Status, Dynamics and Livelihood Contribution of Livestock in the Rainfed Areas of Andhra Pradesh

Not AvailableOut of the three dominant forms of livestock rearing, mixed crop-livestock systems are more prominent in rural India and Andhra Pradesh is no exception. This has been the practice since time immemorial. The size of livestock holding in relation to the farm and family size are such that the livestock production becomes a supplementary or complementary enterprise to the primary crop production. Equally or more important is the role of livestock in helping farmers cope with weather shocks. The impressive economic growth witnessed in India led to a conspicuous change in consumption patterns of both rural and urban population in favour of livestock products and farmers have responded in raising the production levels through technology adoption as well as investments. However, considering the dominance of the land less and landed-poor in livestock holding, there is a need as well scope to improve the productivity levels and enhance the role of livestock in the livelihoods of the rural poor. It is with this view, we tried to put together information on the current status of livestock with respect to its size, distribution, productivity levels, strategies needed, etc in the selected project village clusters under NAIP which would help in designing appropriate interventions. Livestock has always provided the much needed resilience to rainfed farming in most drought-prone regions of the country. However, over time the importance of livestock to rainfed farming declined and as a result the livelihoods of smallholder families started to wither away. Livestock serve not only as an effective enterprise in terms of converting the roughage into nutritious protein, but also recycles the nutrients to the soil for sustainable agricultural production. In the distressed and resource-poor agro-eco systems, the role of livestock is all the more important since they provide year-round liquidity that meets the domestic and farm needs of the agriculturists.Not Availabl