Prof. (Dr.) R.D. Gupta
The origin of livestock wealth is as old as human society. As a matter of fact, both are dependent upon each other. Not only this, live stock occupies an important position in the national economy of most of the developing countries, especially India. One of the most important features of Indian agriculture is the vast majority of marginal farmers, whose land area does not exceed more than 2 ha per farmer. India is a rare country, where mixed farming involving crop production and live stock rearing has been a way of life since the beginning of agriculture. And it is widely realized that this is the only method of providing additional remuneration and employment to the marginal and small farmers as well as to landless labour families.
Now a days, the livestock and poultry sectors have fully established themselves into independent entities. Live stock sector is indeed an important subsector of India’s agriculture where under 70-80% of the total livestock produce is contributed by marginal farmers, small land holders and landess labourers. Apart from this, livestock rearing provides equity, sustainability and foreign exchange returns to the Indian economy vis-à-vis providing income and playing pivotal role in generating income. Livestock sector is a source of employment, food energy and power, plant nutrients apart from a source of income.
Livestock Wealth of India
Livestock sector is very important part of Indian farm sector as the farmer can earn instant returns from dairy and other products which gives him a capital to fall back on the times of need.
Our country occupies premier position in its livestock population with 215 million cattle, 98 million buffaloes, 61 million sheep, and 124 million goats, thus being the first incase of cattle and buffaloes. Contrary to this, it occupies second position for goats, and third, fourth and fifth positions for sheep, ducks and chicken respectively with further increase in population of all these species, respectively (Anonymous, 2015). The observed pattern of growth, however, indicated a shift towards economically more efficient species like buffalo, pig, goat and poultry. It is further added that in case of bovines, the incremental growth is less in population of males as compared to females which is mainly attributed to substitution of animals draught power by that livestock sector of India is emerging socioeconomic, environmental and technological forces.
With regard to cattle, there is a shift of preference towards high yielding cross bred population which constitutes about 23% compared to indigenous cattle population which is about 10%. India alone contributes about 58% of the world’s total buffalo population. In case of cattle and goat population, India shares about 15 and 17% of the world’s total population. According to 2007 census data, India had 529 million livestock and 648 million poultry birds. Annual growth rate of cattle was 1.83 % during 2003-2007. Annual growth rate of sheep is 3.87% and that of poultry it is 7.33%.
Throbbing Dairy industry
Milk and milk products are the essential food items of the vegetarian population of the country and providing much required nutritional supplements especially to the children. A number of initiatives had been taken by the government which have helped to increases the productivity of milk. During the 11th Five year plan running from 2007-08 to 2011-2012, the average annual growth rate of milk production during growth rate of milk production during this period has increased from 107.9 million tonnes in 2007-08 to 127.9 million tonnes in 2011-12. With beginning of 12th five year plant in 2012-13, the total milk production reached 132.4 million tonnes. The increase in milk production from 127.9 million tonnes in 2011-12 to 132.4 million tonnes during 2012-13, registered a growth of 3.5%. With 137.6 million tonnes milk production during 2013-14 compared to 132.4 million tonnes during 2012-13, per capita availability of milk is likely to cross 300 grams per day against 130 gram day during 1950-51. Thus, there has been steady increase in per capita availability of milk since 1973-74 with a marginal fluctuation in the intermittent periods. However, the per capita availability has sharply increased from 225 g per day in 2003-04 to 299 g per day in 2012-13 with an average annual growth rate of 2.7%. it is point to mention that nearly 51% of milk production is contributed by buffaloes followed by 24%, 21% and 4% for crossbred cows, nondescriptive cows and goats, respectively.
Status of India’s Dairying Sector
Although during the span of past 60 years, the dairy sector has come a long way registering more than 8 fold increase in milk production from 17 million tonnes in 1950-51 to anticipated 140 million tonnes at present. Despite having the world’s largest livestock population of India accompanied with milk production, out productivity is very low.
There are a number of factors which are amenable for low productivity of animals. They consist of inadequate availability of inputs and livestock support services, poor genetic potential of non-descript bovine stock, etc. Two essential sources of nutrients to realize the genetic potential of animals viz; green fodder and concentrates, particularly in the form of balanced compound animal feed are in short supply. The area under fodder crops has become stagnated at about 8.5-9.0 million hectares during the past decade and accounts for only about 6.4% of the total cultivated area as mentioned by Srivastava (2015). At present, there is a deficit of about 10.33 and 35.0 % in dry fodder, respectively. Very low outreach of breeding and Veterinary health service is another factor, which is responsible for causing low yield in milk production by the cattle.
Poultry Sector in India
Poultry industry, which provides the cheap source of animals protein, has taken a quantum jump during the last three decades, evolving from a simple back yard practice to a venture of industrial promotion (Anonymous, 2015). These days in India, poultry is one of the faster growing segments of the agricultural sector. It is remarkable to note that nearly 94% of the total production of egg is contributed by fowl followed by duck and other poultry birds which contributes 3% each. Recently a systematic focux is given to the backyard poultry production which has been an age old practice in rural areas of the country. Most of the backyard poultry production comprises rearing of indigenous birds with poor production performances. The potentiality of indigenous birds in terms of egg production is merely 70-80 eggs bird-1 year-1 and meat production is also very less. To improve the socio-economic status of the traditional farmers, back yard poultry is a handy enterprise with low cost initial investment, but high economic return along with guarantee for enriching protein deficiency among the poor farmers.
The largest producer of egg in India, is Andhra Pradesh, which produces 32.0% of the total egg production in the country followed by Tamil Nadu which produces 17.1% of the egg production, West Bengal is the third largest egg producer state in the country which produce 6.8% of the total production, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Karnatka, Orissa, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are the states which produce 6.5, 6.0, 5.4, 5.3, 3.3, 3.2 and 2.4%, respectively of the total egg production of India.
( The author is former Associate Dean-cum Chief Scientist KVK, SKUAST-J)
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