3 PERFORMANCE OF LIVESTOCK SECTOR

Transcription

1 3 PERFORMANCE OF LIVESTOCK SECTOR 3.1 Stock and Growth of Livestock Population Table 1 and 2 show the livestock population, composition and their compound growth rates. Livestock population increased from 293 million in 1951 to about 470 million in 1992, showing annual compound growth rate of 1.19 per cent. The absolute number of all the categories of livestock has increased during this period. Of the total livestock population, bovines claim the lion's share followed by ovine and pigs. Of the total bovine population, cattle outnumber buffaloes. Indian livestock economy is therefore often referred to as the cow economy. However, over the years there is a slow but perceptible change in favour of buffaloes. Cattle accounted for 78.2 per cent of total bovine population in It declined to 71 per cent by Similarly, of the total ovine population goats outnumber sheep. Goats accounted for 55 per cent of the total ovine population in 1951, which increased to 69 per cent by 1992.The absolute number of poultry birds has increased manifold over this period. The above pattern of population statistics clearly reveals that cattle rearing still dominate the livestock sector and the importance of buffalo, goat and poultry is increasing gradually. There are significant variations in nature and magnitude of growth rates in population of different species of livestock. As expected, buffalo population in the country recorded faster growth rate than that of cattle. Similarly, goats grew at faster rate than sheep during 1951 to Poultry witnessed spectacular growth and its number has increased by over fourfold i.e. from 73.5 million to 307 million during the corresponding period. The overall compound annual growth rate registered by poultry was 3.64 per cent. The faster growth in poultry husbandry may be attributed to the fact that amongst farm animals, poultry is one of the quickest and most efficient converters of plant products into food of high biological value. Further, requirement of small area, low initial capital investment, manageability with ease by women and children, use of various kinds of by-products unfit for human consumption as feed-stuffs, quick returns and well distributed turnover throughout the year make poultry farming remunerative in both the rural and urban areas (Jain, 1991). Most of the species recorded highest growths during inter census period, thereafter showing a declining trend.

2 Table 1 : Stock and composition of livestock population in India Population (in million no.) S. No. Species/Period A. Livestock 2g Cattle Buffalo Bovine(1+2) Sheep Goat Bovine(3+4) Camel Horse & Ponies Donkeys Mules Pigs Yak NC NC Sub-Total(7-12) B. Poultry NC: Not Collected Source: Livestock Census, Directorate of Economics & Statistics, M/o Agriculture

3 Table 2: Livestock population growth rates All India Compound annual growth rate (%) S. No. A. Species/Period Livestock Cattle Buffalo Bovine (1+2) Sheep Goat Ovine (3+4) Camel Horse & Ponies Donkeys Mules Pigs Yak Sub-Total (7-12) B. Poultry Total population of 'other' animals, which include camels, equines and pigs, recorded mixed trend of growth rates varying between to 4.31 per cent. Their combined population stood at 7.86 million in 1951, 56 per cent of which consisted of pigs. The numbers increased to million in 1992, the share of pigs increased to 80 per cent. Attempts made to promote pig farming received good response during and after seventies, which resulted in higher annual growth in stock of pigs and was mainly responsible for high growth in stock of 'other' animals. Reduction in livestock population in the country by eliminating low grade and unproductive animals is considered desirable for healthy development of livestock sector. Statistics reveal that number of livestock per hectare of gross cropped area has declined in some states over the years. For instance in Punjab the number of livestock per hectare of gross cropped area dropped from 151 in 1972 to 131 in While this eases the population pressure, it may lead to reduced availability of animal manure. Reduction in certain categories of livestock, like work animals, seems inevitable. 3.2 Economic Importance of Livestock Sector During the last several decades the contribution of the overall agriculture and allied sector to the GDP of the country has declined. However, the contribution of livestock sector to the GDP has improved from 5.70 per cent in to 6.05 per cent in (at prices). The share of livestock in Ag.GDP has increased significantly from 17 per cent in to 23 per cent in 1995-( prices). This is largely due to a sustained annual growth rate of well over 4 per cent in milk production in the last two and half decades and an even higher growth in meat and poultry (Table 3).

4 Table 3 : Share of livestock GDP in country's GDP and Ag.GDP at (Three year average) Rs Crores Liv.GDP Ag.GDP GDPat fc Liv. GDP in Ag.GDP GDP Ag.GDP in GDP (%) (%) (%) N.A N.A N.A Note: 1 The per centage share varies from official estimates due to inclusion of contribution of draft power in the GDP 2. Liv. GDP denotes livestock GDP Source: National Accounts Statistics, CSO, Dept. of Statistics 3.3 Value of Output from Livestock Sector and its Components The value of output from livestock sector and its per centage composition (at prices) has been detailed in Table 4. Milk and milk products, meat and meat products, eggs & poultry meat, animal draft power, dung, hides & skins, wool & hair, etc. are major components of output from the livestock sector. The absolute values of these components at constant prices have increased over the period, except for wool & hair. The value of output from milk and milk products increased around 4 times, meat and meat products 2.70 times, eggs & poultry meat over 6 times, hides & skins 1.5 times, dung 1.5 times and the value of output of draft power and wool & hair remained almost constant during the above period. The value of output from livestock sector as a whole increased three times. Milk and milk products constitute the lion's share in the value of output from livestock sector. Its share in the total value rose from around 49 per cent in to over 63 per cent in (Fig. 1). The share of draft power was around 16 per cent in and declined to a mere 6 per cent in Similarly, share of dung also declined from over 15 per cent to 7 per cent. Eggs and poultry meat has emerged next to milk as a contributor to the output from livestock sector in recent years. The per centage contribution of eggs and poultry meat was 4.47 per cent in which reached to a little over 9 per cent in Meat and meat products (excluding poultry) is also a major contributor to the output of livestock but its per centage contribution has declined slightly from 9.81 per cent to 8.55 per cent during the above period. Hides & skins and wool & hair are relatively less important and have shown consistent decline. The share of wool & hair has gone down from 1.04 to 0.34 per cent while that of hides & skins has declined from 2.49 to 1.43 per cent during the corresponding period.

5 Figure 1 : Composition of livestock sector (at prices), Table 4 : Total value of output from livestock sector and its per centage composition (Three yearly average at prices) S. No Items/ Period 1 Milk group 2 Meat &Meat Prod 3 Eggs &Poultry meat (Rs. Crores) (Percentage Composition) Dung Draft Power * 6 Hides & Skin 7 Wool & Hair Others Total Source : National Accounts Statistics, Central Statistical Organisation, Dept. of Statistics * Estimated The declining share of draft and dung in the total value may be attributed to the mechanisation of agriculture and the relatively faster growth registered by ovine and poultry birds.

6 3.4 Growth Trends of Livestock Sector, its Constituents and Agriculture Sector (at Prices) The compound annual growth rate for different components of livestock sector for the period to (period I), to (period II) and to (overall) have also been computed and presented in Table 5. Table 5 : Growth trends of livestock sector and its components, and agriculture sector Item/ Period Period I Period II Overall to to To Milk Group Meat & Meat Prod Eggs & Poultry Meat Dung Draft Power Hides & skins Wool & Hair TVO from Livestock Sector TVO from Ag. Sector ( Ex. Livestock) TVO from Ag. Sector (Incl. Livestock) By and large, the value of output from livestock sector and its components registered positive and significant growth rates except wool & hair which registered a negative overall growth rate. In all cases, the growth has accentuated during period II except for draft power, which registered a negative growth. Growth rates for food items (milk, meat, eggs & poultry) were in the range of 4 to 6 per cent during this period. The most notable growth among the livestock product has been recorded by eggs and poultry meat. Since , their output has grown at 5.87 per cent per annum. The growth rates for dung, draft power, hides & skins, wool & hair were in the range of to 1.34 per cent during the above period. The agriculture sector performed better than livestock sector in period I but the situation has changed in favour of livestock sector in period II (Fig. 2). During period II livestock sector as a whole registered an annual growth rate of 3.62 per cent while agriculture sector grew at 3.17 percent.

7 Figure 2 : Trends of output of livestock sector and agriculture sector (at ) The spectacular growth of livestock products especially milk, meat, eggs and poultry meat is attributed to the initiatives taken by the organised sector and the rising demand for these products in response to rising incomes in urban and rural areas. The expenditure elasticities for livestock products are high with the tilt in favour of rural areas, averaging 1.47 and 1.01 for milk in rural and urban areas respectively and 1.04 and 0.75 for the eggs/meat group (Bhalla and Hazzel, 1997). Further growth in per capita income and changing consumption pattern would lead to acceleration in demand for livestock products and thus is expected to give a boost to this sector. The efforts of the government, particularly the departments concerned with dairying, animal husbandry and veterinary services have played a role in raising the productivity of our national milch herd (Kurien, 1997). The contribution of the co-operative sector has also been of great importance, both in creating a market and in supporting farmers with technical inputs viz. feed, breeding and veterinary services. These technical inputs, made available under programmes like Operation Flood, provided an impetus for the higher growth of this sector. The declining trend of animal draft power is attributed to mechanisation of agriculture. The share of draft animals in farm power was almost 72 per cent in 11. It came down to 23 per cent by 1991 (Dairy India, 1997) and most of the farm operations have switched to electrical and mechanical sources of power. Likewise, rising expectations and migration has reduced the scope of draft animal power, which is labour intensive. It is the pressure arising out of such economic trends that explains falling trends in the draft animal power. Accordingly, a shift in the priority of the farming community from the production of work animals to that of milch animals has been observed since It reflects a major structural change taking place gradually in the Indian livestock sector. In future too it is expected that the declining trend in population of bullocks and desi cows (which supply major portion of animal draft power) will gather momentum and mechanical power and rural electrification will provide increasing proportion of farm power. As a cautionary note, it is pertinent to point out that as energy prices are rationalised and non-renewable energy prices begin to rise, there may be a reversal in the long run.