IMPACT OF TRAINING INTERVENTION ON KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF TRAINED DAIRY ANIMAL OWNERS : AN APPLICATION OF PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING METHOD

Current study was undertaken in state of Maharashtra with an objective to ascertain the impact of long duration dairy farming training on knowledge acquisition by the trained dairy animal owners in terms of scientific dairy farming practices against the statistically formed comparison group of untrained dairy animal owners using propensity score matching method. The study revealed that majority of trained dairy animal owners - similar to untrained dairy animal owners - had medium knowledge level of breeding, feeding, management and health aspects of dairy farming practices. These majorities were followed by high level category of respondents in trained group against the low knowledge level categories of untrained. Mann Whitney U test revealed that knowledge of scientific dairy practices among trained group was significantly higher in all broad aspects of dairy practices than the untrained dairy animal owners. Hence, it is suggested that Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) need to plan more long duration trainings and extend its benefit among larger population of small, marginal and landless dairy animal owners scattered in wide area.