Constraints in Procurement, Processing and Marketing of Milk and Milk Products--A Comparative Study with Special Emphasis to Co-Operative Dairy Processing Units of Karnataka and Maharashtra States.

The study was conducted in two states Karnataka and Maharashtra. Nine dairy Co-operative Unions/Units from nine districts of Karnataka and nine dairy processing units from nine districts of Maharashtra involved in procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products were selected. Primary data were obtained by personal interviews of staff members and managers of respective sections of the dairy processing units with the help of well structured and comprehensive schedule exclusively prepared for the study. Twenty five dairy officials and staff members of dairy processing units involved at various levels such as five from village dairy cooperative societies, five from transportation section, five from chilling centres, five from processing section and five from marketing section were randomly selected as respondents from each selected dairy processing unit of Karnataka and Maharashtra respectively. Thus, the total sample size was 450.The constraints faced by selected dairy processing units at each level were ranked by using Garrett's ranking technique (GRT) and suitable conclusions were drawn to mitigate the problems faced by co-operative dairy processing units of Karnataka and Maharashtra states in the procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products in Karnataka and Maharashtra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]