© 2016 PP House Extent of Knowledge of Trained and Untrained Dairy Farmers of Malwa Region of Punjab P. Singh and V. K. Rampal * Dept. of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab (141 004), India * E-mail: rampalvk@pau.edu Abstract Article History Correspondence to Key words Manuscript No. AR1622 Received in 22 nd June, 2016 Received in revised form 30 th October, 2016 Accepted in final form 6 th November, 2016 The adoption of scientific practices can be accelerated if the farmers possess scientific knowledge about the sound management practices of dairy enterprise. Dairy farming provides substantial employment opportunities and supplementary income to rural farmers. A study was conducted in the Malwa region comprising of Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar Districts of Punjab (India) on a sample of 120 respondents i.e., 60 trained and 60 untrained dairy farmers. The ex post facto design research design was used. In order to measure the knowledge level of the trained and untrained dairy farmers, a number of items were prepared in the knowledge test with respect to improved dairy management practices in four major areas of breeding, feeding, health care and miscellaneous management. The knowledge index was calculated to see the extent of knowledge level in different aspects of improved dairy management practices (IDMPs). The investigation revealed that extent of knowledge of the trained dairy farmers was above average whereas; extent of knowledge of untrained dairy farmers was below average. The maximum knowledge index of trained farmers was 72.50 in breeding aspect and in case of untrained dairy farmers the maximum knowledge index was 49.00 in miscellaneous management. The comparative analysis indicated that there was significant difference in the mean knowledge score of different management practices at (p=0.01) level of probability of trained and untrained dairy farmers. Dairy farmers, training, knowledge test, index, management 1. Introduction India is predominantly an agrarian society where animal husbandry forms the backbone of national economy. The contribution of livestock sector in AgGDP was 13.88% in 1980–81 and increased to 23.80% during 2010–11 (Anonymous, 2014a). Despite having the world’s largest population the milk productivity animal -1 comes to 987 kg year - 1 whereas, worldwide average productivity is 2200 kg animal -1 year -1 . The capita -1 availability of milk in India was 220 g day -1 in 2011 which rose to 290 g day -1 in 2013 where as the capita -1 availability of milk in Punjab was 892 g day -1 in 2011 and which increased to 942 g day -1 in 2014 (Anonymous, 2014b). One of the major reasons of low productivity could be due to traditional dairy farming practices by the farmers. It is well recognized that for increasing productivity and production to make dairy business more remunerative, it is essential to go for adoption of scientific dairy farming practices in the field of breeding, feeding, health care, management and fodder production to achieve better production leading to higher income for economic viability (Kumar et al., 2011). The adoption of scientific practices can be accelerated if the farmers possess scientific knowledge about the sound management of dairy enterprise. Knowledge is an important component in the sound management of the dairy enterprise. Knowledge is defined as the degree to which the factual information possessed by the dairy farmers regarding recommended dairy management practices. Similarly, the training is a medium to provide technical knowledge and developing the human resources for getting acquaintance with scientific practices of dairy farming. The present study was undertaken to ascertain the extent of knowledge level of the trained and untrained dairy farmers regarding the different dairy management practices. 2. Materials and Methods The study was confined to Malwa region of Punjab and conducted in Bathinda, Muktsar and Mansa districts of Punjab. Considering the adaptability of the design, the ex post facto design was chosen as the phenomena have already occurred. A list of farmers who acquired specialized training on dairy farming from the KVKs of three selected districts during the period of 2011–2013 was procured and farmers who had not 1383 International Journal of Bio-resource and Stress Management 2016, 7(6):1383-1386 Short Research Article HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.23910/IJBSM/2016.7.6.1622