Livestock Holding and Time Spent by Farm Women in Dairying Activities in Andhra Pradesh

A study was conducted to investigate the involvement of women in dairying activities in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. The study involved a total of 225 respondents covering 75 villages. The result revealed that small farm women possessed significantly (P≤0.05) more graded Murrah buffaloes (3.68±0.28), whereas women under medium farm category possessed significantly (P≤0.05) more number of local cows (0.28±0.07), Murrah buffaloes (0.45±0.21) as well as more (P≤0.01) buffalo heifers (1.22±0.14). The milk production (litres per day) (13.25±0.80), consumption (1.48±0.06) and milk consumption by women (0.16±0.07) was observed to be high in medium women dairy farmers in the study area. Milk sale per day was observed to be significantly (P≤0.05) high in small farmers (14.20±1.90). Small farm women (587.00±81.70) obtained more income (rupees/day) through dairying followed by medium (516.34±54.35) and landless (385.66±32.39) farm women. It was observed that women are spending more time on dairy activities in the study area compared to men. The time spent was more on feeding activities.