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Rainfed Livestock Systems

Over 60% of India’s livestock population are found in rainfed areas, raised under extensive, semi-intensive and backyard systems.

Livestock and Commons

In India, the common lands constitute 25 % of the total geographic area with almost half of this being divided between community pasture and grazing lands, village forests and woodlots. Women, children and the elderly depend on these commons especially in rural areas for water and fodder.

Primary Healthcare Services for Livestock

Poor livestock health leads to lowered production. The veterinary services in India continue to be inadequate to address the needs of the large livestock population especially in rainfed areas.

Livestock Breeds: Recognition and Conservation

India’s livestock breeds contribute to the country’s domesticated biodiversity as well as the large livestock economy. Unfortunately, they have not been recognized or registered.

Bio-Cultural Protocols

As traditional knowledge systems of communities that rear livestock get eroded so do local breeds and the biodiversity associated with them.

Biocultural Community Protocols offer an opportunity to link livestock rearing communities with their animal genetic resources and customary rights.

Access to Livestock Markets

Livestock markets are the keystone of the rural Indian economy, providing livelihoods to several people. New laws, legislations and international treaties threaten the existence of these markets. What would we lose should these markets disappear?

Strengthening Backyard Poultry

Across the country women raise poultry under backyard systems and contribute to the well-being and nutrition of their families. Undervalued and inconspicuous, the income generated through backyard poultry can yield more than that from an acre of rainfed dry land.

Pastoralism, a Sustainable Livelihood

Pastoralism is prevalent across India. Under-researched and unaccounted for, pastoralism contributes significantly to the Indian economy especially the informal livestock economy.

Rural Households,  Livestock Keeping and Rainfed Regions – The Significance

Livestock is an integral component of rainfed farming systems. As rainfed agriculture is risk-prone, possession of livestock both large and small acts as liquidity and an economic cushion for rural farming communities. In India’s rainfed areas of 106 million hectares, rainfed agriculture supports more than 60% of the livestock population.

Livestock has advantages over crop cultivation in rainfed areas. Animals are movable assets that can be shifted to areas where the rainfall has been adequate. In addition, and in contrast to crop, livestock is a self-replicating asset. For over thousands of years, humans have benefited from the ability of cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and other herd animals to actively search out and convert natural vegetation into products and services that satisfy basic human needs.  In the current scenario of climate change and falling groundwater levels, it is especially important that we ensure these communities can carry out their activities without increasing their carbon footprint and stretching groundwater resources.

Animal genetic resources used for food and in agriculture are an essential component of the biological basis that sustains world food security. India is one of the 12 mega biodiversity centres of the world. It has a rich repository of diverse breeds of domestic animals and birds which play a crucial role in adapting and developing agricultural production systems as well as increasing the resilience of India’s food supply systems. However, this knowledge base, the tactics and skills of these communities remains invisible and unacknowledged and needs to be studied by researchers and policy makers. 

Statistics reveal that resource-poor small and marginal farmers and landless labourers own 71% of cattle, 63% of buffaloes, 66% of small ruminants, 70% of pigs and 74% of poultry in India. Livestock provide food, fibre, fuel, and draught-power and their wastes are used as manure which a critical resource for crop production. Most importantly, in rural economies, livestock act as cash, are considered potential savings and an insurance against crop failure.

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RLNs’ Vision Paper

Shaping Policies to Support Socially and Ecologically Sustainable Livestock Development in India’s Rainfed Areas

Summary

Indian livestock contributes to around 40 percent and 70 percent of the agricultural GDP in the semi-arid and arid regions, respectively. with increasing demand for livestock products, this sector has great potential to contribute to poverty alleviation, which is largely untapped. This demand can provide significant opportunities for the rural poor from rain fed regions to increase returns from their livestock resources.

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Pastoral Dialogues

Prof. Purnendu Kavoori answered how the common man’s general perception of some 40 years ago about Pastoralists as destroyers of ecology has changed in the recent years – thanks to closer interactions and studies by individuals and civil society to clearly highlight their integrated role in supporting environment, biodiversity and food security of the world.

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