Vol. 10, Special Issue 9 (2021)

Author(s):
N Vimal Rajkumar and NV Kavithaa

Abstract:
The present study was undertaken to assess the attitude and constraints of Bargur cattle farmers towards conservation of the breed. An Ex-post-facto research design was followed in the present study. Bargur village Panchayat at Anthiyur Block of Erode District in Tamil Nadu was purposively selected as the locale for the research work since this place is considered as the breeding tract of Bargur cattle. Purposive sampling method was used for selection of respondents. With the help of the Key informants, viz., local Veterinarian, faculties in Bargur Cattle Research station, TANUVAS and Village Panchayat officials 30 farmers having Bargur cattle herd were randomly selected as respondents of this study. The data were collected with the help of well-structured pre- tested interview schedule through personal interviews. The attitude of farmers towards conservation of Bargur cattle was assessed by adopting scaling technique followed by Sreelakshmi (2013) with suitable modifications. Garrett ranking technique was employed to find out the constraints faced by the farmers in rearing Bargur cattle. The data thus collected was tabulated, analysed and interpreted with suitable statistical tools. It could be observed from the study that majority of the respondents (80.00 per cent) had high degree of favourable attitude towards conservation of Bargur cattle followed by moderate level (13.33 per cent) and low level of attitude. With regards to constraints faced by the farmers in rearing Bargur cattle, the major constraints faced by the farmers were non-availability of grazing land (Garrett mean score 67.23) followed by distant location of the grazing land (Garrett mean score 64.68), cost of feed (Garrett mean score 59.82), middleman involvement (Garrett mean score 55.63) and non-availability of bulls (Garrett mean score 54.57). The result of the study will help the extension agencies and government organizations to design suitable conservation programmes for indigenous cattle breeds and to prepare strategic long-term plans for the stakeholders to accommodate the challenges of limited resources such as land, feed, labour and capital.