SRI VENKATESWARA VETERINARY UNIVERSITY Department of Extension

Topic: National security through livestock rearingoat

Submitted to: Dr.harilall Asst.proffcer

Submitted by: P.vishnu vardhan reddy TV - 2010 - 053

National security through livestock rearing

Livestock rearing is one of old most practice in India which provides national security through giving some standards to life of people in the country.

 Livestock can provide income, quality food, fuel, draught power, building material and fertilizer, thus contributing to household livelihood, food security and nutrition.

It mainly provides national security in 3 aspects.

1) Economical security 2) Food security 3) Employment security

1) Economical security: Livestock sector plays an important role in 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.

 It provides draught power and organic manure to crop sector and hides, skin, bones, blood and fibers to the industrial sector. 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.

 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 as distribution of livestock is more egalitarian compared to land. 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. The fallowing table indicates population size of different livestock animals in India and their growth percentage.

 Strong demand for animal-based foods and increasingly complex processing and marketing systems offer significant opportunities for growth and poverty reduction. These new market opportunities and livelihood options face rapidly changing patterns of competition, consumer preferences and market standards; these may undermine the ability of smallholders to remain competitive

2) Employment security: Usually Crop production consider to be the main source of employment in rural India. Though crop production is the major source of employment, share of agricultural sector in gross domestic product and no of persons depending on it has declined over time. This decline of agricultural field is due to development of livestock industry.

 The proportion of workers engaged in crop production has declined marginally from 70.5 percent in 1983 to 68.1 percent in 1999-2000. On the other hand, share of non-crop activities (livestock, fishing, forestry, agricultural services, etc) has been witnessing a upward trend. Their share increased from 8 percent in 1983 to 11 percent in 1999-2000.

 Below table gives a synoptic view of the employment in livestock vis-a-vis other sectors.

Sectoral distribution of rural workers in India (%)

 Most of the decline in employment in crop activities is due to a faster increase in the employment in livestock sector.

 Livestock sector engaged about 8.5 percent of labour force in 1983. This however declined to 4.9 percent in 1999-2000. A disaggregated view of sectoral allocation of labour force by sex is more revealing. Proportion of male workers engaged in livestock production has been gradually increasing.

 Between 1983 and 1999-2000 it increased by more than 8 percentage points; from 64.9 millions in 1983 to 70.4 millions in 1999-2000. The proportion of female workers engaged in livestock sector has also increased from 9.8 percent in 1983 to 14.8 percent in 1999-2000.

Next coming table is evident from below table that as compared to males, females allocate more time to livestock production activities.

Female labour employment as percent of total employment by sector

3) Food security: The livestock sector is one of the fastestgrowing segments of the agricultural economy, particularly in the developing world. As demand for meat and dairy products in the developing world continues to increase, questions arise as to how this demand will be met and by whom.

 Livestock sector provides a variety of food and non-food products. The major livestock products are milk, meat, wool and eggs. India is the largest producer of milk in the world with an annual production of 88.1 million tonnes in 2003-04.

 Parts of the sector, particularly poultry and pig production, have followed a trend similar to that in developed countries, where large-scale production units dominate output. The expansion of such trends across the whole livestock sector will have major implications for poverty reduction and food security.

 To date, the transformation of the livestock sector has occurred largely in the absence of sector-specific policies; this gap needs to be addressed to ensure that the livestock sector contributes to equitable and sustainable development.

 The milk production grew at a rate of 4.4 percent per annum during the period of 19802003. Growth in total milk production, however, declined marginally from 5.3 percent during 1980s to 4.5 percent during 1991-2003. The growth in meat production has been faster as compared to milk production.

 Total meat production in the country has increased from 0.9 million tonnes in 1980-81 to 5.9 million tonnes in 2003-04 at an annual rate of 9.3 percent. In early 1980s small ruminants were the major suppliers (44%) of meat, followed by large ruminants (35%), and poultry (19%).

 The meat production structure however changed drastically during 1990s; monogastrics (poultry and pigs). Especially poultry, emerged as the most important meat supplier with significant share of 27 percent in 2003-04.

 Egg production in the country has increased from 10.06 billion numbers in 1980-81 to 40.4 billion numbers in 2003-04. During 1980-2003, egg production has increased at the rate of 5.8 percent a year.

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