Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
INTRODUCTION
Indian agriculture is a finely tuned farming ecosystem consisting of a delicate
mosaic of land, animals and farmers. The farm animals are not mere animals;
indeed they are companions, livelihood assets, saving banks, insurance for the
future, religious symbols, energy and nutrient suppliers for crop cultivation,
family food security systems, source of employment and cash income. This is
more pertinent with cattle and buffaloes. Some aspects of synergy between
crop production and livestock have been weakened in the present agriculture
production system, one of the prominent examples being the reduced dependency
on animals for farm draft power. The rapid growth of the livestock sector,
especially the cattle and buffalo production system, is towards dairying and
factors like growing demand for milk. Income changes and urbanization favours
this growth. The livestock sector is indispensible in sustaining rural economy and
livelihood.
• As per the report of the working group on animal husbandry and dairying -
11th five year plan: 2007-12, the livestock sector employs eight percent of the
countries labour force, including many small and marginal farmers, women
and landless agricultural workers.
• Milk production alone involves more than 30 million small producers, each
raising one or two cows or buffaloes.
• The organic fertilizer produced by the sector is an important input to crop
production, and dung from livestock is widely used as fuel in rural areas.
• Livestock also serves as an insurance substitute, especially for poor rural
households. They can easily be sold during time of distress (Islam et al., 2016).
1. LIVESTOCK POPULATION
As per the 19th livestock census, 2012 (GOI, 2014) India’s livestock sector is one of
the largest in the world with a holding of 11.6% of the world livestock population,
which consists of buffaloes (57.83%), cattle (15.06%), sheep (7.14%), goats
(17.93%), camels (2.18%), horses (1.3%), pigs (1.2%), chickens (4.72%) and
ducks (1.94%).
662 Annexures