ABSTRACT: If we look at the state's population growth patterns, milk and milk products must be used to ensure both food security and nutritional security. Another possibility is that the populace expresses various concerns like food insecurity, perceived insecurity, unemployment, etc., and the government responds by taking quick and effective action to address these concerns. The current study examines various facets of dairy farming and the current state of milk production, consumption, and sales. The city of Latur was deliberately chosen for the investigation. Two tehsils were randomly chosen from the zone, and two blocks were randomly chosen from each tehsil. Each block has two villages drawn at random. 10% of dairy producers were chosen proportionately and randomly from among all the households in each community. Dairying was the primary occupation of 12.81% of the respondents, whereas the major occupations of 8.75%, 7.18%, and 4.68% of the respondents were business, labour, and services, respectively. In contrast, the majority of respondents (64.68%) chose dairying as their secondary occupation, followed by agriculture (22.81%) with 20.00% of the respondents. The respondents stipulated that at the time of the inquiry, dairy farmers had to have at least one lactating dairy animal. The majority of respondents (45.93%) sold 4 to 7 liters of milk per day, followed by 40.31% and 13.75 % of respondents who sold less than 4 liters and more than 7 liters of milk, respectively. In the study region, agriculture was the main industry and dairying was the secondary one. As increased milk production was the farmers' primary goal, respondents had more crossbred cattle and buffalo than native livestock. Farmers often sell their milk in cooperative societies, while some also sell in independent shops.
Keywords: Dairy Farmers, Socio-economic Profile, occupation, Rural Development.