Cost-Benefit Analysis of Dairy Farmers and Dairy Units

Dairy enterprise provides subsidiary occupation in semi-urban areas and also for people living in the hilly, tribal and drought prone areas. Adoption of dairy farming on commercial lines is, therefore, influenced by its relative profitability with that of crop cultivation. At present, farmers feel a great need for diversification of farming enterprises to achieve greater profits. The information on costs and returns from milk production is important for policy makers to ensure that producers get a remunerative price for their milk and also that consumers get milk and milk products at a reasonable price. Due to wide variation in resource endowments, the costs and returns from milk production vary to a great extent across states in India. These kinds of studies will be helpful not only to the dairy farmers in taking rational economic decisions by selecting the economic size and type of herd and allocating their scarce resources, but also serve as useful information for formulation of effective policies for boosting milk production. This book also concentrates on the Dairy Industrial units, on the economics of running a dairy in the private sector, as well as on the co-operative sector.