Assessing the potential to change partners’ knowledge, attitude and practices on sustainable livestock husbandry in India

The Enhancing Livelihoods through Livestock Knowledge Systems (ELKS) addresses the knowledge gaps of partners by strengthening their capacity to apply technical, social and institutional research knowledge. To facilitate the capacity strengthening, an initial assessment of the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of livestock aspects was conducted in 2011 for Sir Ratan Tata Trust and its non-government and government partners in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Nagaland. The livestock species included cattle, buffalo and goats in Uttarakhand, goat and pig in Jharkhand and pig in Nagaland. In the partners self-assessment of capacities of the partners half the number of partners were trained on livestock production aspects over the past three years but even then, this capacity was less commensurate with the capacity that the partners built of farmers. Partners were more knowledgeable about large ruminant production and management activities than the same aspects for other animals. The respondents were trained on cattle, buffalo and pig value chain activities but none were trained on goat value chains. In an assessment of service provision, respondents reported that access to services and technological packages by smallholder producers was a constraining factor. They agreed that better services could be provided through improved partner coordination of services to farmers. The use of cross bred animals was limited to cattle and pigs, because cross breeds were reportedly associated with higher maintenance costs, lower disease resistance, and poor success of artificial insemination (AI) services. Controlled mating was promoted for all species but AI was promoted for cattle and buffaloes. Mating options for cattle were limited to the use of local bulls. Based on the partners’ capacity reports, we identified the potential to engage the partners in policy dialogue processes, market research for products and enhancement of value chain activities, particularly for pigs, goats and buffaloes. Strengthening the value chain activities needs to begin with the value chain analysis (VCA) of the different species in the Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Nagaland.