Demand for Public vs. Private Livestock Services in South India: a Double Hurdle Analysis

The demand for public and private livestock services was measured by counts of utilisation, in southern peninsular State of India, Tamil Nadu for which the districts of the State were categorized as 'Livestock Developed' (LD) and 'Livestock Under Developed' (LUD) based on initial base line. A double process approach, that envisaged to distinguish the contact process (to access to specific provider or not?) from utilisation (given that the first answer was YES, how much was consumed? That is, whether the contact was by chance or by choice) was used to analyse the factors influencing the demand for public and private livestock services. The hurdle models for animal health care and bovine breeding services were estimated by employing a Probit model and a truncated-at-zero Poisson model. The analysis pointed out that the likelihood of availing services of public system would become low as the distance of the centre from home increased, leading the farmers to choose private animal health care services. The farmer whose dependency on livestock for livelihood is more had lesser probability of contacting public service provider which indirectly indicates the level of their faith on public system. The demand for public animal health care services was less in LD districts, while their demand was more in LUD districts. Contrastingly, the farmers in LD districts preferred AI at public centres, while their counterparts in LUD districts preferred private AI.