How to increase the income of livestock farmers in India?

How to increase the income of livestock farmers in India?

Dr. Lipismita Samal

Assistant Professor

College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry,

Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Introduction

The income of livestock farmers in India can be increased by restructuring the livestock sector along with suitable policy interventions. There are three ways by which income of farmers may be enhanced, viz., increasing the gross income, reducing the input costs, and stabilizing the income (Dinani et al., 2018). The gross income can be increased by improving livestock productivity, adopting integrated and diversified farming system, availability of organized marketing facilities, and strategic management of adverse climatic effects. Livestock policy should be based on the principles of social acceptability, economic feasibility, technical viability and resource conservation ability.

Scope of livestock sector in India

As per 20^th Livestock census-2019, India’s livestock sector is one of the largest in the world which consists of mainly cattle (36.04%), goats (27.74%), buffaloes (20.47%) and sheep (13.83%). India has huge livestock population of 536.76 million. The total livestock population in India has increased by 4.8% over the previous census (19^th Livestock census-2012). The total poultry population in India is 851.81 million in 2019, consisting of backyard poultry 317.07 million and commercial poultry 534.74 million. There has been 16.81% growth in poultry population (45.79% in backyard poultry and 4.5% in commercial poultry) in the country between 2012 and 2019.

India’s livestock and poultry sectors have been playing an important role in the Indian economy and are an important subsector of Indian agriculture. Though animals serve a number of purposes but their utility has been undergoing a steady transformation driven by the changed agriculture and food consumption patterns. Livestock as source of draught power has declined considerably due to mechanization of agricultural operations and declining farm size. Their importance as a source of quality food has increased due to sustained income and economic growth, a fast growing urban population, burgeoning middle class, changing lifestyles, increasing proportion of women in workforce, improvements in transportation and storage practices and upcoming supermarkets, especially in urban areas. Livestock sector in addition to regular income provides house hold nutritional security and employment to small and marginal rural households. Livestock is inextricably linked with sustained employment, income generating activities and livelihoods of rural people, farming communities in particular. About 70 percent of livestock in India is owned by the landless, marginal and small landholding families (Tekam et al., 2019). Livestock plays the deciding source of nutrition based diet in the form of milk, egg and meat.

Constraints and opportunities of livestock farming to increase the income of farmers in India

Strategy focus would be to develop cutting edge technologies to increase livestock and poultry productivity and income through genetic, nutritional, health care (diagnostics, vaccines, immunobiologicals) and value addition interventions to ensure safe and quality animal based foods while mitigating the effects of climate change on livestock health and productivity.

1. Livestock productivity: India has a huge population of low producing animals. The livestock productivity in India is very less when compared to the global average. There should be regular culling and replacement of less or unproductive animals from the farm. The effective ways to improve livestock productivity are crossbreeding, upgrading and selective breeding. Conservation and improvement of indigenous livestock breeds should also be encouraged. Genetic improvement of crossbred cattle shall be further augmented through intensive progeny testing of bulls using field and farm records. Sexing of semen and embryo transfer technologies would be integrated in the progeny testing program. Traditional quantitative genetic methodologies would be augmented with molecular markers for enhancing genetic gains. Superior germplasm (quality semen, bulls and bull calves) should be disseminated to the end users. Genomics research shall focus on genes implicated in disease and stress tolerance. Whole genome associations should be carried out to identify key genes contributing to production. Database of the identified SNP’s and QTL’s of livestock breeds shall be developed.
2. Feeding strategies: Feed contributes 60-70% of cost of production. So, economic feeding will increase the profitability. There is a deficit of 23.4% in the availability of dry fodder, 11.24% for green fodder and 28.9% for concentrates. So, fodder development programme along with fodder banks should be developed. Non-conventional feed resources can be used to decrease the feeding cost and also for survival of livestock during natural calamities. The animal by-products such as processed animal proteins, animal fats, milk and egg products can be used as a potentially valuable resource for feeding livestock. Animal nutrition research has so far centred on evaluation of feed resources, improving digestibility and adding value to low quality roughages. Future research priorities should be on neutragenomics and evaluation of genetically modified feeds and forages entering into food chain. Applied animal nutrition research areas such as strategic supplementation of limiting macro and micro nutrients, probiotics/ prebiotics, feed additives (enzymes, methane inhibitors etc.), development of Total Mixed Ration technology for improving efficiency of ruminant digestion, nutrition-reproduction interaction assessment with special reference to feeding of transition and sick animals should be considered.
3. Reproductive efficiency: Poor reproductive efficiency in dairy animals, besides direct and indirect losses to farmers, also hinders genetic improvement. A systemic mapping of reproductive disorders of dairy animals shall be taken to develop package of practices for their optimal management. Major issues of concern in buffaloes are delayed onset of puberty, poor signs of estrus, seasonal suppression of reproductive activity, poor libido in buffalo bulls and poor fertilizability of spermatozoa. About one third buffalo bulls exhibit poor libido which is an impediment in semen collection. About 50% crossbred bulls fail to produce semen of freezable quality. Attempts would be made to develop optimal buffalo semen freezing protocols to address issues related to cryoinjury and capacitation. Endocrine and nutritional interventions for hastening the onset of puberty, improving fertility especially during summer and protocol for synchronized estrus in late pubertal and anestrus buffaloes should be developed. Identification of early-age expressed molecular markers for selection of high fertility male calves should also be targeted. The existing techniques of ovum pickup, IVM-IVF, sexing of sperm shall be integrated for improving reproductive efficiency and multiplying superior genotypes. Poor semen quality, freezablity and libido are some of the most commonly encountered problems in crossbred bulls. These problems should be targeted using proteomics, transcriptomics and genomics. The presence of fertility associated proteins and metabolites in serum, urine and accessory sex fluids shall lead to identification of factors contributing to poor performance of crossbred bulls.
4. Climate change: Rising temperatures and humidity adversely affect livestock growth, reproduction and production efficiency. Climate change also affects rate of transmission of many infectious and vector-borne diseases. Strategy focus would be to provide comfortable housing to animals to reduce stress, and identifying suitable genotypes which can better withstand adverse climatic changes. The goal of increasing productivity without impacting environment can be attained through diversification and selection of inputs and management practices that foster positive ecological relationships and biological processes within the entire agro-ecosystem.
5. Health management: Wider and effective immunization for important economic diseases and compulsory deworming programme should be practiced. Surveillance and monitoring system for important diseases of livestock shall be strengthened through use of web-based epidemiological software and using Geographic Information System (GIS) and satellite images. Modern information and communication technology on real time basis for forecasting and forewarning diseases, however, calls for disease management system from village to laboratory. An authentic epidemiological data base for realistic assessment of prevalence and emergence of economically important infections (FMD, HS, Brucellosis), parasitic diseases (primarily haematozoa e.g., Theileriosis, Trypanosomiasis, Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis), sub-clinical and clinical forms of production diseases (mastitis, lameness), mineral imbalances and toxicities (nitrate/nitrite) in animals across different agro-climatic zones shall be established and used for identification and prioritization of most important diseases causing heavy economic losses. Reliable estimates of economic losses due to diseases are not available; realistic figures of such losses in context of prevailing conditions should be worked out. Livestock diseases like Lumpy skin disease, FMD, IBR, HS, Brucellosis and Haemoprotozoan require timely and accurate diagnosis. Conventional methods of diagnosis like detection and isolation which are laborious and time consuming shall be replaced by rapid, highly sensitive, specific and cost effective assays. Development of penside diagnostics based on recombinant proteins/ synthetic peptides/ monoclonal antibody/ genome of the pathogens for rapid and simultaneous detection of multiple etiological agents should receive high priority. The principle approach for control of infectious diseases is by vaccination. Most of the currently available vaccines (live, modified/killed) are either only partially effective and/or have short protective period. Recent advances in protein biochemistry, molecular biology and immunology shall be utilized to facilitate development of potent, cost effective, novel and new generation vaccines (marker/subunit/DNA) against major livestock diseases (IBR, HS etc.). The focus shall also be on developing novel targeted and controlled release veterinary drug delivery systems.
6. Zoonoses: Emerging and widely prevalent zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis, listeriosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus, and avian influenza should be given priority. One health initiative shall be promoted with greater cooperation among multiple disciplines-veterinarians, medicos, environmentalists and wildlife experts to ensure optimal health for humans, animals, and environment. Strengthening ‘One Health’ concept shall help to address issues of zoonoses, food safety, bioterrorism and enhancing our capacity and capability for emergency preparedness and managing emerging and re-emerging zoonoses.
7. Hygiene and sanitation: The livestock farmers should give importance on hygiene and sanitary condition of farm. Strict bio-security measures should be followed to minimize occurrence of diseases and mortality in the farm.
8. Indigenous technical knowledge (ITK): Scientific validation and adopting proven ITK can improve productivity of animals. Phytochemical/ pharmacological screening of indigenous medicinal plants (lemon grass, nirgundi, curry leaves, ashwagandha etc.) which have some established medicinal values shall be studied for developing herbal drugs.
9. Processing and value addition of livestock products: Milk product industry is very large, unorganized and needs support for process mechanization and technology upgradation. Value addition of milk and milk products with the integration of fruit, vegetables and cereals has a large potential. Work in the area of processing, composite and functional fermented dairy foods, production of nutraceuticals, nutragenomics, mineral and vitamin fortification to milk and milk products with incorporation of probiotics and prebiotics using techniques like micro-encapsulation and nanotechnology and extending the shelf life, monitoring residues in milk and dairy products should be initiated. Mapping of bioactives in milk of various species shall be taken up to elucidate their therapeutic potentials, extraction of these invaluable nutrients/therapeutic agents, and for designing functional and health dairy foods. A training-cum-demonstration unit shall be established to disseminate knowledge and technologies to stakeholders/entrepreneurs. Focus of research would be on quality meat production by standardizing pre-slaughter handling and implementing HACCP and GMP practices, fresh meat processing, value added functional/health oriented/designer meat and egg products and extension of shelf life using natural compounds as antioxidants and antimicrobials. Novel bioactive edible antimicrobial films from milk, meat and egg proteins, chitosan, starches and polysaccharides which extend shelf life and nutritive value of products shall be developed. Developed technologies shall be transferred to end users through training and extension education programs. Food testing laboratories duly accredited by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) should be established to check adulteration.
10. Extension and training: Livestock extension is different from agriculture extension and calls for delivery of services and inputs at the farmer’s door. Approach would be to work with the farmers through adopting villages, transferring technologies and studying their impact on productivity and farm income. Forming women self-help groups, empowering them and providing training to rural women and youth in various areas of animal management, feed manufacturing and value addition of livestock products should receive high priority. Attempts shall be made to develop farmer-friendly digitalized trainings/teaching modules and to introduce distance learning through e-extension, cyber extension and virtual classrooms. New courses, modules and models on entrepreneurship development in livestock should be developed. Tele-medicine services shall be strengthened for rapid and effective treatment. Data base on cost of production of milk, meat and eggs shall be generated for forecasting demand, supply and prices of livestock products. Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) in extension should be promoted for convergence and sharing of resources.
11. Marketing: The dairy cooperative networks like Amul, Urmul, Nandini, Saras, Verka   for milk production and Nammakal model for poultry production should be promoted all over the country. A minimum support price (MSP) should be fixed for livestock products. Upward push in MSP in favour of proposed diversification livestock products will be a practical option to increase the income of farmers. The organic food program and organic livestock and poultry farming should be strengthened to get advantage of market value.
12. Trade in livestock sector: India is a net exporter of buffalo meat (deboned frozen buffalo meat). In the last few years, exports have grown to record levels. India is third country after Brazil and U.S. in the world to export more than 1 million tonnes of bovine meat annually. Increased exports are primarily the result of lower cost of Indian buffalo meat. India is still a small player in global market of livestock trade, though India ranks in the top tier of producers of different livestock commodities. India does not even contribute 1 per cent to the world export of the livestock products, except for bovine meat and eggs (Roy et al., 2018).
13. Infrastructure: The infrastructure can be developed by increasing funding, subsidy and bank loan. All central and state subsidies need to be targeted to empower farmers through infrastructure development in rural areas to promote agribusiness, food processing, dairy, poultry, fisheries and enterprises etc. Banks should simplify documentation and allow online loan application.
14. Slaughtering facilities: Inedible offal’s and animal wastes from the meat plant have large potential to be used as valuable proteins/materials for export.
15. Livestock insurance: Livestock insurance provided by the public sector insurance companies could cover only about 6% of the animal heads. Innovative and acceptable insurance models may be designed to evolve a suitable scheme for various species.
16. Contract livestock and poultry farming: Cooperatives and agribusiness firms can promote contract livestock and poultry farming including risk coverage.
17. Integrated and diversified farming system: Diversification of animal husbandry activities like duck cum rice farming, duck cum fish farming etc. should be adopted to increase income.
18. Capacity building: There is lack of skilled technical manpower in field. A strong human resource base should be developed.

Conclusion:

Extension support for health care, input supply, advanced scientific managemental interventions, market linkages and other aspects should be readily available at village level. The livestock farmers should participate in the health care and breed development programmes. Strategy focus should be to increase livestock productivity and also to efficiently utilize livestock products as well as by-products to increase income of farmers. Enhancing livestock farmers’ income needs funds at institutional level as well as at enterprise level, for which a robust institutional credit flow mechanism is necessary.

References

Dinani, O.P., Tyagi, P.K., Giri, A.K. and Popat, D.S. (2018). Role of livestock in doubling the farmers income – national perspective and the way forward. International Journal of Science, Environment and Technology. 7 (2): 496-504.

Livestock Census. (2012). All India 19^th Livestock Census Report, Ministry of Agriculture Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.

Livestock Census. (2019). All India 20^th Livestock Census Report, Ministry of Agriculture Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.

Roy, A., Chendrashekhar, S. and Mahalakshmi, S.M. (2018). Role of livestock in doubling farmers’ income-national perspective and the way forward. Multilogic in Science, 8: 174-177.

Tekam, D., Sonawane, N., Bhanotra, A. and Sawant, M. 2019. Doubling of farmers income through animal husbandry by 2022. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 8 (2): 3246-3255.

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