Animal Rearing

Facts:
  • India has the largest bovine population in the world.
  • It accounts for 14% of world cattle population, while share for buffalo alone is 53% of which 79% of the cattle are indigenous and 21% are crossbred and exotic varieties.
Rashtriya Gokul Mission:
  • Launched in 2014
  • Aims to improve breed of Indian Bovines
  • Why? The Indigenous bovine breeds are sturdy and are endowed with quality of heat tolerance, resistance to diseases. They have ability to thrive under extreme climatic conditions and survive with low inputs. However, most of the indigenous are suited for draught animal power as they have low genetic potential for milk production.
Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund
  • Announced in 2017-18 budget
  • A corpus of Rs 8,000 crores over three years to augment income of farmers
  • It will be set up in NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
  • It will be used to enable expansion of milk processing capacity in the country.
Write a note on the recent trends in the economics of meat market in India and the challenges facing the sector. (200 Words)
Livestock sector is an important source of livelihood for the poor. Recent trends in meat market are encouraging.
  1. In 2014, India has emerged as world‘s third largest exporter of meat.
  2. Meat exports have steadily increased since last 5 years
  3. Beef is the biggest contributor to our revenues.
While these are encouraging trends, there are several challenges to the meat market:
  1. State policiesBanning on slaughter in states like Maharashtra will lead to decline in industry.
  2. Quality – India fetches less value per kilogram of meat as compared to other countries. The quality needs to be enhanced by both: Breeding techniques and encouraging feed-fodder cultivation. Use of antibiotics in poultry is harmful for human health.
  3. Slaughter houses – There is lack of organized slaughter houses in the country. Further, even established slaughter houses are far from modernization and hygiene. Therefore, the industry is far from potential.
  4. Epidemics – Frequently occurring epidemics cause huge losses. Our disease verification and reporting system is still not satisfactory.
  5. Diversity – The ecosystem (policies, funding, markets) etc. for other meat products like goat, sheep and other poultry sector is not well developed as that for beef.
  6. Lack of domestic market due to religious considerations.
India needs to overcome these challenges by increased funding, modernization and developing a domestic market as well. This industry can be a big support in poverty alleviation.
Write a note on the problems faced by poultry industry and its recent growth trends in India. (200 Words)
Poultry is one of the fastest growing segments of the agricultural sector in India today. However, there are problems being faced by the poultry industry which can be summed as:-
  1. Regional imbalance of poultry products – Production is not evenly distributed in the country. More than 60% of broilers are produced in 5 states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and West Bengal). This creates logistic and quality issues related to transport and production. Moreover, unequal demand of poultry meat and egg, have resulted in unequal growth of the industry.
  2. Recent heat waves in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region has resulted in high chicken prices due to killing of birds. Thus, chicken prices have increased.
  3. Avian influenza was another issue which has resulted which has devastating effect on Indian poultry, and it still continues to haunt the sector due to low demand and less exports
  4. Shortage of raw material is another issue. Price of soybean meal, the major and only source of protein has increased about 75%, which has forced the feed manufacturers to comprise in terms of diet given to birds.
  5. Shortage of human resources is another problem because of the absence of veterinarians , researchers ,in areas where expertise knowledge is required.
  6. Indian poultry sector is still unable to tap the benefit of international market. Lack of adequate cold storage, warehouses is the major factor affecting poultry sector in India.
  7. Majority of the production is by unorganized which is another threat faced by sector.
  8. Increasing antibiotics level in poultry products too are creating long lasting harmful effects like drug resistance in people. For solving this problem health ministry and other medical institutions have issued the guidelines for less/no use of antibiotics for animals.

1 thought on “Animal Rearing”

  1. You are doing great work . Just because no one comments does not mean we are not observing. We are all seeing the sincere efforts you guys are putting. And all that for free. We are greatly indebted to you guys.

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