Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) provide opportunities for developing a variety of safe and cost effective, prophylactic, and curative medicines for a number of maladies. It is estimated that the primary health care of over 80 per cent of the world’s population still depends on plant based...

The milk producers have been deprived of their due share in increased consumer’s price of milk in Bihar. Almost two times increase in the processing cost and profit margin to milk unions might be due to inefficient use of milk plants and perhaps cheap availability of labour resource. The...

Livestock production, especially dairy, has long been an important activity for smallholder and resource-poor farmers in India, both for household nutrition and income. Most of the livestock are kept in mixed farming systems, where crop residues, mainly cereal straws have been an important feed...

Livestock is an integral part of rural economy in Bihar and fodder is a critical input for livestock development. Data shows that there exist a huge gap between demand and supply of fodder (both dry as well as green). Most part of the south Bihar comprising of agro climatic zones, IIIA and IIIB...

Market integration is an important determinant of responsiveness and behavior of the markets needed to formulate price policies. Indian wholesale milk markets are correlated with varying degrees of integration. Paper uses monthly wholesale prices of milk for the period from April 1997 to...

Dairy farmers in Bihar are mostly smallholders having one or two local-bred milch animals, which are raised on crop residues and natural pastures with under-employed family labour. Feeding grains, oil cakes and green nutritious fodder are limited to crossbred cattle. Feed and fodder deficiencies...

Changing patterns of food consumption, linked to economic growth, and coupled with demographic changes are resulting in increased demand for livestock products in developing countries. However, one of the key constraints of the dairy development in resource poor areas of India is inadequate...