Impact of camel marketing system on the sustainability of small farmers in hot arid region of thar desert

摘要

Information on camel management and trading systems was collected from 104 camel keepers, representing different villages and bringing 262 camels at the Ramdev Animal fair (Nagour district, Rajasthan) and a total of 32 complete transaction cases were recorded. The necessary data were collected in suitably developed and pretested survey schedule. The derived information were classified into three different aspects. Majority of the farmers present at the fair were from Rajasthan (90 percent). The total distance covered by farmers to reach the fair ground ranged from 1 to 400 Km. Ten different categories of farmers were recorded. Maximum farmers belong to Jat category (45 percent). Most of the camel keepers who were interviewed were farmers (91 percent). Nevertheless 9 percent also claimed to be camel businessman. The transaction of camel indicated higher number of male (52 percent) as compared to female camel (48 percent). Camel of above 7 year age group was the most representative with 57 percentof all the camels. The distribution of camel among the various farmers (came with camel for sale) was not uniform. It ranged from 0 camel to 12 camel per farmer. The representation of Bikaneri breed (90 percent) was predominant. The average number of camel owned per farmer at the village level was 4.90-+2.67. The average number of camel brought for sale was 2.54+-1.11. The average cost of camel varied according to, age and sex. The average expected cost prior to sale was Rs. 9654+-287 where as the average actual cost of the transaction was Rs. 8768+-165. The cost at sale was 90 percent of the expected cost, which shows that farmers achieved cost very nearer to their expectation.