INTRODUCTION

Animal husbandry, agriculture and allied activities have been the core livelihood for majority of the rural people since time immemorial. It provides productive employment, especially self employment and the most valuable supplementary income to a vast majority of rural households, majority of who are small and marginal farmers and landless laborers. Livestock provide increased economic stability to the poor masses. They act as cash buffer in case of small stock and as captive reserve in case of larger stock. Livestock provide quality animal protein to human population in the form of milk, eggs, meat and value added products. They provide draught power for agricultural operations, organic manure for agriculture and raw materials like skin, hides, blood, bone, hoof, horn, etc., for various industries.
    
During 2006-07, the gross value of output of livestock in the State is Rs.965.43 crores. The contribution of livestock sector to the Gross State Domestic Product is 3% and that to the agriculture and allied activities is 28%. The dairy and poultry sectors contributed significantly to this growth. During 2005-06, the estimated milk and egg production in the State was 54.74 lakhs MT and 6,223 millions respectively. Likewise, the per capita availability of milk/day and eggs/annum was 234 gms and 97 nos. respectively. The State contributes 5% of milk and 14% of egg production and stands 8th in milk production and 2nd in egg production in the country.
    
Animal husbandry is one sector which has high potential for growth. The potential of the sector needs to be exploited as this can play a key role in providing sustainable employment in their location itself and arrest migration of people to urban areas. As animal husbandry is an activity which can easily be taken up by rural communities as skill and resource requirements are minimal, inputs are locally available and marketing does not pose a major problem, it can act as an engine in poverty alleviation programmes by making asset less poor into income generating asset owing population. This will go a long way in not only augmenting food security, human security, empowerment of women and rural youths, 1 but will also help in triggering and invigorating the rural economy ultimately contributing significantly to the comprehensive socio-economic transformation of the State.
    
Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products (milk), and leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, ploughing etc). The Indian subcontinent harbours a variety of cattle. Besides many non-descript breeds, there are 30 well-recognized cattle breeds in India. Majority of these breeds are low producers of milk; hence they are primarily used for the production of castrated bulls, which are used in agriculture, carting and transport.

The total livestock population of the state is 249.41 lakh which is 5.07% of the country’s livestock population. The state accounts for 4.94% cattle, 1.69% buffaloes, 9.105 sheep and 6.58% goats to the country. According to the 17th Livestock and poultry census, the spices wise distribution of livestock and poultry, their percentage to the total and density in the state is follows.    

Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2006