HOW TO INCREASE THE INCOME OF LIVESTOCK FARMERS IN INDIA ?

November 5, 2020

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HOW TO INCREASE THE INCOME OF LIVESTOCK FARMERS IN INDIA ?

Shahnur Rahman
4th year BVSc & AH, Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science
Assam Agricultural University, Joyhing, North Lakimpur, Assam, – 787051
Email id- shahnurrahman020@gmail.com

Livestock are an integral component of agriculture in India and makes multifaceted contribution to the growth and development of agricultural sector. India posses one of the largest livestock population in the world having livestock population of 535.78 million which includes 192.49 million of cattle, 109.85 million of buffalo, 74.26 million of sheep, 148.88 million of goat, 9. 06 million of pigs, 3.9 lakhs of mithun, 58 thousands of yak, 3.8 lakhs of horses and ponies, 84 thousand of mules, 1.2 lakhs of donkeys, 2.8 lakhs of camel and 851.81 million of poultry population. Among these cattle contributes 35.94%, buffalo 20.45%, sheep 13.87%, goat 27.80%, pig 1.69% and others 0.23%.( Data sourse: livestock census data 2019). Therefore, to increase the income of livestock farmer through livestock sector requires restructuring of livestock process and policy interventions. Mainly there are three focus area by which income of the farmer can be increased i.e :-

Enhancing the gross income of the livestock farmers.
Reducing the cost
Stabilizing the income
Besides these three others factors are productivity improvement, adopting diversified farming system, realization of better market place. Increasing income by improving productivity along with stabilizing income and risk management through holistic approach are needed to double the farmers income.
Role of livestock sector in nation income – needed to be modified
Livestock and poultry sector contributes 4.1% and 0.9 % of GDP to the national economy. Meat and meat products, milk products, wool, poultry products are the main export earnings from the livestock sector. Farming system in India is characterized by small and marginal holding and seasonal in nature. They earn their income from sources like crop cultivation, dairy, poultry, fishery, mixed farming and other allied activities and wage employment. Livestock is the main source of livelihood for small farmers. It is said that Livestock act as an engine for agriculture growth. There are many major problems that are faced by the Indian farmers, of which some are listed below–
In our country most of our cattle are low producing due to lack of proper treatment, lack of feeding habits and lack of proper management system.
Most of our farmers do not have proper breeding policy, do not have high yielding germ plasm. They only rare low yielding animals.
They do not have proper feed and fodder management system. They let their cattle for open grazing without knowing the harmful consequences.
They do not get proper treatment facilities and proper Vaccination. Many livestock dies due to lack of proper treatment. Disease like FMD, BQ, PPR, avian influenza, swine fever decrease their production.
Farmers are unaware of various policies and schemes of the government and veterinary support .
Their livestock do not have insurance facilities. In case of any epidemic or pandemic farmers they are in heavy loss.
They do not gets actual market price and marketing facilities.
Their slaughter techniques are not scientific, they do not have storage facilities and other technical inputs.

Measures to be taken to double the farmers income livestock sector:–

Adopting mixed and diversified farming system like poultry reared with fishery, duck farming with paddy cultivation. This will generate additional income to the farmers.
By upgrading local or low producing animals by cross breeding and selective breeding. This can be done by AI facilities or distribution of improved bulls where AI is not available.
Various government national project and policies should be implemented for improving the livestock sector
Fodder and feed should be improved by various new technologies like feed blocks can be made , scientific feeding system can be adopted.
Providing proper veterinary facilities. Treatment should be cost effective and animals should be vaccinated on proper time. Animal should be dewormed on regular basis.
During any natural calamities proper care should be taken. During flood animals should be kept in safety and proper post flood treatment should be done.
There should be compulsory insurance facilities for livestock.
Farmers should be given frequent training program so that they can know about the new technologies and policies of the government.
Government should provide some loans and subsidies to the small farmers.
There should have proper storage facilities for the livestock farmers.
Climate plays mojor role for livestock production. There should have proper facilities by which climatic changes can be handled.
In most of the time farmers do not get actual price for their products. So market price should be fixed and proper marketing facilities should be there.
Income can also be generated from livestock waste products. Their dungs can be sold in the market as organic manure. Biogas can also be produced from their dungs. Litters from poultry farms can used in fisheries. This will have additional income to the farmer besides their main production.
Thus it is concluded that upgrading the low producing livestock by cross breeding, AI can increase their production, scientific feeding practice and management, proper health care facilities can increase their production. Fixed price for the farmers and proper storage and marketing facilities should be there like AMUL co operative. Farmers can adopt mixed and diversified farming, government should adopt various national policies and projects from time to time. Animal husbandry sector should keep regular contact with the farmers through KVKs and government authorities.REFERENCES:-Livestock census data 2019 *International journal of science and environment and technology, volume 7, no-2,2018,496-504, Role of livestock in doubling the farmer income- national perspective and the way forward, by o.p. Dinani , Pramod ku, tyagi, anil kumar giri and dukaresagar popat.*Economic contribution of the livestock sector in india by Pratap s. Birthal and P. Parthasarathy Rao.*An international refereed, peer reviewed and indexed quarterly journal in science, agriculture & engineering, Role of livestock in doubling the farmer income- national perspective and the way forward,by arnab roy, sangmesh and mahalakshmi.