Delivery of Animal Healthcare Services in Uttar Pradesh: Present Status, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The study has assessed the status and gaps in delivery of animal healthcare services, both curative and preventive, in Uttar Pradesh, by selecting 557 livestock farmers from 5 districts, one each from five agroclimatic regions of the state. The study has revealed that the policy of delivery of subsidized animal healthcare services (AHS) does not seem to be serving its real purpose as most of the farmers in the study area have been observed to avail the services of private practitioners. The analysis of attributes associated with various AHS providers has revealed that 'proximity' is the major constraining factor in the uptake of AHS. The crossbred cattle ownership, low economic status and distance from nearest AHS centre have emerged as the most significant variables affecting the choice of AHS providers. With increasing distance from state AHS centres, farmers' preference for AHS provider shifts from government veterinary officers (GVO) to private practitioners. On the other hand, ownership of crossbred cattle has shifted the preference of farmers from other AHS providers to GVO. The odds of accessing the services of private practitioners have been found significantly higher for the poor farmers. The study has reported that the farmers are willing to pay for AHS delivery but the amount as obtained from a contingent valuation exercise has been found significantly lower for poor than rich farmers. This implies that this price differential should be kept in perspective if any policy orientation towards cost recovery for AHS provision is envisaged.

Effect of agribusiness support services on choice of dairy cooperative market channel in Kenya

“…The types of production service providers and types of services received by smallholder dairy agripreneurs in central Kenya are presented in Table 3. Majority of the respondents (84.4%) received supply of feeds support services from private veterinary clinics, which conforms to the finding of Bardhan et al (2015) that majority of dairy agripreneurs in India received feed supply from private practitioners. In addition, 69.6 and 62.2% of the dairy agripreneurs were receiving artificial insemination and deworming services from private practitioners.…”

“…Most of these services are provided by dairy cooperatives in order to motivate agripreneurs to supply milk to the cooperatives (Bardhan et al,2015;Wortmann-Kolund•ija, 2019). In the past decade, efforts have been made by governmental and nongovernmental organisations to improve provision of dairy inputs and support services in dairy cooperatives, in order to alleviate the constraints facing smallholder dairy agripreneurs.…”

Perceived Effectiveness of Dairy Service Delivery Systems in Namakkal District of Tamil Nadu

“…The dairy farmers were unable to take the animals to hospital during illness and the public department veterinarians were not available after their scheduled duty hours which might be the reasons for availing the services of private veterinarians. Even though the charges of private veterinarians are expensive, the farmers seek them because they reach the farmers door step was also stated by Pallavi et al, (2011) and Bardhan et al, (2015).…”

A review of animal health and drug use practices in India, and their possible link to antimicrobial resistance

“…A "quack", according to Ali et al [57] is "an unqualified person who claims publicly to have a medical knowledge and skill which in fact he or she does not have". Para-vets have basic training in animal health and work mostly in government hospitals [53]. Veterinarians are few in number and their busy schedule may limit their participation in outreach activities [23,25,56].…”

“…Distance from animal health centres, ownership of crossbred cattle, as well as the financial position of the farmer does influence the choice of animal health providers [53]. Mirajkar et al [55] analyzed preference for veterinary service delivery in a sample of farmers in Sangli District, Maharashtra State, India.…”