THE FACTORS AFFECTING MILK YIELD IN DIARY FARMING IN GREATER GUWAHATI REGION

The production of milk is conceived of several factors and a very multifarious process. The knowledge of relative importance of the resource inputs influencing in milk production is essential for the dairy farmer for introducing desirable change in his operation at micro level and for the policy maker for formulating plans for improvements in dairy cattle productivity based on sound economic principles at the macro level (Rao, 1985).The income level of the dairy household is determined by the production of milk they produce at their farms. Generally, the income of the dairy household increases when the milk production cost decreases or when the milk production increases .For this it is essential to study the factors which directly or indirectly effect the milk production. Household samples have been selected both from the municipal wards of Guwahati Municipal Corporation area. Out of 672 dairy farming households, 201 household have been selected for the survey. Regression analysis has been used for the study of factors affecting milk production in greater Guwahati region of Assam.

The production of milk is conceived of several factors and a very multifarious process. "The knowledge of relative importance of the resource inputs influencing in milk production is essential for the dairy farmer for introducing desirable change in his operation at micro level and for the policy maker for formulating plans for improvements in dairy cattle productivity based on sound economic principles at the macro level" (Rao, 1985).The income level of the dairy household is determined by the production of milk they produce at their farms. Generally, the income of the dairy household increases when the milk production cost decreases or when the milk production increases .For this it is essential to study the factors which directly or indirectly effect the milk production. Household samples have been selected both from the municipal wards of Guwahati Municipal Corporation area. Out of 672 dairy farming households, 201 household have been selected for the survey. Regression analysis has been used for the study of factors affecting milk production in greater Guwahati region of Assam.

Introduction:-
Dairy farming plays an important role in livelihood of dairy farmers. All the economic impacts are interlinked in terms of social impact such as income from sale of animals, milk cash, fertilizer and biogas. Rao (1985) in his study on factors effecting in milk production found that green fodder and concentrates, are the principle factors affecting milk production in al size-groups of farms. Tumuteggereize et al. (1999) mentioned that the breed of cow reared, purchased feeds and experience in dairy farming are the major factors that affect in dairy farming. They also mentioned that lack of support service such as extension service, insurance and credit facilities hampers in milk production. Oguz, C. and Canan, S. (2016) in their study mentioned that "higher properties of lactating cows ,expense on concentrates and supplements and spending more labor hours in farm activities increase the efficiencies while availability of European crossbred animals, higher education levels, male farmers ,full-time dairy farming and being a member of farming society decreases occurrence of the inefficiencies". The variables must be logical, relevant and applicable to the phenomenal facts. Considering the facts a no of attributes pertaining to the socioeconomic status of dairy farming families has been included in the present study.

Methodology:-
The present study is based on both primary and secondary data. Household samples have been selected both from the municipal wards of Guwahati Municipal corporation area and the extended area of GMDA.Within GMC area, out of total 672 households from sampled clusters, 201 households have been selected randomly as sampled dairy households. Thus sample size stands at 30%. Different types of data from various sources were acquired for this study. Secondary sources pertain to date like Census of India report, the Statistical Handbook published by the Government of Assam, Dairy co-operatives, District Animal Husbandry Department, and Town Milk Supply scheme. Some other relevant information has also been collected from various books, journals and periodicals.

Status of bovine stock and dairy production in Assam
The per capita availability of milk for the year 2018 -19 is estimated on the basis of total milk production and total population of the state for the period. As such the per capita of availability of milk is estimated to have become 73 gram per day which is much lower than the norms of 208 gram milk per day determine by ICMR. The availability of milk in the state is 35.13% of the total requirement during the year 2018 -19. This clearly shows that the state is still a deficit state in terms of milk production. The deficit is met by the supply of milk from outside the state especially from AMUL (Gujarat).

Selection of factors that affect in milk production
Keeping the above aspects in mind the factors that affect in milk production in the Greater Guwahati Region is classified into2 categories-Socio-economic factors of the dairy households(education, household size, family type, 725 community, experience in dairy farming, monthly gross income, monthly expenditure, herd size, fully involvement of male members, fully involved female members, partly involved male members, partly involved female members, etc) and the types of breeds reared in the dairy farms(cattle numbers, breeds type, no. of milk cattle, milk production, etc).
The cause effect relationship between the factors that influence in milk production gives the clues for forwarding the arguments in the present study. Based on the dimension as mentioned above the milk production factors are selected as below

Socio-Economic Factors
The socio-economic factors and the milk production of the dairy households are determined with the help of Multiple Regression Analysis using steps wise mentioned as under -   The coefficient of multiple determinations, R 2 indicating the percent of how much of the total variance is explained of the independent variables. The obtained R 2 = .852 is a good enough for explain the regression model for the analysis. In above ANOVA analysis the variance of the predictors to the dependent variable has found the F=173.382 and P=.000 which indicates that the difference is significant at 1% level. It means that the regression model is fit for further Regression analysis.