Small Livestock Production : A Potential Agri-Business in Rural India

The commercial goat and sheep farming is coming up fast in India. India has 148.9 million goat, 109.9 million
buffaloes and 74.3 million sheep population. It plays an important role on the development of rural socio-economy
particularly in dry land and denuded hilly tracts. There are great opportunities for rural employment of resourceless
poor population. The meat production, which jibes well with dairying, is placed at No. 8 position in the world.
India produces about 4.9 million tonnes of meat annually valued as $4,600 million, and has grown @ 4.5% during
the last two decades. However, during the last five years, this segment has been growing very fast at the rate of
27% annually and has a good future given the present attention by the government and private entrepreneurs. The
need of the day is to increase carcass weight and reproductive efficiency with a strategy to produce more quality
meat/animal though scientific approach. Therefore, it is necessary to support the small ruminant production sector
in the country to meet the gap of quality protein supply in the country and to enhance the export potential of
organic meat of Indian origin.