Vol. 9, Special Issue 4 (2020)

Author(s):
Dr. G Triveni and Dr. D Sreenivasulu

Abstract:
Livestock are important to millions of poor households across the world not only as a source of income but also as a major source of protein and supplementary nutrition, draft power, fertilizer, fuel and a store of wealth. A large majority of livestock owners comprise of small and marginal farmers, who own nearly 80 percent of the livestock. Therefore, extension of livestock information has become an important component for rural development in our country. The NSSO survey revealed that only 5.1% of the farmer households in India were able to access any information on animal husbandry against 40.4% of the Indian households accessing information on modern technology for crop farming. The Government of India spends below 10% on livestock extension activities. Public livestock extension delivery institutes include Directorate of Extension, I.C.A.R, N.D.D.B, K.V.Ks, S.D.A.H and private extension service delivery institutes include N.G.Os, Agriclinics and Agribusiness Centers etc. The public extension has faced many limitations in transfer of services and therefore private extension organizations came into existence to overcome the short comings. There is an enormous scope to boost rural income in combination of the services provided by the public, private and civil society organizations. However, this requires a policy regime that facilitates growth in productivity at the farm level as well as in the processing sector. Mechanisms to meet the service needs of poor livestock keepers and the ways and means to deliver them at minimum cost need to be identified.