Adoption of improved technologies by the cattle famers of Batticaloa district

The study area Batticaloa occupies the central part of the Eastern Province. The District is divided into 14 administrative divisions and agricultural activities are occurring in all the divisions. Cattle are the most important livestock in the district and play a major role in the livelihood of the small farmers. The present study was undertaken to find out the extent of adoption of improved cattle management practices and to identify the factors that influence adoption of improved cattle technologies. A total of 120 farmers were randomly selected from two veterinary ranges in the district and personal interview method was employed to collect data. The study revealed that, cattle farmers in the Batticaloa district had enough knowledge on disease control, modern waste management, deworming, feeding balanced diet, control of parasites and improved castration methods. They had a fair knowledge on the areas of improved breeds, artificial insemination and modern housing methods. Practices like disease control, vaccination, deworming and control of parasites were highly adopted by them. The level of education of cattle farmers significantly influenced the adoption of improved technologies. Family size of the cattle farmers did not significantly influence the adoption of technologies. Various technical, economical, socio-psychological and infra-structural factors were affected the adoption of the improved cattle technologies. AGRIEAST 2010 (9) p.28-35


Introduction
Animal husbandry has a specialized significance the efforls by the researchers who developed new as it can play an important role in improving the technologies would be in vain.This is probably socio economic status of the population in the why transfer and adoption of new technologies is Batticaloa District.In most cases livestock is the .^^;^-^^source of cash income for the subsistence t;;.rP.erhaps one of the most popular researph topics as well ds endurance of family purchasing;;;;; about,and controversial topics in developing in the event of unprofitable crop cultivation due to agriculture (Nell e/ a/', 1998)' Technology transfer unforeseen reasons.This immense potential is and development is not a new concept, it has been limited by the traditional and tenure system and around since mankind discovered things that they subsistence farming practices (traditiona I did not know before (Finlayson, 1995).A farmer technologies) that unfortunately seldom assure or is a rational decision maker who normally strives generate adequate returns which can promote the for a better standard of living and seeks ways of development of more commercially oriented r--Lt,-,-- livestock production systems (Nell er rt, ;;;; *:l,ti"t i"* technologies to accomplish this goal Ifagriculturalterchnologiesdevelopeoro.r*-",,(Nelle/al,'l998)' in developing countries are not transferred in , , .appropriate manner and adopted u..onaingti,ltt :l]:lt::o tt an integral component of the rural economy of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.AGRTEAST 2010 (9)   Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province provides a strong resource base for the livestock industry.
There were about 165,000 heads of neat cattle and buffaloes in Batticaloa district and daily milk production was about 18,000 -200,000 litres of milk in 2008 (Statistical Handbook of Batticaloa   District,2009).
Two decades long civil war had caused loss of lives, displacement ofpeople, loss of assets, etc,.
Thls had major negative impact on income level ofthe people and the behavioural changes in socioeconomic and cultural aspects.Batticaloa district is a high potential areafor cattle production with the availability of grazinglands.There is a need to identif' the factors that contribute to the adoption of new livestock technologies as well as those that represent main constraints for the diffusion / adoption process.This type ofresearch is essential for policy formulation to develop the livestock sector and alleviate poverty in rural areas ofthe country.The study was undertaken with the following objectives: . to find out the extent of adoption of

Methodology
This study was carried out in Batticaloa district of the Eastem Province.The population of this study consisted of cattle farmers from two veterinary ranges selected based on the distribution of the cattle farmers.The selected veterinary ranges are Kaluwanchikudy and Chenkalady" Three villages were randomly selected from each of the selected veterinary ranges.Twenty cattle farmers were randomly selected from each village.Thus a total of 120 cattle farmers were randomly selected for this study.
Structured questionnaire was developed to obtain relevant information covering the objectives ofthe study.Adoption level and knowledge level of cattle farmers were studied as dependent variables and the socic-economic characteristics of cattle farmers' were studied as independent variables.Before going to final data collection, the interview schedule r,vas pre-tested using 20 non-respondent cattle farmers of Batticaloa and accordingly appropriate changes were made.Interviews were conducted using an interview schedule with the selected 120 cattle farmers.Statistical analysis was done with the help of SPSS 14.0 package.Data were analysed by employing t-test for mean comparisons and Chi-square for testing associations.
Results and Discussion 1. Socio-economic Characteristics of

Livestock Farmers
The studl,lgvealed that most ofthe people involved in cattle rearing in Batticaloa district were males, between 36 to 50 )/ears.Majority of the farmers (72.5%) had herd size ranging from 1 to 10 and had the farming experience (67 .5%)fiom 6 years to l0 y'ears.Around 84%o of ihe cattle farmers reared cattle for milk and meat purpose and majority ofthem reared local bleeds.Most of the farmers (7 5%) in the distriet had their membership with some livestock arganization.By having membership, f-anners were able to get a rvide range of benefits such as buying agricultural supplies at lower prices, commercialization of products, representation in the sector etc.

Knon,ledge and Adoption of Practices Knowletlge Level
The total score fbr each improved technology vvas calculated by scoring each variable viz, low, medium and high as, 1,2 and 3 respectively and multiplying each score by number ofrespondents who obtained the particular point and thcn by adding up the total scores obtained for each improved technology.   .Favourable attitude towards natural services compared to AI (95.8%) o Inseminator performs AI with the consideration of not displeasing the owner even when ideal state of heat is already over (95.0) adoption of improved technologies Inseminator perfotms AI with the consideration of not displeasing the owner 115 even when ideal state ofheat is already over 114 Favourable alttitude towards natural services compared to AI Prejudice against the draught capacity of crossbred male subjected to poor 04 nutrition level and management Favourable attitude of stock man towards village leaders and progressive 02 farmers Unfavourable attitude towards selling of milk which becomes a barrier to the rearing of high yielding milk animals 02 Favourable attitude towards growing grain and other cash crops rather than 01 growing fodder crops *Multiple Responses I nfr as tr uct ur al fac t o r s More than 90%o of the respondents agreed that all the factors presented in

A.doption levcfi
Considering the assoe iation betr'\A'een farnily size and adoption level, among tlre e attle farmers having less than three members in their famiiy, 81.0% of the respondepts u'ere low adopters of the cattie improved technolcgies anC 19.09/o were high adopters of cattle modern technologies.Among the farmers who had three to seven family members, 15.3% were low adopters and24.7ola were high adopters of cattle modern technologies.
Also, farmers with higher than seven members in their family, 80.0% were low adopters and20.0%a were high adopters of cattle modern teehnologies.
Family size did not significantly influence the adoption level (.F-0.37, p>0.05).As family size increases, a farmer progressively becomes unwillingto take risks associated with adoption of innovations.This is pnobably owing to trhe faet that if the adopted innovation spells disaster for a farm, both the farrner and his family are put into a state nf .jenparclyregarding their ftrod see urity and aecess to other neeeis.

6"Assoeiation between IV[embership with
Livestock Organization and Adcption leveE Considr:ring the assoeiation between eattle farmers whci are members or non-members of, livestoek organization and adoption level, among the eattle fanners who rvere members of livestoek organization, 83 .3yawere low adopters and I 6 .7 aA were high adopters of eattle modern teehnologies.
And among the cattle farmers who were non- members of livestock organization, 56.7Yo were low adopters and 43.3%o were high adopters of cattle improved technologies.There was no significant association between adoption level and membership with livestock organization (X: 0.06, p0.05).
T.Differences between Farmers with or without Membership in Livestock related Organization Table 10 shows the independent samples t-test regarding the demographic and other characteristics of cattle farmers having membership and non-membership with livestock related organizations.Demographic and other characteristics such as age, farming experience, age.herd size, and family size were taken into consideration.
There is a significant difference between the cattle farmers who were having membership in livestock related organizations and not having membership in livestock related organizations and their age.
Hossain and Crouch (1992), and Talawar and Hirevenkangoudar ( 1989) reported that there were signifi cant positive correl ations between farmers' age and adoption of modern farming practices in Bangladesh and age and adoption of modern poultry management practices in India, respectively.However, in this study the members who had higher age did not show higher adoption than non-members who had comparatively low Similarly, there is a significant difference between cattle farmers who were having membership in livestock related organizations and not having membership in livestock related organizations and farming experience.This means cattle farmers with more farming experience had membership in livestock related organizations.This is probably because farmers who have more experience in cattle farming are aware about the benefits of having membership in a livestock related organization compared to the farmers with less experience in cattle farming.
Characteristics such as family size and herd size are not significantly different between cattle farmers who are having membership with livestock related organizations and those who are rlot having membership with livestock related organizations.This implies that there are no barriers to cattle farmers with less number of cattle to join the livestook related organi zations.

Conclusions
The study has shown that most of the people involved in cattle rearing in Batticaloa district were males, between 36 to 50 years.Most of the farmers (72.5%) had herd size ranging from I to l0 and had the farming experience from 6 years to 10 years.Most of the farmers (75%) in the district had their membership with some livestock organization.By having membership farmers were able to get a wide range of benefits like buying agricultural supplies at lower prices, commerc i al ization of produ cts, represe ntati on i n the sector etc. Cattle farmers in the Batticaloa district have enough knowledge on disease control, modern waste management, deworming, feeding balanced diet, control of parasites and improved castration method.Among them, practices like disease control, dewotming and control of parasites were highly adopted by the cattle farmers in the Batticaloa district.'Iherefore, it is necessary to intensify the extension efforts to increase their knowledge level and adoption of recommended technolcigies, which would help in inereasing the production.The level of education of cattle farmers significantly influenced the adoption of cattle improved technologies.Family size ofcattle farmers did not significantly influence the adoption of cattle improved technologies.There were sipificant differences observed between the cattle farmers who were having membership in livestock related organization and not having membership in livestoik related organization with respeet to age, farming experienc6 and monthly income.

Table l .
Knowledge Ievel on improved technologies Table I clearly explains the knowledge level of cattle farmers on selected improved technologies.Cattle farmers in the Batticaloa district have enough knowledge on disease control (mean score 2.85), modern waste management (mean score 2.81), deworming (mean score 2.80),

Table 2 .
Overall knowledge level feeding balanced diet (mean score 2.78), aontrol of parasites (mean score 2.77) and improved castration methods (mean score 2.64).And they got fair knowledge on the areas of improved breeds, artificial insemination and modern housing methods.cattle technologies (Table 2).

Table 3 :
Adoption level of improved technologies management (mean score L23), improved castration methods (mean score 1.34), modern housing methods (mean score 1.36), improved waste

Table 5 .
Technical factors affecting adoption of improved technologies vaccination etc.,Non-availabilityofVeterinary medicines in the centre Poor conception rate i.e poor result of AI *Multiple Responses Economic Factors

Table 6 :
Economic factors affecting adoption of improved technologiesReluctance of the milk trade to pay remunerative price for the milk

Table 7 .
Socio-psychological factors affecting o Reluctance of the milk trade to pay remunerative price for the milk.
S o iio-p sy c h o lo gical Factors Majority of the respondents agreed that the followin g two socio-psychological factors affected the adoption of the improved cattle technologies (Table7):

Table 8 .
Infra-struetural f,aetcirs affecting adoption of improved teehnologies Lack cf eommuilicati*il regarding the s*i'viees and ottrer facilities available for agro-dairy hustrandry at the eentres Lack of frequent teehnieal superl'ision Lack of timely and adequate supply of semen and AI aeeessories Complaints against staffnot yielding gi;od rasults Lack oftrained veterinary staff Untimely supply of inputs and otl-rer rnaterials Closing the Veterinary offie es oh Satr,rrclays & other holidays

Table 10 .
Differences between farmers with or without membership in livestock related organizations