AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF MARKETED SURPLUS AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MILK PRODUCERS OF DAIRY COOPERATIVES IN BARPETA, ASSAM

Animal husbandry, being the second largest contributor next to agriculture, provides subsidiary occupation and gainful employment to millions of rural farmers. India ranks first among the world's milk producing nations, achieving the output of 187.7 million tons during the year 2018-19. Dairy Cooperatives provide farmers an organizational arrangement at the grass root level to raise their socio-economic standards. This study is carried out to explore the socio-economic characteristics and marketed surplus of milk to get a precise understanding of dairy farming under dairy cooperatives in Barpeta district of Assam. This study covered 120 milk producer members selected randomly from dairy cooperative societies. Among the herd size categories, milk produce marketed surplus ranges from 88.68 percent for small category to 94.84 percent for large category. The detailed information pertaining to socio-economic characteristics of milk producers was collected from each of the selected household using pre-tested schedule.