ADOPTION LEVEL OF BUFFALO FARMING PRACTICES IN THE ARID ZONE OF RAJASTHAN

This study was conducted in Pali district. This district was purposively selected for the study as the first phase of the project was in operation only in this district. The sample size was limited to 200 participants and 100 non-participants considering the time and other resources available for the study. A sample of 10 participant farmers were selected by adopting simple random sampling technique from each of the selected 20 villages. Likewise, 100 non-participant farmers were selected from six villages of the non-project area having similar socio-economic status. Thus, in all 300 farmers constituted the sample of the study. It could be concluded that 47.50 and 42.50 percent of the participant farmers were in the medium and high levels of adoption of recommended practices, respectively, whereas 54.00 and 45.00 percent of the non-participant farmers in the control villages were in the medium and low levels of adoption, respectively. The extent of adoption of participant farmers was strikingly more than that of the non-participant farmers and there existed a significant difference between the two groups. In the case of the non-participant farmers, the majority of them were non-adopters of various recommended practices except in practices such as period of grazing and feeding of tree leaves in summer. The reasons given by the majority of the participant farmers for non-adoption of recommended practices were lack of knowledge, non-availability of inputs, lack of time and lack of veterinary services.