Livestock Systems and Their Performance in Poor Endowment Regions of India

The study pertaining to the semi-arid tropic region of the country, which has maximum concentration of livestock, has identified livestock systems, investigated their performance, and determined their carrying capacity. Seven major livestock systems have been identified using cluster analysis: cattle, buffalo, cattle-buffalo-goat, cattle-goat, cattle-sheep, sheep-goat-cattle and the mixed. The cattle-livestock system has been found to be the most dominating system while sheep-goat-cattle system has been the least important system. Milk productivity and adoption of crossbred technology have been found highest in the buffalo-based livestock systems (buffalo, cattle-buffalo-goat, mixed), which are the systems prevalent in the agriculturally developed and socio-economically rich areas. Vast differences have been observed in the existing averages and exploitable potential in the milk productivity and adoption of the crossbred technology in cattle-based livestock systems (cattle, cattle-goat, cattle-sheep, sheep-goat-cattle). The research and development efforts need to be concentrated on these livestock systems in increasing the dry matter (DM) availability for which agricultural development is inevitable, and to develop a suitable crossbred technology thriving best in the marginal areas. The resultant increase in productivity will reduce the existing status of livestock units (LUs) per thousand hectares, which has been observed to be more than the carrying capacity in the cattle-based livestock systems