Crossbred Cattle Adoption and its Implications on Raising Employment in the Smallholder Dairying of Rural Assam

ABSTRACT Using cross-sectional data of 245 smallholder rural dairy farmers and propensity score matching, the present study attempted to estimate the treatment effect of changing the breed of cattle (indigenous to crossbred) on changes in labour use in Assam. The analysis indicated that crossbred cattle adopters had higher herd sizes, access to extension services, membership of dairy cooperative society (DCS) and the majority of them are beneficiary of government dairy development programme. The estimation results show that crossbred cattle adopters had significantly higher labour use for selected dairy farming operations. This points out that there was a higher employment prospect in the adoption of crossbred cattle. Additionally, the study pointed out that crossbred cattle adoption was associated with higher employment effect on small to average size farms and farm households with literate farmers. The findings of the study recommend that there is a need for adequate diffusion of breeding technology such as artificial insemination (AI) or deployment of pure-breed exotic bulls in not so easily accessible areas to facilitate the small and medium farmers with crossbred cattle adoption for generating employment along with augmenting productivity and income.

Economics and policy research at ILRI, 1975-2018.

This chapter looks at the livestock policy and economics research at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), which have focused on the following problems: (i) the historical problem of supply response; (ii) animal health services and productivity; (iii) responding to the 'Livestock Revolution'; (iv) policy and technical barriers to smallholder dairying; (v) livestock and poverty; (vi) markets, institutions and competitiveness; (vii) land tenure; and (viii) livestock master plans. The research spending and the scientific and development impacts of ILRI's policy and economics research are also highlighted.