Adoption Behavior of Dairy Innovations by Small Farmers under Different Farming Systems in Assam

Dairy farming is one of the important enterprises in India which supports agricultural development by providing gainful employment and steady income to the rural households. It has a symbiotic relation with the crop farming in terms of its providing draught power to agricultural operation and manures. The present study on adoption behaviour of small farmers in dairy innovation was conducted in Sonitpur district of Assam. A sample size of 45 small farmer respondents was selected from each of the three selected farming systems by using proportionate random sampling technique. The study showed that small farmers normally had low to medium levels of adoption of dairy farming practices in selected farming system i.e., 84.44 per cent in FS 1 and 82.22 per cent in FS 2 and FS 3 , respectively. The study further indicated that except age, most of the variables under study such as education, extension contact, annual income, operational land holding, innovation proneness and decision making ability of the respondents had positively significant relationship with their extent of adoption of improved dairy farming practices under the selected farming systems.