Socio-personal and economic characteristics of buffalo owners in Maharashtra

For the present study total 240 respondents were randomly selected from purposively selected four districts of two divisions in Maharashtra State to explore the sociopersonal and economic characteristics of buffalo owners. The study revealed that about 37.10 per cent of the farmers belonged to middle age followed by old (36.30%) and young age (26.70%) categories. Majority of the respondents were male, educated, Hindu (97.10%) and belonged to nuclear families (74.60%). About social category 37.9 per cent belonged to OBCs followed by General (36.70%), Scheduled Caste (12.10%) and Scheduled Tribes (13.30%). Mean family size was 6.65±0.17 members. The agriculture was main occupation for majority (58.80%) of the respondents while, 41.2 per cent were dependent on animal husbandry farming for main occupation. Landholding ranged from zero to 12 ha with mean land holding of 1.98±0.14 ha. About 28.80 per cent respondents belonged to semi-medium farmer category, followed by landless (20.40%), marginal (18.30%), small (16.70%), medium (14.60%) and large (1.30%). Majority of the respondents had medium livestock rearing experience (12-29 years), small herd size (7.28-22.81 SAUs), low milk production (13-52 liters) and low annual income (Rs. 1,00,000- Rs. 3,20,000).