Vol. 9, Special Issue 1 (2024)

Author(s): SS Mane, Dr. DS Chauhan, AD Hingankar and KS Pawar

Abstract: The study was conducted in Hingoli and Nanded district with a view to find out the adoption of improved Animal Husbandry practices by the Gaushalas. The 40 selected Gaushalas were categorized as small (14), medium (16) and large size (10) based on the herd size. The major findings revealed that about 40.00 percent of the Gaushalas possessed medium herd size (100-300 cattle), followed by 35.00 percent with small herd size (50-100 cattle) and 25.00 percent with large herd size (above 300 cattle). Average herd size of small, medium and large Gaushalas was 1032, 2537 and 4925, respectively. Majority of large sized Gaushalas had more cultivable lands (31.84%) followed by grazing land (22.72%) as compared to small and medium sized Gaushalas. More than 37.73 percent of manpower used in all the Gaushalas comprised of daily labour. The total inflow and outflow of cattle in all the Gaushalas per annum was 605 and 166, respectively. In the case of overall level of adoption of Good Management Practices in Gaushalas, 10.00 percent of the large sized Gaushalas belongs to high adopter categories, 60.00 percent Gaushalas belongs to medium adopter categories and 30.00 percent Gaushalas belongs to low adopter categories. In medium sized Gaushalas 43.75 precent belongs to high adopter categories, 25 percent Gaushalas belong to medium adopter categories and 31.25 percent Gaushalas belong to low adopter categories. In case of small sized Gaushalas 31.71 percent belong to high adopter categories, 42.85 percent Gaushalas belong to medium adopter categories and 21.42 percent Gaushalas belong to low adopter categories.