks out of 10 marks) was secured by WDCS members on marketing activities, followed by 5.34marks out of 10 marks, on housing, 5.26 marks out of 10 marks on feeding, 5.04 marks out of 10 marks on health care and 4.78 mark out of 10 marks on breeding. Thus, on an average, 68.60 percent of the respondents had medium level knowledge of all the above five activities, whereas 16.4 percent respondents had high level knowledge and13.80 per cent respondents had low level knowledge, respectively. Correlation study revealed that, variables like age, family type, occupation, number of dairy animals, income from dairying, income from agriculture and other sources had positive correlation with knowledge level on dairy management practices. However, theeducation had negative correlation with knowledge level on dairy management practices. But, the variables like occupation, number of dairy animals, income from dairying, agriculture and other sources are significantly associated with the knowledge level on dairy management practices, among WDCS members at the 5 % level of significance.