Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Animal husbandry is the controlled cultivation, management, and production of domestic animals, including improvement of the qualities considered desirable by humans, by means of breeding

• It is the branch ofagriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products
• It includes day-to-day care, selective breedingand the raising of livestock

Many farmers in India depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood.

• They are a source of large scale self-employment opportunities, particularly among the landless labourers, small and marginal farmers & women
• The sector provides cheap nutritional food to millions of Indians by producing meat, eggs, milk, etc.
• It is also a great source of raw material by-products such as hides & skins, bones, blood, fat, etc.
• The animals for Indian farmers, have been the best insurance against the vagaries of nature like drought, famine and other natural calamities

Role of Animal Husbandry in Indian Economy

• About 20.5 million people depend upon livestock for their livelihood, which provides livelihood to two-third of rural community
  • It also provides employment to about 8 % of the population in India
  • The sector contributes 11% to GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP

Noteworthy statistics of Livestock Resources in India

• India is
  • World’s highest livestock owner at about 535.78 million
  • First in the total buffalo population in the world – 109.85 million buffaloes
  • Second in the population of goats – 148.88 million goats
  • Second largest poultry market in the world
  • Second largest producer of fish and also second largest aquaculture nation in the world
  • Third in the population of sheep (74.26 millions)
  • Fifth in in the population of ducks and chicken (851.81 million)
  • Tenth in camel population in the world – 2.5 lakhs

Major products by the Animal Husbandry sector in India

1. Dairy
   • In FY 2019, India had approximately 192.5 million cattle. India also had 148.9 million goats, 109.9 million buffaloes, 74.3 million sheep, and 9.1 million pigs
   • Milk production in FY 2018-19 was estimated to have reached 187.7 million tons
   • According to 20th Livestock Census, West Bengal has the largest cattle population, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
     • Uttar Pradesh has the major Buffalo population, followed by Rajasthan and Gujarat
   • India is second largest country in production of cow milk and largest milk production country
   • About two-third of cow milk is produced in Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka and Bihar
   • About two-third of buffalo milk is produced in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh
   • The production of milk immediately after Independence was low, and within six decades it increased rapidly; the phenomenon which has been named as White revolution and as Operation Flood
     • It started with establishment of the National Dairy development Board(NDDB) in 1965, to promote, plan and organise dairy development through cooperatives
     • It the world’s largest integrated dairy development program, attempted to establish linkages between rural milk producers and urban consumers by organizing farmer-owned and -managed dairy cooperative societies
     • The programme received financial assistance from the World Bankand commodity assistance from the European Economic Community
     • The results and achievements of white revolution are:
       • India has become world’s largest milk producer
       • Increase in per capita availability of milk
       • About 9 million small farmers in 70,000 villages earn joinlty an incremental income of 2,500 crore rupees annually
       • Dairy industry and infrastructure have been expanded and modernised
     • Associated issues with Dairy sector are:
       • Collection of milk from remote areas is difficult, expensive and time consuming. As a result, the producers are not getting remunerative prices
       • Despite having some of the best breed of cattle in the world, most breeds produce low yield. Hence, the scope for cattle breed improvement
       • Unlike sugarcane, wheat, and rice-producing farmers, cattle raisers are unorganised and do not have the political clout to advocate for their rights
       • The fundamental challenge in dairy is maintaining quality and quantity within a diversified supply base. As a perishable, dairy requires more complex supply chain operations and logistics to ensure freshness and safety.
     • The schemes launched to address the issues in the Diary sector are:
       • National programme for Bovine Breeding and dairy development(NPBBDD)
         • This was started in 2014, to provide artificial insemination at farmers’ doorstep, promote indigenous breeds to prevent it from extinction
       • Rashtriya Gokul Mission
         • This was launched in 2014 as an initiative to develop and conserve the indigenous bovine breeds for improving the milk production and productivity in a scientific manner which includes superior nutrition and farm management
       • National diary plan
         • To produce milk as per the national demand and to help organised processing sector to have access to rural organic milk producers
       • National mission on bovine productivity
         • This was launched in 2016, to increase the milk productivity of bovine resulting in the higher overall national production

• While focusing on productivity of animals, with further measures, there is a need to make India a dairy exporting country
  • Hence, it is imperative to develop proper production, processing and marketing infrastructure, which is capable of meeting international quality requirements.
• Thus, the Dairy sector has emerged as a lifeline of the rural economy in India.
  • Given the prospects and existing vulnerabilities, there is need of holistic action from both government and private players, to further develop the Dairy sector in India

2. Meat
   • The annual meet production in the country is 5.9 million tonne, of which 54% is obtained from goats and sheeps, 26% from cattle, buffalo and 7% from pigs
   • The remaining 13% comes from poultry birds
   • Uttar pradesh is the largest meat producing state of India and produces over 19% of the total meat production of the country
3. Poultry
   • The term poultry refers to domestic fowls, which are reared for their flesh, eggs and feathers; which includes chickens, ducks,geese, turkeys, etc.
   • Andhra Pradesh along with Telangana has the largest number of poultry birds accounting for about 18.2% of total poultry birds in India
     • Andhra pradesh and Telangana are the largest producer of eggs as well
   • This sector has emerged from entirely unorganised farming practice to commercial production system with technological innovations
   • At present, India is among the top five chicken meat producing countries of the world
   • Central poultry development organisations have been set up, to provide necessary services including training farmers to upgrade their skills
   • The ‘Poultry Development Scheme’ is being implemented to provide assistance to state poultry farms, for rural poultry development

4. Sericulture
   • This includes cultivation of mulberry tree and rearing of silk worms
   • India has the unique distinction of being the only country producing all the five known commercial silks, namely, mulberry, tropical tasar, oak tasar, eri and muga, of which muga with its golden yellow glitter is unique and prerogative of India
   • Mulberry sericulture is mainly practised in five states namely, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Bodoland, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu; which are the major silk producing states in the country
   • North East has the unique distinction of being the only region producing four varieties of silk viz., Mulberry, Oak Tasar, Muga and Eri.
   • India is the second largest producer of silk in the world. Among the four varieties of silk produced in 2020-21, Mulberry accounted for the most
   • The sector is labour-intensive and provides gainful employment to large numbers in rural areas
   • Policy initiatives taken for the development of silk industry
     • Sericulture is included as agriculture allied activity under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. This enables the sericulturists to avail the benefits of the scheme for the entire sericulture activities up to reeling
     • Imposing Anti dumping duty on Chinese raw silk
     • The Central Silk Board (Amendment) Act, Rules and Regulations have been notified by the Govt. of India to bring quality standards in silkworm seed production
     • Guidelines have been framed under MGNREGA scheme, to help sericulture farmers to avail assistance from it