Studies of dairy value chain : Identify challenges and opportunities for development of dairy in Mahoba

Dairy industry plays a crucial role in agro-based economy of country it provides enough scope to the rural and sub-urban people to earn extra money in their leisure time. On this line the study was conducted to characterize the dairy value chain and to identify challenges and opportunities for development of the dairy industry in district Mahoba, Bundelkhand region of UP. The study reveals that dairy value chain working as unorganized way. The roles and functions of all the factors in the value chain were not clear and there was a weak link between milk producers, traders and other stakeholders. Shortage and high cost of feed, lack of institutional support who provides dairy related information, disease prevalence, lack of technical support, and lack of dairy related technologies were the major constraints found related to milk production whereas problems related to milk marketing include lack of quality control of milk, lack of cooling and storage facilities at milk vending sites, poor quality of milk supplied from rural areas, sale of raw milk, inappropriate milk handling and storage vessels, and spoilage of milk due to lack of preservation and processing facilities. The major opportunities for the development of the dairy sector in Mahoba include high demand of milk, presence of enabling policy that encourages investment in the dairy sector, absence of competitors, and easy access to transportation systems. Thus, in order to develop the Mahoba dairy industry, all the challenges identified in this study need to be carefully considered and addressed. Moreover, coordination and intervention strategies should be designed and applied across the entire value chain in order to develop the dairy sector.