A Critical Analysis of Resource Poor Sheep Farmers and Measures to Enhance their Livelihood and Food Security
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5455/ijlr.20200224071803%20%20%20%20Keywords:
Constraints, Food Security, Lamb Mortality, Sheep FarmingAbstract
Sheep farming substantially contributes to the income generation and to ensure livelihood security of farmers in drought prone Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, which has 3,03,105 sheep population as per census data (19th Livestock Census, GOI, 2012). But sheep farming is threatened by number of viral diseases of which Bluetongue is the most important and frequent outbreak of lamb mortality in the farmers field also cause huge economic loss to farmers. Considering these facts, a study was conducted in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu using a multi stage random sampling technique 120 respondents were selected. A cross-sectional survey of sheep farmers was done to assess the constraints in sheep farming. The study showed that, lamb mortality was the major constraint perceived by 90 per cent of the respondents followed by lack of awareness (70 per cent) about feeding concentrate feeds and inclusion of mineral mixture in the feed exclusively prepared for sheep. The study has suggested that suitable strategies have to be evolved to reduce lamb mortality and conduct of awareness programme among the sheep farmers about the importance of concentrate feed to sheep and this could lead to reduced lamb mortality and thereby increase in farmers’ income to ensure food security and sustain livelihood of resource poor.
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