Tracking the disparities in Gujarat dairy development - an application of biplot analysis

Abstract

Gujarat, despite being a highly progressive state of India in terms of dairying, has great potential to enhance its milk production and make dairying a more lucrative enterprise. It is home to many high quality dairy animal breeds and has a very active milk cooperative structure which can accelerate the possibilities of uplifting the level of milk production further, if proper and balanced micro level development policies are promoted. The present study depicts the causes for disparities besides analysing the strengths and weaknesses in dairying across 26 districts in Gujarat. To identify and capture the variation in resource use which causes disparities in dairy development, the principal component analysis-based biplot technique was employed. Data on different variables like resource availability, infrastructure and veterinary facilities, and, milking animals and their yields have been sourced from 26 districts of Gujarat for tracing the disparity. The conclusions drawn from the biplot imply that promoting the quality of animal breeds and increasing the population of high yielding cattle breeds in low-developed districts can lead to high milk production. In the setting of increased milk production, the cooperative milk marketing structure will become more dynamic and result in enhanced income for dairy producers.