Effectiveness of an educational interactive video-DVD on dairy health management practices in terms of symbolic adoption among dairy farmers

P Vidya, C Manivannan and N K Sudeepkumar

Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension and Entrepreneurship, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai - 600 007 - India
vidyapalakkal@yahoo.co.in
(Part of M.V.Sc. Thesis work of the first author)

Abstract

The study throws light on the scope of improving the Indian dairy sector in terms of enhancing knowledge and skill on animal health care to enhance productivity so as to minimize economic loss. The study focused on members of milk co-operative unions of Kannur district, Kerala, India.

Though the milk co-operatives were organized institutions, it was found that they have not focused much attention on knowledge and skill enhancement of their member-farmers. Most rural household in Kerala possessed television sets and DVD players. Hence, an educational interactive video-DVD on dairy health management practices was thought as appropriate tool to disseminate knowledge input. The level of adoption on 22 dairy health management practices in terms of symbolic and use adoption was ascertained after exposure to the interactive video-DVD. On exposure to the health care management practices through DVD, all the respondents were convinced about the use of scientific management practices and cent percent were willing to adopt the practices symbolically.

The study revealed that knowledge dissemination could be effectively done through video-DVD at rural household.

Key words: effectiveness, interactive video - DVD, symbolic adoption

Introduction

The dairy sector plays a significant role in supplementing family income and generating employment in the rural areas, particularly among the landless, small and marginal farmers and farmwomen, besides providing cheap and nutritious food to millions of people. Hence dairying is considered to be a powerful instrument of social and economic change by the planners and policy makers. Possessing about 20 per cent of world bovine population, India contributed about 15 per cent towards the bulk milk pool of the world in 2003 and continues to remain the largest milk producer in the world. The annual growth in milk production of our country over the years is centered at four per cent. It is expected that by the year 2020 the milk production of India would be 168 million tonnes (Gandhi and Singh 2006). Though India has made significant achievements by attaining the status of world’s largest milk producer, the fact remains that India’s share in the world’s milk production is very low despite possessing the world’s largest bovine population (Kadian and Gupta 2006). India’s breedable bovine population comprises around 64.5 million cattle and 51 million buffaloes (2003 census). Although India ranks first in milk production, the productivity of animal is far below the level achieved by developed nations (Bandyopadhyay 2009). The animal health care needs more attention to minimize economic losses caused by cattle diseases and poor health management practices in order to achieve better productivity. Each year an average of 20-25 per cent of dairy cows are culled due to poor reproductive performance and other health problems (Keown et al 2006).

Effective communication is the bloodstream of development administration. To make the farming communities better informed in the use of innovation, the extension worker requires suitable communication devices that can overcome the barriers of illiteracy and traditions which are prominent among the resource poor farmers and drive home the message effectively (Hai et al 2003). Hence an exclusively planned and determined effort to educate the dairy farmers can certainly bring about desirable changes in them. With this background, an effort was made to develop and study the effectiveness of the educational interactive video-DVD in terms of symbolic adoption among the dairy farmers.

Methodology 

The study was carried out in Kannur district of Kerala State in India. Out of the nine blocks, one block namely Kannur block was selected for the study on the basis of higher milk handling capacity. Four milk co-operative societies namely Mayyil, Kannur, Chirakkal and Kannadiparamba societies were selected from the six milk co-operative societies that existed in the block, based on highest quantity of milk procurement per day. From the list of member dairy farmers who possessed DVD player and television in each of the dairy co-operatives selected, a total of 60 dairy farmers were selected by proportionate random sampling technique which constituted the sample for the study.  At first, an educational interactive video-DVD on dairy health management practices was developed. The study was conducted with an experimental research design with before after treatment of the educational component.  Based on the content of the interactive video-DVD, a total of 22 dairy health management practices were listed. The use adoption of these practices among the respondents at the pre-exposure stage was initially ascertained. Upon exposure to the interactive video-DVD, the symbolic adoption was ascertained among the practices which were not adopted at pre – exposure level. The collected data were classified and analyzed statistically.

Results and discussion 

Distribution of the respondents according to the adoption of dairy health management practices at pre – exposure (use adoption) and post – exposure (symbolic as well as pre – exposure use adoption) stages

The respondents were classified into low, medium and high categories based on the range of score obtained for the 22 dairy health management practices both at pre – exposure and post – exposure stages (Table 1). For post - exposure categorization, both the symbolic adoption score and previous use adoption score of the individual respondent were taken into consideration.

The table reveals that three-fourths (75.00 per cent) of the respondents had high extent of adoption of the dairy health management practices followed by one-fourth (25.00 per cent) in medium category. Since the respondents were practising dairy farmers, higher level of adoption of the listed practices was found among them. However, the trend in distribution was found to be high to medium. Upon exposure to the interactive video – DVD, cent percentage of the respondents fell into high category alone, signifying better conviction among them to adopt the dairy health management practices. These findings are in accordance with Radhakrishnan (2000)  who inferred that majority (82.00 per cent) of the respondents were in high category in terms of symbolic adoption after exposure to Instructor Controlled Interactive Video.

Practice wise distribution of respondents according to their pre - exposure use adoption and post-exposure symbolic adoption

The adopters and non-adopters in the pre - exposure use adoption stage with regard to each of the 22 items listed were initially found out and recorded. Then, among the pre - exposure non-adopters, the respondents willing to follow and not willing to follow a practice after exposure to the educational interactive video-DVD on dairy health management practices were identified. Finally, the total of pre - exposure use adopters and post-exposure symbolic adopters were arrived at to get a holistic picture expected in the future.

It could be observed from Table 2 that at the pre - exposure stage, the extent of adoption was very high for the dairy health management practices such as ‘Washing of hands before every milking regularly’ (100.00 per cent), ‘Removal of dung, urine and feed waste twice daily’ (98.33 per cent), ‘Washing the milking utensils and equipments using detergents regularly’ (96.67 per cent), ‘Isolating sick animals from healthy animals’ (96.67 per cent), ‘Taking extra care in disinfecting the animal sheds and its surroundings during disease outbreaks’ (96.67 per cent), ‘Consulting qualified veterinary doctor and following his advice fully during disease occurrence’ (95.00 per cent), ‘Preventing movement of animals during disease outbreaks’ (93.33 per cent), ‘Cleaning the shed daily’ (93.33 per cent) and ‘Washing the animal and udder properly before every milking’ (91.67 per cent). Only very few non-adopters were found in respect of these practices.

Considerable number of respondents were also found to adopt the practices such as ‘Maintaining 8 or 12 hours of milking interval’(88.33 per cent), ‘Deworming calves within 2-3 weeks of age’ (88.33 per cent), ‘Subsequently deworming once in every month up to six months’ (88.33 per cent), ‘Feeding colostrums to new-born calves within 30 minutes of calving’ (81.67 per cent), ‘Milking out all teats completely after each milking’ (78.33 per cent), ‘Observing the cows / buffaloes closely everyday to detect any signs of ill-health’ (78.33 per cent) and ‘vaccination against Foot and Mouth disease’ (75.00 per cent). The practice of washing the animals daily was followed to some extent as was evident from its adoption in the pre - exposure stage by 55.00 per cent of the respondents only.

The extent of adoption at pre - exposure stage with respect to the practices such as ‘Full hand method of milking’, ‘Discarding the first fore milk’, ‘Applying tincture iodine or other antiseptics to the navel cord of the new-born calves’ and ‘deworming once in six months thereafter’ was found to be very low and was nil in case of ‘vaccination against Hemorrhagic Septicemia’ among the sample studied.

A perusal of the Table 2 indicated that upon exposure to the educational interactive video-DVD, 95.00 per cent of the non-adopters were willing to adopt the practice of ‘applying tincture iodine or other antiseptics to the navel cord of the new-born’ and only 3.33 per cent of the respondents were not willing to follow the practice. Thus, it could be expected that a total of 96.67 per cent of the respondents would adopt the practice in future. This showed that the farmers were unaware of the importance of the practice before exposure but were convinced upon exposure which indirectly showed the effectiveness of the developed interactive video-DVD.

Table 2 further revealed that 86.67 per cent of the non-adopters of the practice were willing to adopt the practice of ‘vaccination against Hemorrhagic Septicemia’ due to the exposure to the developed video - DVD. None of the dairy farmers actually adopted the practice even though the vaccines were available in the respective dispensaries at pre - exposure stage, but exposure of the video-DVD seemed to have convinced them to adopt the practice in future.

Among the 88.33 per cent of the pre - exposure non-adopters, 85.00 per cent were willing to adopt the practice “deworming once in six months thereafter’ while a meager 3.33 per cent were not willing to adopt the practice. The respondents did not adopt the practice as they felt the practice to be unnecessary and preferred to seek veterinary assistance once the animal showed any symptoms like diarrhoea, blood or mucus in dung, etc. But on exposure to the video - DVD most of them were convinced of the practice thus making the expected future adoption to be 96.67 per cent.

Table 2 showed that 81.67 per cent of pre - exposure non-adopters were willing to follow the practice, ‘discarding the first fore milk’ after exposure to the video-DVD. Only a very small per cent of 3.33 per cent were not willing to adopt the practice. Discarding the first fore milk was considered unimportant and the unwillingness to lose milk unnecessarily led most of the respondents not to adopt the practice. However, the respondents were convinced of the practice on post-exposure leading to higher symbolic adoption.

A total of 66.67 per cent of non-adopters were willing to adopt the practice of ‘full hand method of milking’ which showed that fairly a good percentage of the dairy farmers were symbolically willing to adopt the practice on exposure to the video - DVD in spite of the fact that they were not used to the practice. Thus the total adopters in this category in future could be 96.67 per cent.

The practice of ‘washing the animals daily’ was not adopted by 45.00 per cent of the farmers in the pre - exposure stage, whereas on exposure to the video-DVD, all the non-adopters (45.00 per cent) made up their mind to adopt the practice in future, thus, the possibility of cent per cent total adoption in future.

The few pre - exposure non-adopters found in case of the other practices listed were also found to have expressed their willingness to follow the practices upon exposure to the educational interactive video - DVD. Thus it could be expected that almost all the 22 dairy health management practices listed on the basis of the contents of the developed interactive video - DVD was likely to be adopted by vast majority of the respondents in future leading to better health care, production and productivity of animals. Sudeepkumar (1992) in his study revealed that nine out of eleven practices studied got a very high symbolic score. Jeyakumar (2002) also observed that there was significant level of symbolic adoption among the sunflower farmers, when selected extension methods were used for transfer of technology.

Conclusions

• Dairy health management practices are of significance to the dairy farmers to enhance their farm production and productivity. It is important to identify the gaps in health management and bridge them. The study identified the gaps and brought about a suitable tool to reach the rural household at their convenience. Interactive video – DVD enhanced learning of the respondents. Upon exposure to the interactive video – DVD, majority of the pre - exposure non – adopters were willing to symbolically adopt the practices they had not followed before. Considering the post - exposure symbolic and pre – exposure use adoption together, cent per cent of them were found in high level category. This clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed educational interactive video - DVD in achieving greater conviction among the dairy farmers in the adoption of the dairy health management practices.

References 

Bandyopadhyay A K 2009 Meeting the requirement of dairy professional. Paper presented at XXXVII Dairy Industry Conference. Indian Dairyman 61(3):129-132

Gandhi R S and Singh S 2006 Impact assessment of crossbreeding of indigenous cattle with European dairy breeds. Indian Dairyman 58(2):60-7

Hai A, Srivastava R M and Singh R P 2003 Livestock Farmer’s Preference of Communication Media and their use by Extension Workers in tribal Bihar. Indian Journal of Extension Education 39 (1&2): 31-34

Jeyakumar K A 2002 Effectiveness of selected extension methods in transfer of technology to sunflower farmers. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore

Kadian S and Gupta S 2006 Effectiveness of a Video Compact Disc (VCD) on dairy Calf Management Practices. Indian Journal of Extension Sciences 1(1):57-62

Keown J F, Larson L L and Kononoff P J 2006 Dairy health management for optimum production and reproductive performance. Neb Guide: Dairy herd management

Radhakrishnan D 2000 Effectiveness of Instructor Controlled Interactive Video (ICIV) in dissemination of farm technology. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

Sudeepkumar N K 1992 Effectiveness of training on dairy farming technology.  Unpublished M.V.Sc. Thesis, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai

Received 3 August 2009; Accepted 20 September 2009; Published 1 November 2009

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