- Animal rearing is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. It deals with the care and breeding of livestock like buffaloes, cows, pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, camels, goats, etc., that are useful to humans.
- Animal husbandry is an integral component of Indian agriculture, supporting livelihood of almost 55% of the rural population.
- India is the highest livestock owner of the world.
- According to 20th Livestock Census: (cattle, buffalo, pig, poultry, goats, sheeps etc.)
- A decline of 6 % in the total Indigenous cattle population over the previous census.
- India has 56.7% of world’s buffaloes, 12.5% cattle, 20.4% small ruminants.
- Livestock provides livelihood to two-third of rural community.
- 20.5 million people depend upon livestock for their livelihood.
- Livestock sector contributes 4% GDP and 25% of total Agriculture GDP.
- The objective of animal rearing is to make the livestock useful for human beings for a variety of purposes, many of which have an economic value. Therefore, it has a big potential for providing non-farm employment and income in rural areas.
- Significance:
- It is well recognized that humans depend upon animals for income, employment, food, social security, fuel (dung cakes), cultural aspects and a variety of other reasons.
- Distribution of livestock is more equitable compared to that of land. Marginal farm households controlled more than half of country’s cattles and buffalo.
- The animal production system in India is principally part of a mixed crop-livestock farming system and important for the security and survival of large number of poor populace.
- This production system assumes special significance in economic growth, increasing income, increasing urbanization, changes in taste and preference that have led to nutritional changes reflecting the importance of milk, meat, egg and fish in the daily diets of the people.
- Animal rearing has multidimensional potential. For instance, Operation Flood, launched in 1970, helped dairy farmers direct their own development, increased milk production (“a flood of milk”), augmented rural incomes and ensuring reasonable prices for consumers.
- Constraints:
- Incapability of central and state governments to deliver the promised and expected results.
- Non-availability of superior quality breeding bulls.
- Poor quality of semen produced by many of the laboratories.
- Inadequate skills of Paraveterinary workers resulting in poor conception and infertility.
- Inadequate support for Paraveterinary workers for supply of liquid nitrogen, frozen semen, health care and technical guidance.
- Shortage of fodder resources.
- Absence of field oriented conservation strategy for indigenous breeds.
- Lack of coordination among various agencies engaged in livestock husbandry.
- Poor extension services to motivate small farmers to adopt dairy husbandry for income generation.
- Ineffective control of animal diseases.
- FMD, BQ, PPR, Brucellosis, Swine fever and Avian Influenza continue to reduce productivity and production.
- Lack of skills and quality services to farmers for improving productivity.
- Only 6% of the animal heads (excluding poultry) are provided insurance cover.
- Only about 5% of the farm households in India do access information on livestock.
- Lack of access to organized markets and meager profits distract farmers from investing in improved technologies and quality inputs.
- Measures to promote Animal rearing:
- Increasing commercialization of livestock products by improving technologies, increasing market connectivity, processing and storage centre, training etc.
- Making provision for adequate availability of quality fodder.
- Targeting a significant portion of cultivable land for growing fodder crops.
- By setting up a consortium with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to fund the dairy cooperatives.
- Keeping a disaster management fund for livestock in case of natural calamities.
- Cross breeding of indigenous species with exotic stocks to enhance genetic potential of different species.
- Encouraging Public-Private Partnership for sustainable livestock rearing.
- A national breeding policy needed to upgrade the best performing indigenous breeds.
- focus on each type of livestocks.
- State governments should be encouraged to participate. + Private investment.
- Animal health care: preventive + curative.
- Initiatives by the Government:
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission
- To develop and conserve indegenous breeds of bovine population.
- To enhance milk production and to make it more remunerative to the farmers.
- National Livestock Mission
- To ensure quantitative and qualitative improvement in livestock production systems and capacity building of all stakeholders.
- National Artificial Insemination Programme
- To suggest novel methods of bringing about impregnation in female breeds.
- To prevent the spread of certain diseases which are genital in nature, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the breed.
- National Cattle and Buffalo Breeding Project
- To genetically upgrade important indigenous breeds on priority basis with a focus on development and conservation.
- Animal Husbandry Startup Grand Challenge
- To appreciate innovations coming from the villages to expand the dairy sector in India.
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission
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