SUSTAINABLE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEM -AN OVERVIEW
SUSTAINABLE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEM -AN OVERVIEW
Dr.T.P.Sethumadhavan
India is blessed with enormous animal wealth comprising 54%Buffaloes, 16%cattle, 21%goats, 5%sheep and 2%poultry population of the world. Indian livestock wealth worth Rs80000 Crores contributes Rs183000 Crores to the National GDP, which is over 1\3rd of the contribution from agriculture. Livestock sector provides employment to 70% of the population in rural areas. As per recent statistics, India is the highest milk producing country in the world with an annual production of over 78 million tones of milk. USA stands second with 71 million tones of milk. Out of 210 million cattle and 75 million buffaloes more than 52% of milk is from buffaloes; which constitute around 38% of livestock population. In terms of economic accomplishment, milk is number one farm commodity towards contribution to National economy. Per capita milk availability has touched now 225 gm per day and it may increase to 256 gm by2006. India today is the lowest producer of milk in the world in dollar terms at 27cents per litre compared with USA 63 cents and Japan’s 2.8 dollars. Major share of growth is attributed to dairy and poultry sectors. Country’s livestock population continues to grow steadily, especially among goats and poultry. Of the total households in rural areas, about 73 per cent own livestock. Income from livestock sector accounts for 15-40 per cent of total farm household incomes. Small and marginal farmers account for three fourth of this household raising 56 per cent of Bovine population. As per recent analysis of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, farm sector can generate 13.7million jobs in the livestock sector alone.
Kerala occupying just 1.18 per cent of the total geographic area of the country accommodates over 110 crops and the entire livestock population spread over 60 lakh smallholdings. It is a cradle of marvelous models of multistoried cropping patterns, mixed farming practices and different combination of integrated and intensive farming systems. This motivates every one who owns a piece of land to get interested in farming, which range from crop cultivation to raising of livestock, pets and growing of ornamental plants.
Though Kerala has none of the natural attributes to make it an ideal dairy zone, (the year round hot and humid climate, highland pressure, scarcity for fodder i.e., both dry and green, high rain fall and consequent mineral depletion from soil),cattle development programme is very successful in transforming 81% of unproductive cattle population to high producing crossbreds with an average daily yield of six litres per animal. As a result milk production has increased from 2.2 lakh tonnes during 1963-64 to around 30 lakh tonnes in 2003-2004.
Dairy, poultry and piggery sectors are gradually attaining the status of sustainability in the state. They provide lucrative, subsidiary and self-employment ventures to many unemployed youths. While taking Feed and milk price for the last decade, in Kerala feed price have shot up 450% while the milk price have increased only by 50%. Moreover, more than 95 per cent of total egg production in the state is from back yard sector since commercial layer farming is not at all feasible due to high feed cost. Eventhough the state exhibits marked growth in broiler sector, stiff competition from neighboring states worsens the situation.
Recently the term ‘sustainability’ has been widely used. Its literal meaning is to keep up or to maintain. Sustainability is acquiring popularity due to socio economic and ecological implications. With the growing concern about environmental issues and the desire to preserve the earth with minimum damage to future generations, sustainability of livestock production system receives considerable attention by the governments, scientists and the people concerned. Sustainability is the latest in a long chain of development strategies, which started with the use of science and technology to meet the food needs of ever growing human population in the world.
There are a number of issues that have to be considered while applying sustainability measures to a system. It includes the holistic approach of farming system research, participatory rural appraisal, farmer in front approach, low external input system, farmers trial and their indigenous knowledge. Sustainability may not be associated with growth in production, which governments frequently seek; by definition growth, however slow could not continue indefinitely, and if the system is to be sustainable its output must cease to grow at some point of time. This invariably is not possible, because circumstances tend to push the system of production, beyond their normal sustainability limits. Unfortunately in the developing countries population pressure and the ever-increasing food needs create harmful effects. Therefore sustainability is a complicated issue that must be viewed holistically. The system need consideration in the context of human knowledge, gender awareness, ethno veterinary medicine and role of non-governmental organizations.
In agriculture, sustainability means not only development in terms of output but also the socio economic and ecological parameters. According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), safe guarding national food security means improving the quality of life of the farming community by ensuring no further depletion of natural resources. Dairy farming is one of the most widely practiced and diversified conventional farming systems. It must be balanced with measures to conserve the environment because excess cattle population leads to overgrazing and land degradation. Continued growth in cattle population has put intense pressure on existing grazing areas, which encouraged encroachment into forestlands and contributed to the degradation of land resources. Any development strategy for livestock sector must attempt not only to achieve growth and to reduce poverty, but also to maintain agricultural and environmental sustainability.
Development of eco-friendly sustainable livestock production could be replicated in our village situation by giving a realistic and pragmatic solution to futuristic development both at macro and micro level. There exists a symbiotic relation ship in man-land-livestock ecosystem. The sustainable system if given proper extension back-up and credit support in the long run, it will be the mixed farming system (crop-livestock mix) at the small holders level.
Worldwide demand for meat is expected to rise by more than 55% between 1997-2020, with most of the increase occurring in developing countries. China alone will account for more than 40% of this increase compared with India’s 4%. Eventhough demand for meat will double in south India, percapita consumption remain far below the levels in developed countries. This gap suggests that people in this region will have the potential to consume more meat. Food and feed safety is a major concern for all over the world..
The ability of the livestock sector to meet poverty alleviation requires elimination of policies and regulations that hinder productivity at the farm and processing sectors. Emphasis should be given to the development of fodder crop systems to provide continuous and sustainable feed resource to ruminants. Although animal production is based on small farms, the trend is towards commercial dairying. Increasing the productivity of the processing sector will benefit both producers and consumers by raising farm prices and lowering consumer prices. It will enable the livestock sector to remain internationally competitive. Liberalization of external trade in livestock products emphasises the importance of improving the efficiency of the domestic processing industry in order to remain competitive with imports. This is particularly important to the dairy and poultry sector, because of the recent liberalization of skim milk powder butter oil and chicken leg imports. Moreover all available opportunities for increasing marketing efficiency be explored in order to reduce the marketing margins.
Information and knowledge play critical roles in the management of natural resources and sustainable development. During the last three decades planning for higher milk output was based only on scientific knowledge. There is now widespread acceptance of the worth of indigenous knowledge also. It is also to be recognized that sustainable and environmentally sound agricultural production is a task to be achieved in partnership with different sectors of the society including Governments, research institutions, farmer organizations, NGO’s, industry and the media. Efforts should be accelerated to ensure scientific and development community through research- extension systems to adopt, tailor and improve sustainable practices of indigenous technologies for wider diffusion. This should be coupled with scientific breeding, feeding, management and disease control measures. Sustainable livestock resource management require increased capacity of farm households and communities to manage resources including fostering of innovation to generate appropriate technologies.
In view of shrinkage of cultivable land and increased demand of food for growing population and to provide income and employment to vast rural population certain strategies for sustainable development of small holder livestock production system has to be made. Number of integrated units of crop-livestock-fish production system involving small livestock holders should be established in various parts of the state in persuasion of local conditions. These units will work as a model for other adopters in local areas. Inputs supply and marketing should be ensured for running these units profitably. Various available scientific technologies should be disseminated through these units. The adaptable technologies should be modified as per local conditions and need of the farmers.
While formulating sustainable livestock production strategies for Kerala, following yardsticks will have to be considered.
· Increased land pressure.
· High density of population
· Reducing cultivable land
· Liberalisation of external trade in agriculture
· Decentralised planning system
· More than 68%cattle in the state are Crossbreds.
· Conservation programmes of local cattle like Vechur, Kasargod local, Vadakara cattle, High range Dwarf cattle, Kuttanad Buffaloes, Malabari and Attappady black goats
· Threats to conservation programmes
· Introduction of Boer goats
· Conserving Malabari goats on one side and Cross breeding them with Boer goats in their hometracts
· Elimination of Sannen Malabari and Alpine Malabari cross breeds from the population
· Scope of profitable pig farming in the state
· Due to increased labour, commercial layer farming is not at all feasible in the state.
In the area of backyard poultry production kerala witnessed spectacular growth- Scope for developing crossbred bird to rural poor.
· Due to increased inflow of broiler chicken, eggs and spent hens from near by states poultry farmers in the state are compelled to sell poultry meat at less than the breakeven prices.
· Scope for Duck, Quail and Rabbit production.
· Better climate for crop-livestock-fish integrated farming systems
· Consumption pattern of meat in the state- it is estimated that marketing of processed chicken is less than 2% of the total produced.
· Market opportunities for ready to eat, ready to cook food items are more in the state. Changing socio economic scenario in the state with more working bachelors, growing population of NRIs, changing food habits of people and desire of women to spend more time out of kitchen.
· To eradicate absolute poverty from the state 93490 Neighborhood groups have registered in 991 Panchayats of the state. This covers 1901250 families.
· 70%women involvement in livestock rearing.
· Technical and backward integration practices&Related and unrelated diversification
· Inadequacy of processing sectors
· Less volume of export
· Increased consumerism
· Total coverage of Veterinary institutions and availability of enough resource persons &Facilities for research
____________________________________________________________________
“A country rich in livestock is never poor and country poor in livestock is never rich”
Arabian proverb
Dr.T.P.Sethumadhavan
India is blessed with enormous animal wealth comprising 54%Buffaloes, 16%cattle, 21%goats, 5%sheep and 2%poultry population of the world. Indian livestock wealth worth Rs80000 Crores contributes Rs183000 Crores to the National GDP, which is over 1\3rd of the contribution from agriculture. Livestock sector provides employment to 70% of the population in rural areas. As per recent statistics, India is the highest milk producing country in the world with an annual production of over 78 million tones of milk. USA stands second with 71 million tones of milk. Out of 210 million cattle and 75 million buffaloes more than 52% of milk is from buffaloes; which constitute around 38% of livestock population. In terms of economic accomplishment, milk is number one farm commodity towards contribution to National economy. Per capita milk availability has touched now 225 gm per day and it may increase to 256 gm by2006. India today is the lowest producer of milk in the world in dollar terms at 27cents per litre compared with USA 63 cents and Japan’s 2.8 dollars. Major share of growth is attributed to dairy and poultry sectors. Country’s livestock population continues to grow steadily, especially among goats and poultry. Of the total households in rural areas, about 73 per cent own livestock. Income from livestock sector accounts for 15-40 per cent of total farm household incomes. Small and marginal farmers account for three fourth of this household raising 56 per cent of Bovine population. As per recent analysis of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, farm sector can generate 13.7million jobs in the livestock sector alone.
Kerala occupying just 1.18 per cent of the total geographic area of the country accommodates over 110 crops and the entire livestock population spread over 60 lakh smallholdings. It is a cradle of marvelous models of multistoried cropping patterns, mixed farming practices and different combination of integrated and intensive farming systems. This motivates every one who owns a piece of land to get interested in farming, which range from crop cultivation to raising of livestock, pets and growing of ornamental plants.
Though Kerala has none of the natural attributes to make it an ideal dairy zone, (the year round hot and humid climate, highland pressure, scarcity for fodder i.e., both dry and green, high rain fall and consequent mineral depletion from soil),cattle development programme is very successful in transforming 81% of unproductive cattle population to high producing crossbreds with an average daily yield of six litres per animal. As a result milk production has increased from 2.2 lakh tonnes during 1963-64 to around 30 lakh tonnes in 2003-2004.
Dairy, poultry and piggery sectors are gradually attaining the status of sustainability in the state. They provide lucrative, subsidiary and self-employment ventures to many unemployed youths. While taking Feed and milk price for the last decade, in Kerala feed price have shot up 450% while the milk price have increased only by 50%. Moreover, more than 95 per cent of total egg production in the state is from back yard sector since commercial layer farming is not at all feasible due to high feed cost. Eventhough the state exhibits marked growth in broiler sector, stiff competition from neighboring states worsens the situation.
Recently the term ‘sustainability’ has been widely used. Its literal meaning is to keep up or to maintain. Sustainability is acquiring popularity due to socio economic and ecological implications. With the growing concern about environmental issues and the desire to preserve the earth with minimum damage to future generations, sustainability of livestock production system receives considerable attention by the governments, scientists and the people concerned. Sustainability is the latest in a long chain of development strategies, which started with the use of science and technology to meet the food needs of ever growing human population in the world.
There are a number of issues that have to be considered while applying sustainability measures to a system. It includes the holistic approach of farming system research, participatory rural appraisal, farmer in front approach, low external input system, farmers trial and their indigenous knowledge. Sustainability may not be associated with growth in production, which governments frequently seek; by definition growth, however slow could not continue indefinitely, and if the system is to be sustainable its output must cease to grow at some point of time. This invariably is not possible, because circumstances tend to push the system of production, beyond their normal sustainability limits. Unfortunately in the developing countries population pressure and the ever-increasing food needs create harmful effects. Therefore sustainability is a complicated issue that must be viewed holistically. The system need consideration in the context of human knowledge, gender awareness, ethno veterinary medicine and role of non-governmental organizations.
In agriculture, sustainability means not only development in terms of output but also the socio economic and ecological parameters. According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), safe guarding national food security means improving the quality of life of the farming community by ensuring no further depletion of natural resources. Dairy farming is one of the most widely practiced and diversified conventional farming systems. It must be balanced with measures to conserve the environment because excess cattle population leads to overgrazing and land degradation. Continued growth in cattle population has put intense pressure on existing grazing areas, which encouraged encroachment into forestlands and contributed to the degradation of land resources. Any development strategy for livestock sector must attempt not only to achieve growth and to reduce poverty, but also to maintain agricultural and environmental sustainability.
Development of eco-friendly sustainable livestock production could be replicated in our village situation by giving a realistic and pragmatic solution to futuristic development both at macro and micro level. There exists a symbiotic relation ship in man-land-livestock ecosystem. The sustainable system if given proper extension back-up and credit support in the long run, it will be the mixed farming system (crop-livestock mix) at the small holders level.
Worldwide demand for meat is expected to rise by more than 55% between 1997-2020, with most of the increase occurring in developing countries. China alone will account for more than 40% of this increase compared with India’s 4%. Eventhough demand for meat will double in south India, percapita consumption remain far below the levels in developed countries. This gap suggests that people in this region will have the potential to consume more meat. Food and feed safety is a major concern for all over the world..
The ability of the livestock sector to meet poverty alleviation requires elimination of policies and regulations that hinder productivity at the farm and processing sectors. Emphasis should be given to the development of fodder crop systems to provide continuous and sustainable feed resource to ruminants. Although animal production is based on small farms, the trend is towards commercial dairying. Increasing the productivity of the processing sector will benefit both producers and consumers by raising farm prices and lowering consumer prices. It will enable the livestock sector to remain internationally competitive. Liberalization of external trade in livestock products emphasises the importance of improving the efficiency of the domestic processing industry in order to remain competitive with imports. This is particularly important to the dairy and poultry sector, because of the recent liberalization of skim milk powder butter oil and chicken leg imports. Moreover all available opportunities for increasing marketing efficiency be explored in order to reduce the marketing margins.
Information and knowledge play critical roles in the management of natural resources and sustainable development. During the last three decades planning for higher milk output was based only on scientific knowledge. There is now widespread acceptance of the worth of indigenous knowledge also. It is also to be recognized that sustainable and environmentally sound agricultural production is a task to be achieved in partnership with different sectors of the society including Governments, research institutions, farmer organizations, NGO’s, industry and the media. Efforts should be accelerated to ensure scientific and development community through research- extension systems to adopt, tailor and improve sustainable practices of indigenous technologies for wider diffusion. This should be coupled with scientific breeding, feeding, management and disease control measures. Sustainable livestock resource management require increased capacity of farm households and communities to manage resources including fostering of innovation to generate appropriate technologies.
In view of shrinkage of cultivable land and increased demand of food for growing population and to provide income and employment to vast rural population certain strategies for sustainable development of small holder livestock production system has to be made. Number of integrated units of crop-livestock-fish production system involving small livestock holders should be established in various parts of the state in persuasion of local conditions. These units will work as a model for other adopters in local areas. Inputs supply and marketing should be ensured for running these units profitably. Various available scientific technologies should be disseminated through these units. The adaptable technologies should be modified as per local conditions and need of the farmers.
While formulating sustainable livestock production strategies for Kerala, following yardsticks will have to be considered.
· Increased land pressure.
· High density of population
· Reducing cultivable land
· Liberalisation of external trade in agriculture
· Decentralised planning system
· More than 68%cattle in the state are Crossbreds.
· Conservation programmes of local cattle like Vechur, Kasargod local, Vadakara cattle, High range Dwarf cattle, Kuttanad Buffaloes, Malabari and Attappady black goats
· Threats to conservation programmes
· Introduction of Boer goats
· Conserving Malabari goats on one side and Cross breeding them with Boer goats in their hometracts
· Elimination of Sannen Malabari and Alpine Malabari cross breeds from the population
· Scope of profitable pig farming in the state
· Due to increased labour, commercial layer farming is not at all feasible in the state.
In the area of backyard poultry production kerala witnessed spectacular growth- Scope for developing crossbred bird to rural poor.
· Due to increased inflow of broiler chicken, eggs and spent hens from near by states poultry farmers in the state are compelled to sell poultry meat at less than the breakeven prices.
· Scope for Duck, Quail and Rabbit production.
· Better climate for crop-livestock-fish integrated farming systems
· Consumption pattern of meat in the state- it is estimated that marketing of processed chicken is less than 2% of the total produced.
· Market opportunities for ready to eat, ready to cook food items are more in the state. Changing socio economic scenario in the state with more working bachelors, growing population of NRIs, changing food habits of people and desire of women to spend more time out of kitchen.
· To eradicate absolute poverty from the state 93490 Neighborhood groups have registered in 991 Panchayats of the state. This covers 1901250 families.
· 70%women involvement in livestock rearing.
· Technical and backward integration practices&Related and unrelated diversification
· Inadequacy of processing sectors
· Less volume of export
· Increased consumerism
· Total coverage of Veterinary institutions and availability of enough resource persons &Facilities for research
____________________________________________________________________
“A country rich in livestock is never poor and country poor in livestock is never rich”
Arabian proverb
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