Major income of 1.75% rural families from livestock: NSSO

Nearly 3.67% of households owning large holdings (more than 10 hectares) were found to have derived major income from self-employment in livestock farming

Less than two per cent of rural households earn a major portion of their income from self-employment in livestock farming, says a government survey. "Around 1.75 per cent of the total rural households derived the major income from self-employment in livestock farming, which comprises around 2.7 million rural households, owning around 0.489 hectare of land per household," according to an NSSO survey conducted in January-December 2013.

The major use was made for dairy (53.8 per cent during Jul-Dec '12 and 69.7 per cent during Jan-Jun '13). The lowest share was for piggery, which is less than 1 per cent of the total area under animal farming, during both the seasons. The survey showed that around 0.75 per cent of the total Scheduled Tribes (ST) households, 1.50 per cent of the total Scheduled Castes (SC) households and 2.17 per cent of the total other backward classes (OBC) households reported the major income from self-employment in livestock farming.

As much as 3.67 per cent of the households owning large holdings (more than 10 hectares) were found to have derived major income from self-employment in livestock farming, which is the highest among all ownership land-holding class.

The least (0.70 per cent) was recorded for the households owning small holdings (1 to 2 hectares).

The percentage of households reporting animal farming was found to be the highest in the marginal category of operational holdings, registering more than 73 per cent of household operational holdings in both the periods.

The land area used for livestock farming is less than 5 per cent of the total area under different types of land uses.

It said that the bovine population during 2012-13 was 204.5 million, out of which 135.6 million were cattle and 68.8 million were buffalo.

During 2012-13, sheep and goat (ovine) population were found to be 99 million. The number of ovine per 100 households was 63.4.

It further said that 5.8 million pigs were estimated during 2012-13, accounting for 3.7 per 100 households.

During 2012-13, 254.7 million poultry was estimated, which was found to be 163.1 per 100 households.

This report is based on the information on livestock ownership of the households collected during the Land and Livestock Holdings Survey (LHS) conducted in the 70th round of NSS during January 2013 to December 2013.

The survey was conducted only in the rural areas of the country, and covered 4,529 FSUs (sample villages).