PROSPECTS AND POLICY ISSUES

Agriculture is an economic symbiosis of crop and milk production. Historically, the role of livestock has been complementary to crop production. Dairying and agriculture are bound together by a set of mutual input-output relationships. Dairying is not an adjunct to the crop-mix of Indian farms but an integral part of the total farming system. Hence, treating dairy cattle as the backbone of the livestock wealth of our country would not be an exaggeration. Although dairying provides livelihood to millions of Indian farmers and generates additional income and employment for a large number of families in the countryside with significantly greater participation of women in this important activity, our country with about 18.36 per cent of the world’s total cattle and buffalo population accounts for only about 14.5 per cent of the world’s total milk production (GOI, 2004 a). Our livestock are roughly half as efficient as the average milch animals in the world and probably only one-fifth as efficient as those in the advanced countries (Shah, 2001). However, there is consistent rise in India’s share in world milk production, which has grown from 9.9 per cent in 1990 to 12.3 per cent in 1996 and further to 14.5 per cent in 2003 (Appendix 1). Although India has huge livestock population, in terms of trade it stands insignificant in the world trade of livestock products. However, it is to be noted that India has tremendous potential to produce and export various livestock products. The high potential of the domesti