Animal Husbandry of Tamilnadu
Animal Husbandry sector plays a vital role in sustaining rural livelihoods and improving the economy of rural population. Livestock sector provides productive employment especially self employment and guaranteed supplementary household income to a majority of rural households particularly small and marginal farmers besides providing nutritious food products like milk, meat and eggs. The live animals are important natural assets for the poor, which can be easily liquidated for cash during emergency.
Livestock have remained an integral part of the socio-economic fabric of rural people since time immemorial, not only as a source of livelihood but also as a provider of draught energy, manure and fuel. Sustained rise in income and urbanization are now fuelling rapid growth in demand for animal food products and the livestock are coming under pressure to produce more. Over the last three decades livestock production grew faster than crop sector as a whole and has made significant contributions to agricultural growth, which is considered to be an important factor in poverty reduction among rural people.
Livestock Revolution is also significantly contributing towards improving nutritional security and reducing rural poverty. The rural poor have little access to agriculture land and thus there are limited opportunities for them in crop production. On the other hand, livestock wealth is equitably distributed compared to land, and generates opportunities for the poor to escape poverty through livestock production.
The contribution of livestock sector to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is 4.31% and that to the agriculture and allied activities is 41.84% (Advanced Estimate at Current Prices). During 2006-07, the gross value of output of livestock, which was 11,535.23 crore in the State has increased to Rs.55,068.20 crore during 2014-15 (Advanced Estimate at Current Prices). The estimated milk production, which was 54.74 lakh Metric Tonnes during 2005-06 in Tamil Nadu, has increased to 71.32 lakh Metric Tonnes during 2014-15. Likewise, the estimated egg production, which was 62,225 lakh numbers during 2005-06 has increased to 1,59,253 lakh numbers during 2014-15.
The per capita availability of milk per day and eggs per annum has increased from 231 gms and 100 numbers during 2005-06 to 257 gms and 209 numbers during 2014-15 respectively. Apart from these, the estimated meat production (including poultry meat), which was 1,186 lakh kgs during 2005-06 has increased to 4,919 lakh kgs during 2014-15. The State contributes 5.12% of milk production, 19.23% of egg production and 7.45% of total meat production (including poultry meat) and ranked 10th in milk production, 1st in egg production and 6th in meat production in the country during 2014-15.
Livestock have remained an integral part of one’s life since time immemorial. People are considering animal wealth as mobile assets as well as human companion. Products that are obtained through Livestock are useful for the economic upliftment of the people.
In Tamil Nadu, local pure breeds of white cattle like Kangayam, Umblachery, Alambadi, Bargur and Pulikulam and Toda buffaloes are reared. Among these, Kangayam breed cattle are reared in Western districts viz., Tiruppur, Erode, Coimbatore and Karur, Umblachery breed cattle in Eastern districts viz., Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, Alambadi breed cattle in Western districts viz., Dharmapuri, Erode and Salem, Pulikulam breed cattle in Southern district viz., Sivagangai, Madurai, Dindigul and Theni, Bargur breed cattle in Erode and Toda buffalo in the Nilgiris. In the same way, local pure breeds of sheep Mecheri (Salem and Erode districts), Ramnad white (Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram districts), Madras red (Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts), Kilakarisal (Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Madurai and Dindigul districts), Vembur (Thoothukudi district), Trichy black (Perambalur, Ariyalur, Tiruchirapalli and Villupuram districts), Coimbatore (Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts) and Nilgiri (The Nilgiris district) and local pure goat breeds like Kanniadu (Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts), Kodiadu (Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts) and Salem black (Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts) are reared in Tamil Nadu.
Apart from these local breeds, exotic / crossbred high milk yielding breeds like Jersey in plains and Holstein Friesian in hills are reared by farmers. As per the 19th Livestock and Poultry Census, 24.6 lakh indigenous cattle, 63.54 lakh exotic / crossbred cattle, 7.8 lakh buffalo, 47.87 lakh sheep, 81.43 lakh goats and 1173.49 lakh poultry are in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu ranks 2nd in respect of Poultry, 4th in Sheep, 7th in Goats, 13th in Cattle and 14th in Buffalo population in the country.
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