ROLE OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY TO STRENGTHEN THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE LIVESTOCK OWNER’S OF INDIA FOR VIKSIT BHARAT @ 2024
Deep Narayan Singh, Ranjana Sinha, Manmohan Kumar, Gyandev Singh, Vivek Singh, Mritunjay Kumar
Bihar Veterinary College
Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna-800 014
Introduction
Animal Husbandry is an economic enterprise & considered as “Survival enterprise” for millions of people in India, especially in the Arid & Semi-Arid regions. In India, 85% livestock keepers are small & marginal farmers having less than 2 hectare of land, operating 44% of land for crop cultivation & contributing more than 69% in country milk production. Future of sustainable agriculture growth & food security in India depends on the performance of small & marginal farmers.
It serves as a lifeline since it provides livelihood to two-third of rural community giving employment to large population of unskilled youth. Livestock contributes 16 per cent to the income of small farm households as against the national average of 14 per cent for all rural households. Not only this, livestock sector provides employment to 8.8 per cent of population which largely comprises of landless and unskilled population. In the livestock sector, the dairy sub-sector has always played an important role. This is quite evident from the words of Nanda Kumar, Chairman National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) that “Doubling farmers’ income by 2022 is impossible without dairy farming which has a CAGR of 19.6 per cent. 85 per cent of the farmers in India who are marginal and small own 45 per cent of the land, but 75 per cent of the bovine. So probably for a landless person, dairying is one of the best occupations”. More-over no one is left untouched from the commendable position of India in the world in milk production accounting for 18.5 per cent of world production (789 million tons). The monetary value of this is more than the current combined value of rice and wheat, and this was achieved without subsidy and incentives.
Good and productive animals are always produced not purchased, so management plays a significant role in improving lactation efficiency in dairy animals. Management is the art and science of combining ideas, facilities, processes, materials and labour to produce and market a worthwhile product or service successfully. Livestock management plays a significant role in improving the farmer’s income by adopting scientific management interventions to reduce feeding cost, mortality, morbidity, age of maturity, age of first calving, generation interval whereas it improves milk, meat, wool, egg, skin production, peak yield, growth rate, fertility rate, prolificacy etc.
The growth of a country is directly related with energy, renewable as well as non-renewable resources. Animal by-products (ABPs), such as processed animal proteins, animal fats, milk and egg products, and former food products represent a potentially valuable resource for feeding livestock. So, mainly there are two basic ways by which we can improves the income generations of our livestock owners.
Managemental Interventions
Management plays a significant contribution for making sustainable livelihood as well as livestock security and welfare. the following Managemental interventions should be strictly followed. There are mainly four pillars of management for livestock improvements
- Breeding: Allow mating with superior one.
- Feeding: Provides growth, maintenance, production and reproduction ration with plenty of greens.
iii. Weeding: Culling of unwanted & un-productive animals.
Heeding: Implementation of good livestock management and general supervision including housing, care & maintenance of hygiene and sanitation.
For attaining maximum benefit to our livestock owners they should focus on scientific management of livestock during their different stages of life.
Care and management of neonates:
Neonates decides the future of farmers as well as the future of productive and reproductive performances of any livestock farms. It is said that “good animals are raised not purchased”. It is impossible to purchase quality animal regularly, so one has to raise its own neonates i.e. calves to make a good herd. High mortality of neonates in India is due to faulty management.
The raising of neonates begins even before it is born. The cows which are not fed proper will give birth to under-nourished and weak calves. So, the livestock owner should give proper emphasis on feeding of advanced pregnant cows. Intensive care will be also required for neonates during and after the birth. Immediately after birth remove the mucous from mouth & nostrils, allows mothers to lick her calf. Provides colostrum 10% of their body weight of calves in 4-5 times in a day within 30-50 minutes after birth. Provides artificial colostrum in case of any casualty with mother. Provides milk replacer and calf starter for early growth of calf. Feeding of antibiotics, pro-biotic and pre-biotic should also practiced. Scheduled vaccination, deworming should be advised to farmers.
Care and management of heifers:
Well grown and developed heifers are the best foundational stock of dairy herd. Raising of heifers can be done in two ways viz. out-door and in-door system. Provides maintenance ration, in case of breeding season and pregnancy period the livestock owner’s should provides additional concentrates for conception and successful parturition. Prior to breeding season provides at least 0.5-1.0 kg additional concentrates while during early and mid pregnancy also provides 0.5-1.0 kg and 1.0-1.5 kg additional concentrates respectively. During advanced pregnancy steaming-up and challenge feeding practices must be practiced for successful parturition and to obtained healthy calves with maximum milk production.
Care and management of lactating animals:
The farmer’s should give proper emphasis to their lactating or productive animals in terms of high quality concentrates enrich with bypass fat and protein, good lush green fodder and roughage availability throughout the year. There should be proper grooming, kindness in handling, exercise, regularity in care should be followed.
Care and management of dry animals:
From the day of the cows stops the giving milk to the day of next calving is called Dry period. Dry period is necessary for repair & regeneration of udder tissues, to give rest to the cows udder to recoup its normal condition. there are three methods of drying.
- Sudden caessation of milk
- Incomplete milking
iii. Intermittent milking
Breeding of Livestock
The livestock owners should maintain their purity of germplasm and maintain their records. So avoid the absurdly cross breeding with poor quality stray bulls. This will help in maintaining the productive and reproductive performances of livestock.
Feeding of livestock:
The livestock owners should provide the ration in form of good quality concentrates, roughages and green fodder. Provides concentrates with high quality proteins enrich with bypass fat and protein, 25-30 kg good lush green fodder and 4-5 kg dry fodder along with chelated mineral mixtures.
Green fodder availability:
The farmers should make a strategies for availability of good quality lush green fodder throughout the year by using suitable crop rotation, increasing cropping intensity, sowing of annual & perennial legumes along with cereal fodder.
The livestock owner’s should also conserve the green fodder in form of hay or silage during the month of fodder scarcity.
Use of Non-conventional feed resources:
To reduce feeding cost as well as for survival of livestock during natural calamities use of non-conventional feed resources or scarcity fodder plays a very important role after removing the toxic alkaloids.
Hygiene & Sanitization:
The livestock owner’s should gave much emphasis on hygiene and sanitary condition of farm to minimize the occurrence of diseases and mortality in the farm. Strict bio-security measure should be adopted by the livestock owner.
Regular health monitoring, vaccination of livestock and the working staff
The livestock owner’s should give emphasis on regular health monitoring of their animals as well as their working staff involved in livestock keeping and rearing. Prompt isolation and treatment should be done by prescribed physician or Veterinarian. Regular vaccination is essential for maintaining the animals in good health and production.
Marketting channel :
The government should give due weightage for establishment of market of livestock and livestock products. The livestock owner get less profit due to involvement of middle man. Milk and other livestock products are perishable in nature so availability of deep freeze and transportation facility is required for improving the shelf life of livestock products.
Culling and replacement of animals:
Remove the less or unproductive animals from the farm. The unproductive or poor productive animals severely affect the rearing cost and profit ratio. So, regular culling and replacement of older animal is essential for making the profit the livestock owner.
Value addition of Milk and milk products
The art of preparing sweets and other items like curd, cheese, paneer, butter milk, flavoured milk, kheer, paysam etc from surplus milk to increase the shelf life of milk as well as to earn more income, this is called as value addition. Lack of cooling facilities to keep milk fresh in warm climate resulted in the diversion on milk for the preparation of various milk products with comparatively longer shelf life.
Utilization of Animal by-products
The Animal by-products (ABPs), such as processed animal proteins, animal fats, milk and egg products, and former food products represent a potentially valuable resource for feeding livestock. Thus the use of different by-product of livestock such as dairy, dung, urine and meat industries by-product & their importance should be promoted extensively by organizing regular awareness program & educating the farmers to improve their income as well as to improve socio-economic status. Using animal manure as fuel offers a number of advantages for large livestock and poultry operations. Wastes are either inexpensive or cheaper than propane, electricity and most natural gas. In fact, there are costs associated with disposing of manure which can be minimized through use as a fuel. In addition, using manure as a fuel minimizes odor, run off (non-point source pollution) and other nuisances. Using animal manure as fuel can improve the financial bottom line of the farm operation. Generally, anaerobic digestion is the most flexible biomass conversion option for a farm operation. It produces biogas which has a heating value of approximately 600-800 Btu/cubic foot, 60 to 80% of the energy value of natural gas. The gas can be used to generate electricity, as a boiler or furnace fuel or to run refrigeration equipment. Biogas is one of the more important sources of energy in terms of cooking, electricity generation & mechanical energy generation. Biogas is a clean and efficient fuel. It is a mixture of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen (H2) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). The chief constituent of biogas is methane (65%). The green-house gas emissions from the livestock farms can be reduced following anaerobic digestion approach of converting cattle dung into bio-energy. Thus, this process can be widely applied for the production of the biogas on a large scale. Moreover, the resulting methane can be utilized for electricity generation, lighting, heating and cooking.
Dairy Industry Byproduct:
A dairy by-product can be defined as a product of commercial value produced during the manufacture of a main dairy product such as paneer, cheese, chhana, butter milk and ghee. The major dairy industry byproducts are skim milk, butter milk, ghee residue and whey. Utilization of dairy by-products improves plant economy, makes valuable nutrients available for humans and reduces environmental pollution originating from dairy waste. It is realized that economic disposal of dairy by-products is an essential parameters for profitable dairy industry as well as for betterment of farmer and environmental hygiene.
In some countries like India, the most of problems associated with the production and utilization of dairy by-products are: a low per capita availability of milk, higher proportion of buffalo milk, poor quality of raw milk, lack of organized manufacture of products, lack of adequate technology, high cost of new technologies, lack of in-house R & D, lack of proper infrastructure, lack of indigenous equipments and plants etc. Before setting up a by-product factory, it is important to consider the economical aspects of the plant, because sometimes the cost of manufacture of the by-product may be more as compared to the by-product and, therefore, the setting up of the by-product plant is not economically feasible. But with advancement in science and technology as also the automation of plants, the economic feasibility of these can be improved.
In India, skim milk is mostly utilized either for standardization purposes or preserved in spray dried form. Only a very small quantity of skim milk, mostly of substandard quality, has to be used as byproduct. Whey and Its by-products In India, there has been a tremendous increase in the production of cheese and coagulated milk products resulting in a proportionate increase in whey. Butter milk is the by-product obtained during the manufacture of butter. The exact amount of butte rmilk production in India is not estimated. In addition, a substantial amount of lassi (sour butter milk) is also produced during the manufacture of makkhan directly from fermented milk (curd). Total annual production of butter milk in India is estimated at 35 million tonnes. Sweet cream butter milk resembles skim milk in gross chemical composition and is usually admixed with bulk of skim milk for further spray drying or even product manufacture in dairy plants. Desi butter milk, on the other hand, has long been an important domestic beverage in India. It has high nutritive and therapeutic value. It also finds its way in the preparation of a host of items such as kadhi, dhokla and idli. Also a number of state dairy federations and private plants sell salted and spiced butter milk in 200 ml pouches. Surat-based Sumul does business out of selling butter milk (chhach) in and around the city.”Sumul chhach” in 500ml packs reaches practically every nook and corner of Surat, covering over 850 retail outlets.
By-products of Indian dairy industry
The dairy byproduct utilization also provides source of income by different value addition methods.
Dung & Urine
Fecal matters (dung) & urine of livestock is a most important source of bio-fertilizer, Dung brick preparation & pest repellent but at the same time cow’s urine, cow’s horn and a dead body of a cow can be used for preparing effective bio-fertilizer. In our country, farming and agricultural cultivation, as per the traditional age-old system, used to be done, with cow dung amongst others serving as manure.
Cow dung is a very good source for maintaining the production capacity of soil and enhances the microbial population. Cow dung has been considered as a Gold Mine due its wide applications in the field of agriculture, energy resource, environmental protection and therapeutic applications It is also used as a co-product in agriculture, such as manure, bio-fertiliser, bio-pesticides and pest-repellent. Several Products has been launched by the manufacturing companies such as soap, toothpaste, floor cleaners, hair oil, incense, shaving cream and face wash from the cow dung to earn money. The soap contains dried and pulverised cow dung, orange peel, lavender powder, and gooseberries, the company says. The toothpaste is made of dung, ghee, and urine. It is now readying a line of cosmetic products and medicines as well.
Panchgavya:
Historically, Maharshi Vasishtha served the divine “Kamdhenu” Cow and Maharshi Dhanvantari offered to mankind a wonder medicine “Panchgavya” (a combination of cow urine, milk, dung, ghee and curd). In Sanskrit, all these five products are individually called “Gavya” and collectively termed as “Panchgavya”.
Biogas and Composting:
Dung has also been successfully used to produce bio-gas (methane) and generate electricity for consumer use. Biogas is used in cooking, for lighting in homes and streets. It can be used for driving self-combustion engines for various uses like running a generator to produce electricity. The slurry (residue) could also be used for production of manure, which when spread on crops acts as an excellent fertilizer. Dung for Bio-gas and its slurry for manure is providing renewable cooking energy and slurry for compost. Proper manure disposal at a dairy farm has always been a concern. Small, integrated farming operations generally use the manures as fertilizers and apply the collected manure on soil surface of a crop land. There are limits to how much manure can be spread. Putting too much manure on fields can reduce yields. Additionally, spreading more manure than the requirement of crops can result in groundwater and surface water pollution.
Therapeutic uses of cow dung
- Skin tonic:Mixed with crushed neem leaves and smeared on skin – good for boils and heat rashes.
- Tooth polish:Toothaches gets removed, so instead of toothpaste which is made of chemicals & dead bones of animals it is a good alternative. Through many experiments on cow dung the famous Italian scientist Prof. G.E. Bea God has proven the fresh cow dung kills the germs of Malaria and Tuberculosis.
iii. Bio-enhancer: Bio-enhancers are substances, which do not possess drug activity of their own but promote and augment the bioactivity or bioavailability or the uptake of drugs in combination therapy. Such bio-enhancers have been earlier isolated only from plant sources. It has been found that cow urine also act as a bio-enhancer and increases the efficacy of the antibiotics against infectious agents alongwith anti-cancerous property.
- Livestock slaughter by-product
Meat sector in India plays an important role in providing livelihood to rural people, sustaining livestock production and contributes a valuable foreign exchange to the country. Livestock by-products include all parts of a live animal that are not part of the dressed carcass. The byproducts provide many of the raw materials used to make various products (Daniel et al, 2011). Hides and skins are tanned and processed into leather for shoes, purses, clothing, car seats, and other items while intestines can be used as food containers (sausage cas-ings). Other byproducts can be used for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, household, and industrial products. Inedible animal byproducts include hide or skin, hair, horns, hooves, teeth, fats, bones, ligaments and cartilage, feet, glands, blood, and lungs. These are the primary raw materials used in the manufacture of a broad assortment of industrial, household, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies, in addition to such products as lubri-cants, plastics, soaps, glycerin, and gelatins (Alicia, 2012).
Conclusion
So, we can conclude that animal husbandry is the most important component of Indian agriculture supporting livelihood of more than two-thirds of the rural population especially marginal, small & landless farmers of our country. Animals provide nutrient-rich food products (milk, wool, egg, meat etc) draught power, dung as organic manure and domestic fuel, hides & skin as well as a regular source of cash income for rural households. By adopting advanced scientific managemental interventions by our livestock owner they will get maximum benefit in terms of valuable animal products viz. milk, wool, egg, meat etc and their by-products (ABPs), such as processed animal proteins, animal fats, milk and egg products, and former food products represent a potentially valuable resource for feeding livestock as well as the additional source of income generation for the farmers. Proper utilization of animal products as well as by-product has direct impact on the economy and environmental pollution of country as well as for enhancement of farmer income. Utilization of crop residues, utilization of non-conventional feed resources adopting crop sequencing, crop rotation and integrated farming systems with availability of lush green pastures or fodders throughout the year also have a significant contribution to reduce the feeding cost and environmental safety. The use of different by-product of livestock such as dairy, dung & Urine and meat industries by-product & their importance should be promoted extensively by starting awareness program & educating the farmers to improve their income as well as to improve their socio-economic status.
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