Entrepreneurship Development of Rural Women through Value Added Dairy Products

Abstract

The most important trend of development in agriculture is increasing diversification of rural economy. Contribution of agriculture sector to total GDP of state is 26 Percent. Whereas livestock sector is contributing around 38 percent of Agriculture GDP (at current prices). Today dairy enterprise is practiced by 70 million rural households in India. Milk products generate cash income to farmers almost on daily basis, unlike other crops. Clean milk production by adopting the appropriate practices is urgent need to boost dairy industry and to meet obligations under Food Safety and standard Act, 2006. In Haryana, livestock production is more of women oriented, so their production potential can be enhanced through technical know how and support. Keeping in mind the contribution of women, the present study was undertaken in Hisar district of Haryana. 50 rural women of self help groups of Mangali and Muklan   Villages (25 each) were selected purposively who were member of self help group from last one year, having need and interest in dairy farming and having at least two milch animals. A well planned five days training at CCSHAU Hisar, visit to dairy co-operatives, kit of mineral mixture and literature was provided to the participants.  Knowledge gap reduction was found highest for paneer preparation 87.81 percent. For all three components, training effectiveness index ranged between 74.28% to 94.66% which shows that trainees perceived the intervention very useful and well covered. Overall training effectiveness index was 80.94 %. Highest perceived feasibility Index was found for Cultural compatibility (97.33%), followed by Physical compatibility practicability (93.33), Low initial cost (90.66%), Trial ability (88.00%) and Visibility of results (86.66%). Lowest perceived feasibility index was found for Cognitive simplicity 54.66 percent.