Doubling Farmers’ Income through animal agriculture: Need for policy change
Habibur Rahman, Vijayalakshmy Kennady and Braja B Swain
International Livestock Research Institute
International Conference on Doubling the Farmers Income, Assam Agricultural
University, Assam, India, 27–28 February 2019
Better lives through livestock…………

 70% of the world’s rural poor rely on livestock for livelihoods.
 Employs more than 1.3 billion globally
 About 600 million poor livestock keepers in the world, around two-thirds are
rural women.
 Contribute about 40% Agri. GDP
 About 19% of kilocalorie and 37% of protein consumed are from livestock
sector
 In the poorest countries, livestock manure comprises over 70% of soil fertility
Why livestock matter globally for livelihoods?

Cow milk has
overtaken rice
FoodsfromAnimalsource: 5of6highestvalueglobalcommodities
(totalvalueofthese5=USInt$715billion)
FAOSTAT 2015
(values for 2013)

Species
No
(Million)
%
(Each)
Cattle 190.90 37.28
Buffalo 108.70 21.23
Goat 135.20 26.40
Sheep 65.10 12.71
Pigs 10.29 2.01
Camels 0.40 0.08
Horses/
Ponies
0.63 0.12
Mithun 0.29 0.06
Others* 0.60 0.12
Total 512.06
1241.06Poultry 729.00
* Others include Mules, Donkeys & Yaks
Livestock Population in India (LC 2012)
Species Breeds
Cattle 42
Buffalo 15
Goat 34
Sheep 43
Camel 9
Horse 7
Pig 8
Donkey 2
Yak 1
Chicken 21
Total 183
ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES

Livestock Products
Milk 176 mill ton (lit)
Eggs 88 billion (No)
Meat 7.3 mill ton ( Kg)
Species-wise meat contribution (%)
Species-wise egg contribution (%)
Species-wise contribution of Milk (%)

COMMODITIES RECOMMENDED
PER-CAPITA
AVAILABLE
PER-CAPITA
MILK 280 ml/ day 350 ml/ day
MEAT 12.0 Kg/year 3.5 Kg/year
EGG 180 /year 68 /year
COUNTRY
MILK 250 ml/ day 158.0 ml/ day
MEAT 14.0 Kg/year 14.5 Kg/year
EGG 104 /year 93.0 /year
MILK 250 ml/ day 197.26 ml/ day
MEAT 14.0 Kg/year 12.5 Kg/year
EGG 48 /year 48 /year
COMMODITIES MEAT
(Kg/Capita/Year)
MILK
(ml/Capita/day)
EGGS
(No. /Capita/Year)
Developed
Countries
82.1 569.0 186
World 41.2 225.0 130

• Responsibility of meeting food and nutritional security
in consonance with the agro ecological backdrop.
• Gainful employment to make the farmers more
economically secure.
• Generate raw material for agro-processing of food and
non-food products to support secondary agriculture.
• Support agro-processing industry to produce primary
and intermediate goods, which will feed the
manufacturing sector.
• Agricultural practices need to be on a sustainable basis.
Redefining Agricultural Mandate

Status of Farmers’ Income and Expenditure
• Average monthly income/agril. Household : Rs.6426
• Average monthly consumption exp./ag. household : Rs.6223
• Sources and composition of farmers’ income (percentage)
Cultivation 47.9 59.8
Livestock 11.9
Wages / salary 32.2 40.2
Non-farm business 8.0
• Ratio of farm income: non-farm income: 60:40
(NSSO (July, 2012 to June, 2013) @ 2011-12 prices)

Doubling Farmers’ Income
Hon’ble PM’s’ Vision to Double Farmers Income by 2022.
oTo address agrarian distress, farmers welfare and
in-equitability.
o70% are small and marginal farmers
oIncome approach adopted shifting focus from production
to post-production, subsistence farming to commercial
farming systems.

Sustainability issues in livestock production in India
 Low per capita consumption
 Vicious circle of low productivity
 Quality of livestock products
 Low investment, insurance
 Information access to the farmers
 Under-developed market
 Feed and Fodder availability and quality
 Feed conservation ratio efficiency
 Unscientific management practices

-8 -5
6 10 11 18
37
52 56
78 81
100
110
ugarcane/sugar
coarsecereals
maize
wheat
cereals
Rice
Vegetables
Milk/dairy
pulses
Fruits
Fish
Meat(other
thanpoultry)
Poultry
Shift in Food Demand in India by 2030
(% change relative to 2011)

Rising demand for meat,
milk and eggs is a global
phenomenon . . .
. . . but demand is
greatest in South
Asia and Sub-
Saharan Africa
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1980
1990
2002
2015
2030
2050
Millionmetrictonnes
developing
developed

BMGF, FAO, ILRI
Smallholders still dominate
livestock production in many countries
Region
(definition of
‘smallholder’)
% production by smallholder livestock farmers
Beef Chicken
meat
Sheep/goat
meat
Milk Pork Eggs
East Africa
(≤ 6 milking
animals)
60-90
Bangladesh
(< 3ha land)
65 77 78 65 - 77
India
(< 2ha land)
75 92 92 69 71
Vietnam
(small scale)
80
Philippines
(backyard)
50 35

Name of
Department
2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
Grand Total
(Last 3 years)
DAC&FW 17004.35 35983.69 41855.00
94843.04
(81.39%)
DARE 3691.00 3700.00 6800.00
14191.00
(12.18%)
DAHDF 2136.16 2431.50 2921.00
7488.66
(6.43%)
Total 22,831.51 42,115.19 51,576.00 116,522.70
(Rs. In crore)
Budgetary Allocation

Agriculture Growth Rates
(current prices)
Growth Rates in GVA (per cent)
YEAR
Total Economy Agriculture,
forestry &
fishing
Crops Livestock
Forestry
and
logging
Fishing
and
aquacultur
eGDP GVA
2012-13 13.8 13.5 11.5 10.9 12.7 10.5 17.5
2013-14 13.0 12.6 15.0 14.7 14.6 13.9 22.9
2014-15 11.0 11.0 8.7 3.5 20.7 10.9 18.7
2015-16 10.4 9.2 6.3 2.7 14.4 4.9 12.4
Share of GVA of Agriculture * Allied Sector in Total Economy (per cent)
Year
Agriculture, forestry
& fishing
Crops Livestock
forestry and
logging
fishing and
aquaculture
2011-12 18.5 12.1 4.0 1.5 0.8
2012-13 18.2 11.8 4.0 1.5 0.9
2013-14 18.6 12.1 4.1 1.5 0.9
2014-15 18.2 11.2 4.4 1.5 1.0
2015-16 17.7 10.6 4.6 1.5 1.0
2016-17* 17.9 11.1 4.6 1.3 1.0

Strategies to improve the farmers income
 Development Initiatives
 Technology and innovation
Institutional mechanism
Policies

Existing Policy towards Livestock Development
 Agriculture, including animal husbandry, dairying and
fisheries is a state subject; departments (eg. DADF)
supporting States for development of the sectors.
The department has been providing assistance to the state
government for
 Animal diseases control
 Management and Upgradation of genetic resources
 Increasing availability of feed and fodder
 Sustainable development of processing and marketing
enhancement of production and profitability

Changes and promotion required in the prevailing policies
Livestock extension remains as a grossly neglected area - ICT
can be used effectively as potential tool for extension services
on livestock farming
Upgrading the available breeding program and selective
breeding
Provision of minimum support prices (like agriculture) for
livestock products is highly mandatory to achieve and
promote an increase in the livestock production.
Increase the budget allowance for livestock sector
Cooperatives and agribusiness firms can promote contract
livestock and poultry farming including risk coverage
Post harvest management (Livestock loss- $87 million)
Linking smallholder farmers with the market
Attracting and retaining youth in agriculture

New Initiative in India
o ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture)
o MAYA (Motivating and Attracting Youth in Agriculture)
o Farmers FIRST (Farm, Innovations, Resource, Science and Technology)
o MGMG (My Village My Pride)
o DD Kisan (Television Channel on Agriculture, 2015)
Youth in India (15-24 Yrs) - 19% (1/5th) in 2011
34.3% in 2022
•Below 25 Yrs – 50%
•Below 35 Yrs – 65%
 50-60% population of country depend on Agriculture
 Youth participation in Agriculture only 5%
o Global – 25% (1.8 of 7.3 billion)

Tapping the Untapped potential: Sectorial Growth Plan
• Prioritizing the areas for investment
• Identifying and prioritizing the constraints
(biotic/abiotic/environment/marketing related)
• Preparing schematic plan and possible interventions to
address the constraints
• Breaking the strategies and plans for minimizing the
losses
• Identifying the mode of intervention through public,
private or participatory approach.
• Integration among different sectors and departments
for proper implementation

Conclusions
• Doubling the farmers income – formidable task;
possible only through proper implementation of
appropriate strategies.
• Public R&D institutions – to be supported to develop
capacity building in technologies.
• Farming people – motivated through various skill
development programmes of the Govt.
• Awareness about available opportunities for
commercialization and diversification among the
farmers.
• Higher price realization by farmers need to be
achieved through various price realization market
reforms.
• Promotion of initiatives like ICT based agricultural
extension; integrated farming systems
• Concerted and well- coordinated efforts – required
to be made between the Centre and the States.

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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