Institutional role in coping livestock diseases on farm level in rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Livestock sector seeks a multifold increase in production to sustain its role in achieving food sufficiency in the world. However, anxiety is observed in terms of its falling production particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. The livestock sector is vulnerable to numerous diseases followed by poorly adopted coping strategies. This study was conducted in the Punjab Pakistan, a prominent province in terms of livestock production. A list of 3808 livestock farmers was developed through a benchmark survey conducted in two purposively selected (Raheem-Yar-Khan and Muzaffargarh) districts. A sample of 400 livestock farmers was determined from the 40 selected villages through a multistage sampling technique. Collected data were analyzed through SPSS and tables were drawn to interpret the results. Results indicate that awareness of farmers about different diseases was considerably good but the extent of damage theses disease gives to the livestock business was not understood by the farmers. Apart from foot-and-mouth disease and hemorrhagic septicemia farmers rated either low threatening or very low threatening. Farmers had poor knowledge about internal and external parasites and their damage was also not recognized by them. Only tick was reported as a farm damaging parasite. Though farmers were adopting coping strategies at the farms, but clean cattle shelter, vaccination and disease prevention were the leading practices. While against the services provided by the Punjab livestock department, only vaccination against the different disease was prominent. The education and experience of the farmers had a significant association with most of the coping strategies.