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Caste, livelihoods and livestock: An exploration of the uptake of livestock vaccination adoption among poor farmers in India
Author(s) -
Heffernan Claire,
Thomson Kim,
Nielsen Louise
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1643
Subject(s) - livestock , caste , livelihood , tamil , agriculture , socioeconomics , vaccination , economic growth , business , geography , political science , sociology , economics , biology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , law , forestry , immunology
The study explores the uptake of livestock vaccination among poor farming communities in Tamil Nadu State, India by revisiting innovation diffusion theory. Overall, 601 farmers participated in the study. We found the adoption of particular vaccines was strongly influenced by socio‐cultural grouping i.e. caste, rather than other factors such as income, age, education‐level or gender. Adoption was also related to specific knowledge frames regarding disease causality, rather than any wider ethno‐veterinary beliefs. Thus, the adoption of livestock vaccination is unlikely to improve without knowledge transfer activities, which acknowledge both social divisions and local epistemologies regarding animal health. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.