Livestock sector vital for farm growth, say experts

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 21

Livestock contributes about 16 per cent to the income of small farm households, as against an average of 14 per cent for all rural households, hence the sustainability of this sector is of importance, said Chhabilendra Roul, secretary, Department of Fertilisers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.

“Livestock and fishery sectors contribute 4.11 per cent and 0.91 per cent of national GDP and 25.6 per cent sand 5.23 per cent of total agricultural GDP, respectively. About 20.5 million and 14.0 million people depend upon livestock and fisheries for their livelihood,” he said.

He was chairing a session on sustainability of livestock and fishery production systems in India by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at NDRI on Saturday.

Dr Habibar Rahman, regional representative for South Asia, ILRI, said more than half a billion people in developing countries depend in whole or in part on farm animals for their livelihood.

Dr AK Srivastava, member Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, said: “Livestock and dairy development can form a major instrumentality for overcoming unemployment as employment opportunities in animal husbandry and dairying were higher than in crop sector and can play an important role in ensuring the sustainability of agricultural production.”

Dr JK Jena, Deputy Director General, Animal Sciences, ICAR, said India had a large livestock and poultry wealth comprising 512.1 million livestock, that includes 190 million cattle, 108.7 million buffaloes, 65.1 million sheep, 135.2 million goats, 10.3 million pigs and 729.2 million poultry.

“Low productivity, insufficient elite germplasm, low reproductive efficiency, shortage of quality feed and fodder, inadequate disease management and value addition of animal products in small quantity are still a worry,” he said.

Dr RRB Singh, Director, NDRI, said the brainstorming session was organised to prepare a strategy for making the livestock production system sustainable to meet out the future challenges facing the livestock sector.