Spatio-temporal analysis of local dairy farming along the Indira Gandhi canal in Rajasthan, India

Abstract

India is a country with the highest milk production and the consumption of dairy products is also at its high in India. In India by the year 2020, the contribution of Dairy products in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India was 4.2 per cent. The dairy sector is one of the most important sectors in any country as it can provide the citizen of the country with nourishment and in a country like India, that is the second-largest (in terms of population), nutrition plays an important role in sustaining the country and its people because healthy people make a healthy nation. The dairy sector also provides livelihood to a very large population who are still residing in the rural parts of India. Therefore, analysis of the dairy sector, its growth and distribution become an important process to develop the nutritional and economical status of both farmers and consumers. The objective of the study was to analyse and comprehend the growth and geographical distribution of milk-producing animals in the study area and how with time their growth in the targeted area was got influenced. The study was conducted to understand the Spatio-temporal distribution of dairy farming along the Indira Gandhi Canal by analysing the secondary source of data of 15 years of the span between 1997-2012 were obtained from the Census Department of India and websites maintained by the Rajasthan Government. The Spatio-temporal analysis has been done using simple statistical methods using MS Excel and choropleth maps were designed using geospatial software Arc GIS 10.1 and Advanced MS Excel Geospatial Techniques. It was found that the study area is doing well with the production and addition of animals in the dairy sector and there is a need for the government to look towards the development of the infrastructure to survive the increasing population of milk-producing animals as well as the demand of the increasing population what we know as consumers.