Time , costs and farmers ’ perceptions : The case of livestock service delivery in tamilnadu

A study was undertaken in southern peninsular State of India, the Tamil Nadu State, (i) to ascertain the time costs of animal health care and bovine breeding services, and (ii) to comprehend the perceptions of farmers on the livestock services rendered by different service providers. The districts of the state were categorized as 'Livestock Developed' (LD) and 'Livestock Under Developed' (LUD) based on initial base line developed. Travel, waiting and service time were among the primary non-price factors that affected service quality. Average travel time was highest for visiting the public veterinary centre in both LUD (23.05 min.) and LD (21.32 min.) districts. Waiting time with regard to veterinarians providing home services in LUD districts was highest (23.01 min.), followed by public veterinary centre services at LUD districts (22.35 min.), home services by para-veterinarians (22.01 min.) and public veterinary centre services at LD districts (20.10 min.). Both travel and waiting time were much higher in case of breeding services compared to curative services, which could be due to the fact that the farmers preferred Artificial Insemination (AI) over its close substitute, the natural service. However, the service time was relatively less in case of insemination services vis-à-vis curative services both in LUD and LD districts. The quality perceptions of farmers on livestock services revealed that the home services rendered by veterinarians as the best one (0.83), followed by private veterinary clinics (0.75), home services by para-veterinarians (0.74), public veterinary centres (0.64) and co-operative veterinary centres (0.48).


Introduction
delivery of livestock services has become a subject of rising concern to many national and international Livestock sector plays a significant role in the organisations including FAO (Kleeman, 1999).Indian economy, particularly for the welfare of rural Livestock services are critical for enhancing population of India.Of the total households in the rural productivity and competitiveness.In India, the area, about 73 per cent own some form of livestock.Government maintains a large public infrastructure on There is also an inverse relationship between land and livestock services, but there are questions about the livestock holdings, excluding landless category service utility and reach to the livestock producers (Ravishankar and Birthal, 1999), indicating better (Planning Commission, 2007).equity of farmers with respect to livestock holding.
Although co-operative and private operators are More importantly, small and marginal farmers account in the field, the extent of their share in the sector is very for three quarters of these households.The economic meagre.The present structure of livestock services liberalization has widened the market opportunities delivery in India is based on fixed model of a for the livestock sector.There are expectations of Veterinary Hospital/Dispensary/Sub-centre being the faster growth in demand for livestock products due to key nodal structure at the ground level from where expected increase in income combined with the highservices and goods are currently distributed.
The extent to which growth in livestock income elasticity of demand for livestock products.However, the sector's ability to capitalize on new production can be accelerated would depend on how market opportunity is constrained by the availability technology, institutions and policies address constraints facing the livestock sector.In the past, and quality of support services.
growth in livestock production was largely number-Effective and efficient delivery of animal health driven, while the future would be from improvements and production services is considered as vital for in productivity.This will require overcoming feed and gainful livestock development and hence, efficient fodder scarcity and improvements in delivery of costs associated with animal health care services in the animal health and breeding services.The quality study area.Although average travel time was highest service means ensuring timely availability with for visiting the public veterinary centre in both LUD adequate infrastructure and medicaments.
(23.05 min.)and LD (21.32 min.)districts, the In the light of above context, this study was magnitude was much higher in LUD districts.This could be explained by the fact that the LD districts had undertaken in Tamil Nadu, (i) to ascertain the time a dense network of veterinary institutions over LUD costs of animal health care and bovine breeding services, and (ii) to comprehend the perceptions of districts.Travel time for visiting private veterinary farmers on the livestock services rendered by different clinics in LUD districts was 14.00 minutes, while the service providers.The study will provide an insight same was 20.05 minutes in case of LD districts, which into the existing quality of livestock services and could be due to the fact that the number of cases ultimately aiding in any plan for quality improvement.
attended to at private veterinary clinics in LUD districts was more than that of LD districts.Besides,

Material and Methods
the private clinics in LD districts were located in the Following Selvakumar et al. (2002), the districts townships alone, concentrating mainly on pet animals. of Tamil Nadu State were categorized as 'Livestock The waiting time in Table 1 refers to the time lag Developed' (LD) and 'Livestock Under Developed' between the first contact with the service provider and (LUD) based on initial base line data gathered using the receipt of service.Waiting time with regard to the value of livestock output, rural human population veterinarians providing home services in LUD and common property resources available for districts was highest (23.01 min.),followed by public livestock farming.Four districts, two each from veterinary centre services at LUD districts (22.35 livestock 'Developed' (Coimbatore and Villupuram min.),home services by para-veterinarians (22.01 districts) and 'Under Developed' (Thanjavur and min.)and public veterinary centre services at LD Sivagangai districts) areas were selected randomly.districts (20.10 min.).The least waiting time was for From the districts so selected, a total number of 320 pharmacy dispensed medication in both categories of farmers (80 from each district) were chosen by districts.Longer waiting time in case of home services adopting multistage random sampling technique.could be attributed to the travel time needed for the service Information on the accessibility of veterinary services, providers to reach the farmers' home, after the call.transport time, waiting and service time involved to Interpretation of service time is relatively more get their animals treated or bred; the farmers' difficult since it depends on a number of factors such observation on the quality parameters of the services, as complexity of disease, ability of service provider to etc., were collected by personal interview through the diagnose and provide treatment quickly, attention paid structured and pilot-tested interview schedule.The by service provider, including the time taken to data collected were subjected to descriptive and explain the level of sickness to the farmers, provide Student's t statistical analyses.

Results and Discussion
while high service time could be due to the complexity of the case, with the service provider paying a great

Average time costs of animal health care services:
deal of attention in treating the animal, it could also be Travel, waiting and service time are among the a reflection of the ability of service provider to provide primary non-price factors that affect service quality quick diagnosis and treatment.Notably, the average (Ahuja et al., 2000).

Table - 1. Average time costs associated with animal health care services
Table 1 displays the average time Time, costs and Farmers' perceptions: The case of Livestock service delivery in Tamilnadu