Differential adoption behaviour of dairy farmers towards legume fodder crop berseem cv. Vardan

The IRD Focused on Dairying Programme was initiated in two Districts of Uttar Pradesh for increasing the income and employment of the dairy farmers. Under the programme adoption behaviour of farmers towards growing berseem cv. vardan was studied. The variables such as education, dairy income, total income, family education, land holding, herd size, extension contact, personal–localite sources, knowledge of fodder cultivation practices, level of aspiration, attitude towards dairy scheme, employment generation and mass media were selected. To find out characteristics, which differentiate between ‘high’ and ‘low’ adopters, Mahalnobis D2 function was used and it was observed that attitudes have to be changed first for higher adoption of high yielding variety of berseem fodder crop, and more the dairy income more was the adoption. Knowledge level regarding scientific dairy farming practices also contributed to a great extent and a dairy farmer high on this variable was expected to take appropriate management decision to adopt all package and practices to get maximum yield of green fodder. Next in order of importance were total income, land holding and herd size, which often determine the standard of living and extension contacts of a dairy farmer and go a long way in influencing his adoption behavior.