role of livestock and poultry in Indian agriculture.

Livestock farming is an integral part of crop farming and contributes substantially to
household nutritional security and poverty alleviation through increased household income. The returns from livestock especially dairying and mixed farming in small and medium holdings are larger and highly sustainable. The progress in this sector results in more balanced development of the rural economy and improvement in economic status of poor people associated with livestock. Indian agriculture is an economic symbiosis of crop and livestock production with cattle as the foundation. Dairy animals produce milk by converting the crop residues and by products from crops which otherwise would be wasted. Dairy sector contributes by way of cash income, draught power and manure. Livestock provides for human needs by way of 1. Food 2. fibre. 3. Fuel. 4. Fertilizer. 5.. Skin and 6. Traction.

It is a living bank providing flexible finance in time of emergencies and also serves as insurance against crop failure for survival. If Agriculture is the foundation of our national economy Animal husbandry constitutes the sheet anchor of agriculture. Indian agriculture marches on the patient back of the bullock. 70 percent of the livestock are owned by 67 percent of small and marginal farmers. 76 percent of the milk is produced by weaker sections of society. One fifth of the worlds livestock population is present in India .
India has nearly 57 % of the worlds buffalo population, 16% of the cattle population, 20% of goat population and 5 % of sheep population although India constitutes less than 3 % of the worlds total land area.

Population of livestock and poultry in India and Tamilnadu
CATTLE – 209.08 MILLION & 9.10 MILLION
Buffaloes – 92.19 Million & 2.93 Million
Goat – 120.60 Million & 5.87 Million
Sheep – 56.47 Million & 5.61 Million
Pig – 15.42 Million & 0.60 Million
Poultry – 3430 Million & 240 Million.
The production Parameters are

Milk – 81 Million tonnes ( 00 –01 ) – I in the world ( contributing 14% of the world milk
production)
32.4 Billion eggs – 5th in the world
47.6 million kgs of wool
4.7 million tonnes of meat
Per capita Milk availability is 221 gms / day ( 00 –01 ) whereas the requirement is 280 gms / day
Per capita egg availability is 33 eggs/ year whereas the requirement is 180 eggs
Per capita availability of poultry meat is 700 gms/ annum whereas the requirement is 10 kgs/ annum

It is estimated that about 18 million people are employed in the livestock sector in
principle or subsidiary status. Export earnings from livestock sector and related products are progressively rising. Finished leather accounted for 50 % ( Rs.1745 crore ) and meat and meat products accounted for 42 %(Rs1457 crore) of the total export from the livestock sector during 2000-01. The contribution of livestock sector to the total Gross domestic product (GDP) was 5.9% in 00-01, accounting for 27 % of total agricultural output.
Though the cattle wealth is quite abundant in terms of population the production from
these animals is very poor viz., 987 kgs per lactation whereas the world average is 2038 kgs per lactation. The main reasons for this shortcoming is the abundant population of nondescript cows, chronic shortage of feed and fodder, poor nutritive value of the available feed and fodder, low fertility rates, destruction of grazing land, increasing human population and competition between animals and man for the available feed resources.
To satisfy the nutrient requirement for the huge population of livestock the options are
1.to reduce the unproductive/ low productive animals. 2. feeding of non conventional feed stuffs – among these are the horticultural by products like agriculture by products, vegetable wastes and horticulture industrial wastes.

First step that bridges livestock and agriculture is the efficient utilization of
agriculture/horticulture waste to feed animals and convert to high quality meat, milk, wool, egg etc.,
Second linkage is through application of organic fertilizers to crops.
The third application is the usage of draught animal power for ploughing of land.

Nutrient content of animal and poultry manure

Apart from manurial value biogas can be produced from livestock dung and poultry droppings. 32 kg of cow dung/20 kgs of pig faeces/12 kgs of poultry droppings can produce 1 m3 – 34 cft of bio gas. the calorific value of bio gas –500 to 700 BTU per cft in comparison to Natural gas – 850 BTU/cft.
1 m3 of slurry fed to biogas plant produces on an average 0.15 to 0.20 m3 of biogas daily. Based on equivalent effective heat produced 2 m3 biogas plant replaces in a month fuel
equivalent of 26 kgs of LPG contained in standard gas cylinder or 37 litres of kerosene or
88 kgs of charcoal or 210 kgs of fuel wood or 740 kgs of animal dung.
1. 83 million draught animals
2. The power generated from 83 million draught animals is equivalent to 30,000 million watts in terms of electic power
3. 0.33 ha area of land is cultivated by the animals. The power rating of a full grown bullock a pure Indian draught breed is 0.70 HP average is is 0.5 Hp only. A35 Hp tractor can plough about 2.5ha of land in an eight hour shift and consume about 5l diesel / hr.
4. Animal power is also utilised for transport. 25,000 million tonnes km of freight per year which saves 6 million tonnes of diesel /petrol worth Rs.4000 crores

Cow is taken as the basal unit and all other types of animals are equated to have a common platform cow 1.0 example: if the goat population is
bullock 1.2 is 120 million it means young stock 0.6 it is equivalent to 24 million cows
buffalo 1.2 120 x 0.2 = 24.0 sheep and goat 0.2
Nutrient content of animal and poultry manure

Livestock and Poultry Production
Introduction : Importance of Livestock and Poultry in Indian Agricultural livestock and poultry census and its role in Indian Economy.
1. India owns nearly 23% of the world livestock population.

2. Agricultural is the back bone of Indian Economy and within agriculture livestock plays an
importance role in providing sustainable income to farmers throughout the year.
3. Failure of monsoon, pest infestation, floods etc – when crop husbandry fails next alternate is livestock and poultry industry.