THE PRODUCTION AND MILK MARKETING OF DAIRY FARMERS IN DINAJPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to determine the production and milk marketing of dairy farmers and to explore relationships between each of the selected characteristics of the dairy farmers and their milk marketing. Data were collected through personal interviewing by using pre-tested interview schedule from a sample of 90 dairy farmers selected by simple random sampling procedure from the population of 603 (about 15 percent) under three upazilas of Dinajpur district during from July 1, 2016 to July 30, 2016. The findings revealed that near about three-fourths (74.4) percent of the dairy farm owner get medium milk production followed by 15.6 percent high production as their farm were large and only 10.0 percent get small production. Majority (68.9 percent) of the dairy farmers under medium sell category where as 17.8 percent under small sold category and only 13.3 percent under high sell category. Most of the dairy farmers‟ (48.89 percent) sell their milk to the middle men while only 1.11 percent of the dairy farmers‟ sold their milk in other ways. Among the nine selected characteristics of the dairy farmers six like education, extension media contact, knowledge on dairy farming, dairy farming experience, regular cost on dairy farming and income from dairy farming of the farmers had showed significant positive relationship with their milk marketing. „Milk prices are not rewarding‟ was the major problem and ranked 1st with PFI of 161 while the foremost (94.44 percent) suggestion cited by the dairy farmers was „ensure low cost of animal feed and genuine price of milk‟.