Smallholder Dairy Farming and Livestock Extension Services An Impact Assessment in Eastern India

Livestock is a one of the major source of livelihood for most of the small and marginal farmers in India, particularly for rural households who live in below poverty line. Extension interventions have long been seen as a key element for enabling farmers to obtain information and technologies that can improve their livelihoods. Descriptive & diagnostic research design was applied in this study to trace out the exiting dairy farming practices, accessibility & efficiency of extension aids & methods along with and ex-post-facto cause to effect research design to quantify the impact of extension interventions in improving knowledge, attitude, adoption towards scientific dairy farming practices and improvement in milk production of dairy animal and income from dairying which will be resulted into improved livelihood of rural poor in Nadia district of West Bengal, India. Study highlighted the significant impact of the systematic livestock extension services on the quality life as livelihood of the smallholder dairy farmers in eastern India.