How to increase the income of livestock farmers in India: A review

How to increase the income of livestock farmers in India: A review

Dr. Alok Kumar Yadav

(B.V.Sc. &A.H., M.V.Sc. & A.H., Ph.D. ICAR-NDRI, Karnal-132001, Haryana, India)

Veterinary Officer, Central Cattle Breeding Farm, Andeshnagar, Lakhimpur-Kheri (U.P.)

Corresponding author: - alokvet1000@gmail.com Mob No: 9473917493

Abstract:

To increase the farmer’s income through livestock sector in real terms requires restructuring livestock processes & policy interventions. Fundamentally there are three ways in which income of farmers may be enhanced, viz., increasing the gross income, reducing the costs, and stabilizing the income. Increasing incomes by improving productivity, integrated and diversified farming system, better market price realization and special policy measures are needed. Livestock rearing has significant positive impact on equity in terms of income and employment and poverty reduction in rural areas as distribution of livestock is more egalitarian as compared to land. The strategies require four critical pillars—technology, institutions, infrastructure and incentive structure. Livestock based policy should be based on the principles of social acceptability, economic feasibility, technical viability and resource conservation ability. In the recent decade, demand for various livestock based products has increased significantly due to increase in per capita income, urbanization, taste and preference and increased awareness about food nutrition. Livestock sector is likely to emerge as an engine for agricultural growth in the coming decades. It is also considered as a potential sector for export earnings. Increasing incomes by improving productivity along with stabilizing income and risk management through holistic approach are needed to double the farmer’s income.

Keywords: Farmers income, livestock sector, farming system, Livestock based policy.

Introduction:

The dairy and the livestock are the only sectors which may help farmers increase their income not just double, it may go up to three to four times if they follow proper investment. Because India’s growing population needs protein and fat, for which milk and egg are the options, the increased demand will benefit these businesses. Livestock sector plays a multi-faceted role in socio-economic development of rural households. In India, over 70 percent of the rural households own livestock and a majority of livestock owning households are small, marginal and landless households. Small animals like sheep, goats, pigs and poultry are largely kept by the land scarce poor households for commercial purposes due to their low initial investment and operational costs. Livestock sector plays an important role in socio-economic development of rural households. It contributes about 6 percent to the Gross Domestic Product and 25 percent to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product. Over the last two decades, livestock sector has grown at an annual rate of 5.6 percent, which is higher than the growth of agricultural sector (3.3 percent). This suggests that livestock is likely to emerge as an engine of agricultural growth in the coming decades. It is also considered as one of the potential sector for export earnings. The importance of livestock goes beyond its food production function (Birthal et al., 2002). It provides draught power and organic manure to crop sector and hides, skin, bones, blood and fibers to the industrial sector. Livestock sector also makes significant contributions towards conservation of environment. Livestock sector supplements income from crop production and other sources and absorbs income shocks due to crop failure. It generates a continuous stream of income and employment and reduces seasonality in livelihood patterns particularly of the rural poor (Birthal and Ali 2005). Rural Poverty is largely concentrated among the landless and the marginal households comprising about 70 percent of rural population (Kozel and Parker 2003; Taneja and Birthal 2004). Several empirical studies indicate that livestock rearing has significant positive impact on equity in terms of income and employment and poverty reduction in rural areas (Thornton et al., 2002; Birthal and Ali 2005) as distribution of livestock is more egalitarian compared to land (Taneja and Birthal 2004). In India, over 70 percent of the rural households own livestock and a majority of livestock owning households are small, marginal and landless households. Small animals like sheep, goats, pigs and poultry are largely kept by the land scarce poor households for commercial purposes because of their low initial investment and operational costs (Birthal 2002).

Livestock population dynamics:

• Thetotal Livestock population is 535.78 million in the country showing an increase of 4.6% over Livestock Census-2012.
  • West Bengalobserved the highest increase of 23%, followed by Telangana (22%).
• Thetotal number of cattle in the country has shown an increase of 0.8 %.
  • The increase is mainly driven by a sharp increase in cross-bred cattleand higher female indigenous cattle
  • Uttar Pradeshhas observed a maximum decrease in cattle population though the state has taken several steps to save cattle.
  • West Bengalhas seen the highest rise of 15% in cattle population.
• The population of the total exotic/crossbred cattlehas increased by 27%.
  • Cross-bred animals contributed around 28% to India’s total milk production in 2018-19.
  • The milch populationof exotic and crossbred cattle such as Jersey or Holsteins shows higher milk yields and thus farmers prefer animals yielding more milk.
• A decline of 6%in the total indigenous cattle population has been observed.
  • India’s indigenous cattle numbers continue to decline,notwithstanding the government’s efforts to promote conservation of desi breeds through the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM).
  • The sharpest fallhas been observed in the states (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,Maharashtra, etc.) with tough cow slaughter laws.
• Thetotal milch animals have shown an increase of 6%.
  • Due to higher yields, foreign breeds constitute more than half the population of milch animals.
  • The more the number of animals that produce milk,the more would be pressure on land and fiercer would be competition between man and animals for survival.
  • The figures show that nearly 75% of total cattle in the country are female (cows) — a clear sign of dairy farmers’ preferences for milk-producing cattle. This also gained momentum in the past couple of years due to the government’s assistance in terms of providing sex-sorted artificial insemination (AI), with semen of high-yielding bulls, free of cost at farmers’ doorstep.
• The backyard poultryhas increased by around 46%.
  • The sharp increase in backyard poultry is a significant changein the rural landscape which shows a sign of poverty alleviation.
• Total Bovine population(Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun and Yak) has shown an increase of about 1%.
• The population of sheep, goat and Mithun grew in double digitswhile the count of horses and ponies, pigs, camels, donkeys, mules and yaks

Role of Livestock Sector in National Income:

Contribution of livestock and poultry sectors to the national economy in terms of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is 4.1 and 0.9%, respectively. Agriculture and allied sector
contributed about 18.1% to the total GDP. Out of the total agricultural GDP, livestock sector
contributed about 28.7% in terms of Rs.7, 33,054 crores during 2015-16 (CSO, 2015-16 and
DAHDF, 2015-16). On an average per year, average value of livestock products are nearly
1% of total export earnings and 6 % of agricultural export earnings (Kumar et al., 2008).
Meat and meat products are the main livestock products exported, accounting for above 90%
of total export earnings from the livestock sector.

Livestock Role in Farmers Income:

Farmers earn income from various sources, viz. crop cultivation, horticulture, dairy, poultry,
fisheries, other allied activities, non-farm activities, and wage employment. During the last 30
years, the income disparity between farmers and non-farmers has increased. In 1983–84 the
average income of a farm household used to be about a third of that of a non-farm household.
By the year 2004–05, this statistic had reduced to one-fourth. Livestock has been an
important source of livelihood for small farmers. They contributed about 16% to their income, more so in states like Gujarat (24.4%), Haryana (24.2%), Punjab (20.2%) and Bihar
(18.7%) (Planning Commission, 2012).

Hurdles in Livestock Sector to Double the Farmers Income:

Livestock sector act as an engine for agricultural growth. Doubling the farmers’ income would require addressing challenges availability of high yielding germplasm, shortage of feed and fodder, frequent occurrence of some deadly diseases etc. The sector has remained underinvested; and neglected by the financial and extension institutions. Livestock markets are under-developed, which is a significant barrier to the commercialization of livestock production. Besides, the sector will also come under significant pressure of increasing globalization of agri-food markets. Major hurdles in livestock sector to double the farmer’s income are listed below.

1. Improving productivity in a huge population of low-producing animals is one of the major challenges. The average annual milk yield of Indian cattle is 1172 kg which is only about 50% of the global average. Likewise the meat yield of most species is 20-60% lower than the world average.
2. The deficit of dry fodder, concentrates and green fodder currently is 10, 33 and 35%, respectively. Only 25% of forage seeds are available, that too of 15-20 years old varieties. Nearly 4% of total cultivated area utilized for fodder production is nearly constant from last three decades. The common grazing lands too have been deteriorating quantitatively and qualitatively.
3. Insufficient prophylactic vaccination and deworming. Frequent outbreaks of diseases like FMD, BQ, PPR, Brucellosis, Swine fever and Avian Influenza etc. continue to reduce productivity and production.
4. Available veterinary support in terms of infrastructure (for hospitals and diagnostic labs) and technical manpower are insufficient.
5. Livestock sector receives only about 12% of the total public expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors and about 4-5% of the total institutional credit flowing to agriculture and allied sectors. Insufficient funding, subsidy and bank loan as compared to other agriculture sectors
6. Insufficient Livestock insurance coverage- Only 6% of the animal heads are provided insurance cover.
7. Livestock extension- Livestock extension remains grossly neglected. Only about 5% of the farm households in India do access information on livestock against 40.4% for crop farming.
8. Organized slaughtering facilities are too inadequate.
9. Lack of access to organized markets and meager profits distract farmers from investing into improved technologies and quality inputs. Informal market intermediaries often exploit the producers.

In order to earn more money, a farmer needs to grow more crops while spending less. He also needs to ensure better yield of the crops he grows. How can this be done?

How to grow more crops ?

With more availability of water, a farmer is able to increase the crop yield. There are four ways to increase water availability watershed development for increasing water efficiency in the local area; large irrigation projects for command area irrigation; groundwater extraction and other methods such as lift irrigation.

Another way to better the income is through better crop yield. For growing more crops per sowing, a farmer needs to apply several techniques like rice intensification in case of paddy cultivation; sow higher-yielding seeds; use better fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides to tackle nutrient deficiency and make of use of technologies such as drip irrigation. However, the implementation of these methods may face several constraints like knowledge transfer to farmers, affordability and very limited risk-taking ability of farmers.

How to get more yields ?

Crop grown by a farmer goes through numerous intermediaries before reaching the consumer. In such a chain, a farmer may get a very small portion of the final price. Moreover, farmers have limited bargaining power and are affected by the cartelisation of agricultural produce market committees, lack of storage facilities and limited financial capacity. Even the minimum support price (MSP) is not helpful to farmers as it is effective only for wheat and paddy crops.

What are the challenges involved in growing more and earning more ?

• Water and water security. There are possible solutions but technical skills and leadership to manage demand are needed at the village level.
• Buyers monopolise as farmers are unable to bargain in the market.
• Limited infrastructure for storage reduces farmers’ bargaining power further.
• Inability to shift to remunerative crops due to lack of knowledge.
• Precarious finances prohibit risk-taking as failure can be a life and death situation for a farmer.

What farmers can do?

Farmers can follow collectivisation for succeeding. While it has its challenges, if farmers come together, then this single most critical step would help them to:

• optimally tap common resources like water
• cooperate and acquire knowledge for growing better price yielding crops
• share infrastructure like storage
• negotiate for better crop prices with buyers
• negotiate for better input prices with sellers

What governments can do?

1. Provide infrastructure to villages
2. Curtail exploitation by Mandis
3. Ensure alternate marketing mechanisms as competition to Mandis
4. Enhancing agricultural knowledge creation and transfer
5. More non-farming jobs to reduce pressure on land
6. Provide affordable crop insurance with a quick settlement
7. Quick delivery of basic services likes health and education so that farmers are not crippled by debt for these.

Conclusion and suggestions

All the ongoing schemes recommended for continuation should be classified under three mega schemes; a) Animal production b) Livestock Health, and c) Dairy development. The strategies outlined above rest on four critical pillars—technology, institutions, infrastructure, and incentive structure. Increasing incomes by improving productivity along with stabilizing income and risk management through holistic approach. Thus, it is concluded that genetic improvement of poor yielding livestock through crossbreeding, upgrading and selective breeding to maximize their production along with local adaptability, economic feeding practices, proper health care and management practices will lead to optimization of production. MSP for livestock products, market development, product processing, packaging, value addition, cold storage facilities, easy availability of high yielding germplasm, livestock insurance, adopting diversified and integrated farming, contract livestock farming, adopting PPP model, strengthening extension services, repetition of AMUL co-operative model for milk production and Nammakal model for poultry production, increasing backyard poultry farming, promoting organic farming to specific areas along with increasing funding, subsidy and easy availability of bank loan for livestock farming are the key ways to double the farmers income. Farmer is not a labour or poor among the poorest, he is the ANNADATA in real sense. Agriculturer (Farmer) needed to transform into entrepreneur to double the income adopting innovative approach and technology.

References :

Annual Report (DAHDF) (2015-16). Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

BAHS (2014). Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics. Ministry of Agriculture. Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. New Delhi.

Birthal, P. S. (2002). Technological Change in India’s Livestock Sub-sector: Evidence and Issues, In: Technology Options for Sustainable Livestock Production in India. National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi,

Birthal, P. S. and Ali, J. (2005).  Potential of livestock sector in rural transformation, In: Rural Transformation in India: New Delhi.

Birthal, P. S., Joshi, P. K. and Kumar, A. (2002).  Assessment of Research Priorities for Livestock Sector in India, Policy Paper 15, New Delhi.

CACP (various years), Report of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi.

Central Statistical Office (2015-16). National Accounts Division. Ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

Kozel, V. and Parker, B. (2003).  A Profile and Diagnostic of Poverty in Uttar Pradesh, Economic and Political Weekly, January 25, 2003. Pp 385:403.

Planning Commission. (2012). Report of the Working Group on Animal Husbandry and Dairying for the Twelfth Five Year Plan 2012–2017, New Delhi.

Report on Doubling Farmer’s Income by 2022-Farm Crisis and Farmers’ Distress 2016. ICAR  New Delhi.

Report on Doubling Farmer’s Income by 2022.NABARD.

Report on Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) Economic Sectors Volume II.

Taneja, V. K. and Birthal, P. S. (2004).  Role of Buffalo in Food Security in Asia, Asian Buffalo Magazine (1)1. Pp 4-1

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