Socio-Economic Sustainability of Rearing Deoni Cattle in Bidar District of Karnataka, India

The desi cow has been a part of the Indian life since ages immemorial. The desi cattle are not only seen as a beneficial source but also considered as a family member and respected with a motherly status. One such desi cattle is Deoni. The present study was conducted in the Bidar district of Karnataka, which is one of the native tracts of Deoni. The study targeted three blocks in Bidar- Bhalki, Basavakalyan, and Aurad - due to high Deoni cattle population. Twelve villages were randomly selected from these blocks, and data were collected from 120 Deoni cattle owners, each possessing at least one lactating Deoni cow. To assess socio-economic sustainability, an index developed by Rahman (2011) was used with slight modifications. To calculate the socio-economic sustainability, economic sustainability index (ESI) and social sustainability index (SSI) were calculated separately, then pooled to arrive at Socio-Economic Sustainability Index (SESI). Economic sustainability was measured by six key indicators, viz. milk productivity, net profit, lactation length, dry period, calving interval, and marketing, while social sustainability was measured using two indicators, viz. community relation of dairy farmers and their access to resource and support services. The socio-economic sustainability index of rearing Deoni cattle by dairy farmers range from 0 to 1. The results reveal that the majority of the respondents (47.50%) belonged to medium economic sustainability (0.47 to 0.55), 55.33 per cent of the farmers belonged to medium social sustainability (0.48 to 0.63) and 48.33 per cent of the respondents belonged to medium socio-economic sustainability group (0.50 to 0.56), and only 26.67 per cent of the respondents belonged to high socio-economic sustainability (>0.56), depicting that efforts should be made by various actors involved in Deoni cattle farming to improve the sustainability of rearing Deoni cattle through scientific dairy farming practices, marketing, better community relation, and access to resources. The correlation analysis between eight independent variables, viz, age, education, landholding, herd size, social participation, extension contact, mass media exposure, and milk production and socio-economic sustainability revealed that land holding, social participation, extension contact, and milk production were strongly correlated with socio-economic sustainability, whereas Age and mass media were found to have a non-significant relationship with socio-economic sustainability.