What’s in the news?

• In order to further boost growth in livestock sector and thereby making animal husbandry more remunerative to 10 crore farmers engaged in Animal Husbandry Sector, the Government has approved implementation of a Special Livestock Sector Package consisting of several activities by revising and realigning various components of Government of India’s schemes for next 5 years starting from 2021-22.  
• This package envisages Central Government’s support amounting to Rs.9800 crore over duration of 5 years for leveraging total investment of Rs. 54,618 crore for 5 years.

News in detail

• As per this, all the schemes of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying will be merged into three broad categories as Development Programmes which includes: 
  • The first will include the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, which focuses on the development of indigenous breeds, as well as the National Programme for Dairy Development, the National Livestock Mission, and the Livestock Census and Integrated Sample Survey.
  • The second one includes the Livestock Health and Disease Control scheme and the National Animal Disease Control Programme.
  • The third will merge the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund and the Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund, and also incorporate support to dairy cooperatives and Farmer Producer Organisations engaged in dairy activities.
• The revised and realigned scheme component related to Rashtriya Gokul Mission is crucial for development and conservation of indigenous breeds and would also contribute in improving the economic condition of the rural poor as most of the low producing indigenous breeds are with small and marginal farmers and landless labourers. The aim of the Mission would be to deliver quality breeding inputs at the farmers’ doorstep. Implementation of RGM is crucial to enhance milk production and productivity of bovines, thereby making dairying more remunerative to poor farmers of the country.
• The realigned National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) will have two components. 
  • Component ‘A’ will be implemented with emphasis on milk procurement, processing, marketing and quality of milk and milk products. 
  • Component ‘B’ of NPDD will avail financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as per project agreement already signed with them and will create strengthened or fresh infrastructure in 4500 villages.

Significance

• The Livestock Sector in our country has been growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.15% (at constant prices) from 2014-15 to 2019-20. This CAGR is higher than other sectors like manufacturing sector, which has shown 6.15%, Agriculture (Crop) sector which has shown 1.95% and services sector with 7.7% for similar period. 
• Similarly, the Poultry sector is also growing at (CAGR constant prices) of 10.5% and playing an immense role in livelihood creation in the rural economy. 
• Further, as per the estimates of Central Statistical Office (CSO) for sector wise Gross Value Added (GVA) of Agriculture and allied sector, the percentage contribution of livestock sector as a percentage of total crop and livestock sector has increased from 28% (2014-15) to 34% (2019-20). 
• The Dairy sector has been growing consistently with milk production increasing from 22 million MT in 1970 to 198 million MT in 2019-20.

Reference:

1. https://orissadiary.com/central-government-implements-special-livestock-sector-packageamounting-to-rs-9800-crore-over-duration-of-5-years-for-leveraging-total-investment-of-rs-54618-crore-for-5-years/