VALUE ADDITION OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS:ENHANCING FARMERS INCOME
Bidyut Prava Mishra1*, Prasad Kumar Pati1, Jyotiprabha Mishra2, Prasana Kumar Rath1 1College of Veterinary science & Animal Husbandry, OUAT, Bhubaneswar-751003, Odisha, 2Scientist (Animal Science), KVK, Sambalpur, Chipillima, Odisha *Corresponding author address: Dr. Bidyut Prava Mishra, Assistant Professor, Department of Livestock Products Technology, C.V.Sc&A.H., OUAT, Bhubaneswar-751003, Odisha, Contact: 91+8280121534; Email: bidyutmishraivri@gmail.com
Abstract
India is an agricultural country and its economy depends largely on the agricultureand its allied sector of which animal husbandry forms the most important part. Animal husbandry activities such as dairying, poultry farming, goatery and piggery serve as an important source of employment and income to millions of rural Indians. Most of the livestock produce in the country is mostly produced from animals reared by small, marginal farmers and landless laborers. Having the largest animal population in the world, India contributes to about 22% of the total world milk production, about 4% of the total world meat production and continues to be the largest milk producer since 1998. There is a continuousupward trajectory in the availability of milk, meat and egg in India and nearly all of the livestock produce is consumed domestically, with the majority of it being sold in their fresh form. Overall domestic livestock products consumption is maximum and exports are minimum. India generally exports fresh meat and very few processed milk products to foreign countries.India is bestowed with large biodiversity having all kinds of animals. This offers a great opportunity to Indian farmers to produce variety of convenient value-added livestock products to meet the market demand as well to improve their income from the livestock sector.
Introduction
India is an agrarian country. About 70% of the total population of India lives in the rural areas and they mostly depend on farming for their livelihood. They used to follow the traditional method of farming due to lack of awareness about the new and developed technology. Alsothey don’t have any knowledge of market demand of the product, price of the product in the market etc. So, they cannot able to get sufficient profit from their business. India is the highest producer of milk in the world. The livestock population of India is 535.8 Million as per 20th livestock census. The meat production in India is about 8.11 MT per year (BAHS,2019), milk production reached at 187.7 MT and the egg production reached at 103.3 billion per year (BAHS,2019) in our country. Though the production figures are so high, but our farmers are not able to get the proportionate amount of profit by selling their farm produce.
As the livestock products like milk, meat and egg are highly perishable, they can get spoiled if kept at normal room temperature for more than 5-6 hrs. In our country, whatever milk is produced at the rural areas about 80% is being sold in its fresh form or fluid form and only 20% is used for preparation of different processed milk products like curd, chhana, paneer, khoa etc. Most of the meat and egg produced by the farmers are also sold in the market in its fresh or raw form. Due to lack of sufficient cold chain facility in the rural areas, farmers used to sell their surplus produce at a very low price to prevent the loss dueto microbial spoilage.As aresult farmers can not able to get appropriate profit for their product. So, they used to get disappointed to continue their farming practices. But the dairy farming, goatery, piggery and poultry farming have very good avenues in our country and farmers can enhancetheir profit margin if they do it in a proper planning manner. They should focus on preparation and selling of different processed value-added livestock products rather than the raw products.
What is value added product?
Value addition literally meaning “add to value” to any product just by changing its place, time, form etc as per market demand with certain innovative approach after careful study of consumer preferences. Value addition can be applicable to every raw material irrespective of food and non-food markets which should be of superior quality with ease of use providing consumer convenienceand economic profit to the producer.
The two important pillars for effective value addition are innovative approach and coordination between all stake holders involved in production to marketing. Proper SWOT analysis is a must before introducing any value-added product to market to limit the risk.
Advantages of value-added processed livestock products
- It prevents the risk of spoilage of raw produce and can be stored at room temperature for aprolonged period of time
- Can provide a variety of convenient, ready to prepare and ready to eat products which can satisfy the need of the present-day consumers at reasonable price.
- Provides opportunities for better utilization of different by-products.
- During period of excess production versus reduced selling of fresh perishable livestock produce like meat, milk and egg, the same can be processed for value addition to less perishable products, store them, and sell them later in greater quantities.
- Processed livestock products can be sold at markets present at a greater distance.
- Contribute to efficient marketing of milk, meat and egg
- Promotes employment and entrepreneurship development.
- Enhances the export potential and can compete with imports.
- Provides sufficient return to the farmers.
Development of a value-added product depends mainly on three major inputs –
- Technical knowledge about the development of the product.
- Market demand of the product.
- Economics of the preparation of the product.
Besides these the farmer should follow the four “P” concept i.e. product, place, price and promotion to become successful in getting sufficient profit by selling the value-added products. Before deciding to prepare any value-added product, the farmer has to survey the market where he is going to sell his produce. He should collect the information about the consumers for his product, their purchasing capacity, the demand for the products, their literacy status, the existing sellers of the proposed productin that area etc. Accordingly, the farmer has to decide the type of product to be prepared by him. The farmer should try to prepare some new product having some more nutritional value by adding some functional food ingredients to attract the consumers towards his product. Secondly, he has to select the place where he will sell his processed product. Thirdly, he has to think about the fixing of price of his product. Always he should try to keep the price of his product at the same price that is prevailing in the present market for the same product or if possible, he can fix the price somewhat lower than the prevailing price so that it can allure the consumers towards his product. Fourth aspect is that he has to make advertisement of his product among the consumers. This can be possible by making different leaflets having the information related to that product such as its nutritional value, method of cooking, beneficial effects of the product, price of the product contact number of the farmer, place of availability etc. Leaflets should be pasted at populated places suchas panchayat office, block offices, bus stands etc. So that consumers can able to know about the place, person from where they can able to get the product. Always try to maintain the quality of the product and also try to maintain regularity in supply of the product. Then only the marketing of the product can be feasible.
Value addition to milk
Dairy farmers can produce a wide variety of processed milk products to add value to their raw milk.They can process the raw milk to prepare the following items. These include:
- They can ferment the milk to produce curd.
- Milk fat can be separated from other milk solids to produce skim milk, butter and ghee.
- Milk can be fermented to produce cheese with whey as a by product.
- Whey can be used to prepare whey drink.
- Milk can be pasteurized which has a great demand by the consumers rather than fresh and raw milk.
- Flavored milk can be prepared.
- Milk can be processed to prepare khoa, chhana, paneer,ice cream, lassi etc.
- Khoa can be further processed to prepare various sweet items which can fetch vary good profit to the farmers.
In different developed countries, nearly 60% of the meat is processed for value addition and capturing the export market while in India, it is around 2% only which signifies a great scope for this sector in our country.
The purpose of value addition in meat are as follows:
- To provide a variety of consumer-basedmeat products in market
- To sustain increased demand from consumers in market meeting lifestyle requirement
- To efficiently use animal carcasses with proper and economic utilization of different by-products
- To combined and complement different meats with advantage
- To incorporate several ingredients of non-meat origin for enhancing quality and economy
- To facilitate export of quality meat products and compete with imports
- To promote various start-up entrepreneurship ventures and employment.
In general, the farmers used to sell meat in its fresh form in the market.Burgeoning population with rapid urbanization and change in life style among the people have increased preferences for more nutritious and ready to eat/ready to cook meat products. Due to increase in the number of working women in the society, increase in the purchasing capacity of the consumers, prevalence of nuclear family system in the society the demand for ready to eat and ready to process products has increased. This provides a great scope for the farmers to prepare value added processed meat products to meet the demand of the consumers as well to enhance their income. Processed meat products with enhanced quality definitely provide tasty and convenience foods to the meat consuming population. The meat of the spent animals or birds cannot be consumed as such due to its high collagen content (that causes toughness in meat and collagen cannot get digested during normal cooking processes) andalso will not be preferred by the consumers. So, the meat of the spent birds can be processed to prepare various value-added processed meat products which will increase the value of those spent animals or birds. Also, during slaughter of the food animals about 40-45% of the live body weight of the cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat and about 28- 30% of the live body weight of the poultry birds obtained in the form of by product and this by product contains both edible portions as well inedible parts. The farmers used to throw all the inedible by products as such in the environment which not only pollute the environment as well brings a great loss to the farmers. The farmers used to sell the edible by products at a very low price to the consumers. So, this brings a great opportunity for the farmers to utilize these by products for preparation of various value-added products which can enhance the economic status of the farmers.
Meat may be processed to prepare the following type of in combination with products.
- Emulsion based meat products: Mincing of tough meat in the mincer with preparation of emulsion in bowl chopper by adding suitable quantity of meat, oil, salt, condiments, spices, binders etc to arrive at a desired consistency
- Addition of spices, condiments, extenders like eggs, milk, soya bean or potato during the tough meat emulsion preparation greatly influence the product yield and palatability
- A large variety of products produced such as sausages, patties, nuggets,kabab, meat ball, meat pakoda etc.
Meat nuggets: Simple reproducible technology already developed by different food industry to prepare different meat nuggets like fried, smoked and pickled type by using different meats in combination with other ingredients of meat or non-meat origin and moulding to form blocks which later cut into different sizes and shapes.
Combination of meats: In order to complement and supplement qualities and availability of different meats and their byproducts.Blends of mutton and chicken or chicken byproduct heart skin or chicken fat resulted in highly acceptable product.Egg also compliments meat protein in meat product.Ex- nuggets, patties, sausage.
Restructured products: Less valuable carcass cuts and carcass parts can be effectively utilized to prepare the valuable products like cutlets, roast and rolls by using this restructured meat technology.
Enrobed products: The acceptability of meat can be enhanced by enrobing or coating the meat with the coating material or batter prepared from whole egg liquid, flours, bread crumbs etc and this can enhance the value of the product. Enrobing makes the texture crispy, more juicier and increases the demand of the product by the consumers.
Addition of vegetables in meat products: Seasonal vegetables such as bottle guard, pumpkin, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot etc can be incorporated in the meat products to reduce the cost of production of the product and will also enhance the nutritive value of the product. As the consumers of the present-day generation are more health cautious, so, the demand for such type of product is more in Indian market.
Ground meat product:In this case,ground or minced meat and fat is added with non-meat ingredients and then mixed in a meat mixer for extraction of meat proteins and binding.Then the meat mix is used for preparation of meat patties or meat nuggets or meat balls or some other ground meat products.
Meat pickle:Now a days the popularization of this product has increased a lot in our country. So, pickle can be prepared from chicken meat, goat meat, pig meat or sheep meat. The method of preparation is very simple and the product can be kept at refrigeration temperature for 3-4 months.
The poultry farmers can also make a fast-food stall and can prepare chicken pakoda, tandoori chicken, chicken roll, chicken chowmin, chicken biriyani, chicken curry etc. and can get good profit from their farming practices. Eggs can also be processed to prepare egg rolls, omlettes, egg chop, boiled egg, egg rings etc to increase the value of the egg. After all the farmer has to keep a good liaison with the local veterinary officers to get the information about the method of preparation of all these value-added products. Also, they have to attend the skill upgradation trainings on value addition of livestock products conducted from time to time by the state Government departments.
Value addition of the livestock products is the best way to enhance the farmer’s income. So, the farmers can avail all these opportunities to increase their source of income from the same amount of livestock produce they are having. If farmers are directly involved or trained in value addition of different livestock products, then they can make it practicable and become success in their farming practices.
