SCOPE FOR PROMOTION OF LIVESTOCK HUSBANDRY IN INDIA:
DISCUSSION PAPER
By
Dr. Narayan G. Hegde
Background
Over 65% of the population in India is still living in rural India and most of them are
dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. However, more than 75% of them being
small and marginal landholders and even landless, deprived of fertile soils and
assured water for irrigation, they are dependent on livestock for supplementary
income. In many arid and semi-arid regions in the country, livestock is the major
source of livelihood. However, inspite of its economic importance, the performance
of the livestock sector has been extremely poor, due to lack of basic amenities,
availability of critical inputs and services and poor linkage with the market. Under
such a situation, even these valuable assets turn into a liability and start making
negative contribution to sustainable development. We are at the crossroads of
livestock development and should not miss this opportunity to transform this sector to
enable millions of small farmers and rural poor to earn their livelihood.
Inspite of India having the largest livestock population in the world, the contribution
to the national economy has been substantially low. Among the livestock, the
population of cattle ranks first with 185.2 million, followed by goat (124.4 million),
buffaloes (97.9 million), sheep (61.5 million) and others (16.0 million). While the
population of cattle has been stable, the population of goat has been increasing
significantly due to their adaptability to drought conditions and growing demand for
meat. Cattle and buffaloes are maintained for milk production, but the average milk
production has been fairly low. The average yield of our cattle is below 1000 kg /
lactation as compared to 4500 kg in the western countries and over 10,000 litres in
Israel. This is mainly because about 65% cattle are genetically eroded and nondescript with low milk production. Lack of breeding and health care facilities at the
doorstep of the farmers, severe shortage of feed and fodder and poor linkages with the
market are other problems affecting the productivity of cattle and buffaloes in the
country.
Bullock has been an important source of energy for agriculture and rural
transportation in the past. Thus, many draft breeds of cattle were evolved in the
country. Among 30 important breeds of Indian cattle, Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and
Tharparkar breeds were for milk, with an average milk production of 1500 kg /
lactation and there were 6-8 dual purpose breeds with average milk yield of 10001500 kg per lactation (Haryana, Kankrej, Rathi, Ongole, Dangi, etc), while the rest of
the 12-15 breeds were for draft purpose with an average milk yield of 500 kg /
lactation. Presently, farmers owning cattle of draft breeds, are not finding them
remunerative as the utility of bullocks has been drastically reduced due to
mechanisation of Indian agriculture, small holdings and outdated bullock-drawn farm
machinery, which are inefficient. This calls for suitable corrective measures to make
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best use of the draft breeds in the future. Inefficient use of dung which can be utilised
for production of biogas, before converting into farmyard manure, is not only a lost
opportunity but also a cause of global warming. This is another issue, needing
appropriate Research and Development interventions.
As the farmers experience shortage of water and fodder resources, there is a major
shift from large ruminants to small ruminants like sheep and goats which survive in
harsh conditions. However, there is a need for developing sustainable farming
practices to improve their productivity. Piggery and fishery are other sources of
livelihood in selected pockets. While large scale poultry is emerging as a new
enterprise with a good technical back up and commercial focus in peri-urban areas,
backyard poultry with hardy local breeds, still has demand in interior and tribal
regions across the country. With the above options, farmers have an excellent
opportunity to earn their livelihood from livestock husbandry, if their problems are
suitably addressed on priority.
Major Constraints
Major issues affecting the progress of livestock development in the country are
presented below:

Large population of livestock is unproductive, due to indiscriminate breeding
and neglect, turning livestock husbandry uneconomical;

Poor quality bulls and poor semen freezing facilities further affect the
productivity of cattle and buffaloes;

Poor access to breeding and minor veterinary care at the doorsteps of farmers,
leading to genetic erosion and poor health status;

Indiscriminate crossbreeding and poor skills of paravets, causing problems of
infertility and disease susceptibility;

Neglect of small ruminants owned by poor farmers, leading to high mortality
and spread of diseases, resulting in poor income;

Lack of coordinated efforts for disease containment, causing major health
problems;

Increasing shortage of fodder and feed and poor emphasis on utilisation of
crop residues, affecting the production;

Inefficient use of bullocks, causing pressure on fodder resources;

Lack of breeding policy, leading to extinction of good native breeds and
increasing exotic blood level, causing susceptibility to many diseases;

Inability to take up biogas production due to outdated technology and high
cost;
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
Lack of facilities for housing, unproductive and diseased animals, pose burden
on small farmers;

Lack of awareness about clean milk production, poor marketing linkage and
consumer-biased pricing for milk, becomes non-remunerative for farmers;

Inadequate facilities for processing meat, resulting in poor price realisation for
small ruminants and pigs;

Increasing gap between male extension workers and female livestock owners.
Goals of Livestock Sector Development
As a result of not solving the above problems, livestock husbandry and the dairy
sector in particular is not able to achieve the expected annual growth of 10 - 12%.
Therefore, we need to re-focus on the policy and programmes of livestock
development to achieve the following goals:
 Conservation of elite breeds and use of low productive, non-descript cattle and
buffaloes for genetic upgradation;
 Breeding and selection of superior sires and setting up of high quality semen
production laboratories to ensure genetic improvement;
 Delivery of essential services at the doorsteps of farmers through well trained
paravets backed up by veterinary doctors under public-private partnership;
 Coordinated efforts to take up preventive vaccination and health camps to
result in stamping out of all major diseases;
 Efficient feed and fodder management by utilising available wastelands and
crop residues;
 Clean milk production through awareness, timely health care and
infrastructure support for efficient post handling of milk and other products;
 Improvement in productivity of small ruminants through breed improvement,
preventive health care and market linkages;
 Development of suitable farmer-friendly policies to promote growth and
enhance profits;
 Development of efficient farm implements to be operated by bullocks;
 Efficient use of dung for biogas;
 Facilities for housing culled and diseased animals in isolation;
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 Strengthening of market value chain for milk and meat products, eliminating
exploitative middlemen.
Proposed Strategy
To accelerate the growth and to achieve the above goals, it is necessary to promote the
following activities:
1. Genomic studies and genetic engineering for breed improvement and
production of elite sires;
2. Herd registration, identification of elite cows and buffaloes of native breeds
for breed improvement;
3. Registration of all the bulls selected for semen freezing, setting minimum
standards for semen production and progeny testing of sires;
4. Facilities for production of sexed semen and sexed embryos and creation of
gene banks of exotic and indigenous breeds to prevent import of animals in the
future;
5. Field data recording and establishment of national data banks to study the
performance and economics of various indigenous breeds and different blood
levels of exotic breeds, which should be the base for formulating the national
breeding policy;
6. Public-private partnership for breeding, feed supply, veterinary services and
processing of milk, meat and other products;
7. Regular vaccinations, creation of disease-free zones and stamping out of major
diseases;
8. Networking of DI Labs with livestock breeding centres and organisation of
periodic livestock camps for handling problems of infertility, mastitis and
other health related problems;
9. Establishment of feed and fodder banks under public-private partnership;
10. Promotion of fodder cultivation through well planned production and supply
of fodder seeds of superior quality and varieties;
11. Popularisation of complete feed, feed with by-pass protein, microbial protein,
non-traditional feed ingredients, cultivation of fodder on degraded and
wastelands;
12. Promotion of clean milk production, efficient handling of milk, public-private
partnership for processing of milk and meat;
13. Development and popularisation of bullock drawn implements and machines;
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14. Development of efficient and compact user friendly biogas plants and their
popularisation;
15. Schemes for fattening of buffaloes and control of unproductive animal
population.
16. Creation of facilities for housing sick and culled animals;
17. Development of best livestock husbandry practices to improve production,
without expanding the herd size and strong extension network to popularise
these practices in the field;
The Government should incorporate these activities in the on-going schemes to enable
livestock owners to adopt improved practices and boost the production and
profitability of livestock husbandry in the country.
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