Livelihood Security in India by Animal Husbandry

India has vast resource of livestock and poultry, which play a vital role in improving the socio-economic conditions of the rural masses. India has the largest livestock populations in the world. The total livestock population consisting of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, horses & ponies, mules, donkeys, camels, mithun, yak and rabbit in the country is 512.65 million numbers in 2012. The total livestock population has decreased by about 3.33% over the previous census. Out of total livestock in the country, 37.24 % were cattle, 21.20 % buffaloes, 12.69 % sheep, 26.37 % goats and 2.01 % pigs. All other animals such as mithun, yaks, horses, ponies, mules, donkey and camels are 0.49 % of the total livestock. As per the figures of 2012 livestock census, India has 190.90 million cattle out of which 39.73 million were crossbred. The livestock sector alone contributes nearly 25.6 % of value of output at current prices of total value of output in Agriculture sector. The overall contribution of Livestock Sector in total GDP is nearly 4.11 % at current prices during 2012 -2013 (Table 1).

Table 1: Livestock Population of India.

Source: 19th livestock census (2012)

Livestock are domesticated animals intentionally reared in an agricultural setting for want of food or fibre, or for their labour. Livestock include pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, and poultry. The type of livestock reared varies worldwide and depends on factors such as climate, consumer demand, native animals, local traditions, and land type. The livestock population shows high degree of diversity in its composition. The livestock sector produced 135.6 million tones of milk, 69.8 billion eggs, 6.00 million tones of meat and 46.5 million kg of wool in 2012- 2013.

Livestock sector provides employment to 38 million people and nearly 70 per cent of them are women. Further, dairy sector is the major source of income for an estimated 27.6 million people. Among these 65 to 70% are small, marginal farmers and land-less labour. The dairy sector supports around 15.5 million farmers through 1.65 lakh cooperative societies existing in the country. Apart from employment generated by rearing of animals, the procurement of milk and its processing also provides substantial employment.

According to FAO, the world livestock population in 2014 comprised of 1,480 million cattle, 195 million buffaloes, 1,208 million sheep, 1026 million goats and 991 million pigs. India has 55.72% of the world’s buffalo population, 12.90% of the world cattle population, 13.17% of world goat population and 5.38 % of world sheep population. It ranks first in respect of buffalo population, second in cattle and goat population, third in sheep population in the world.Total export earnings of India from livestock, poultry and related products in 2012 -2013 was Rs. 5,548.8 million US dollar, of which meat and meat products accounted for Rs. 4695.1 million US dollar (84.61 %), milk and milk products accounted for Rs. 595.8 million US dollar (10.74%), live animals 155.4 million US dollar (2.80%), egg 86.8 million US dollar (1.56 %),wool and hair 7.63 million US dollar (0.14%), hide & skin 4.32 million US dollar (0.08%) and animal fat accounted 3.89 million US dollar (0.07%).