Livestock Economy of India with Particular Reference to Punjab

Abstract

The present paper tries to capture the overtime changes in performance of livestock sector in Indian economy with particular reference to Punjab, the state aptly known as grain bowl of India. The study is based on secondary data extracted from official data sources of Government of India (GOI). The study highlighted that Punjab with 1.5 per cent of India’s geographical area, 1.6 per cent of livestock population, 2.2 per cent of poultry population and 2.5 per cent of cattle and buffalo population contributes 7 per cent to milk production, 5.4 per cent to eggs and 3.4 per cent to meat production. In TE 2016-17, the contribution of milk group to the value of Punjab’s total livestock output recorded at 82.2 per cent was way above that observed in case of India at large (68 %). The comparison of value of milk output with that of paddy and wheat together highlighted that an impressive increase in the value of milk output over the study period could not undermine the importance of wheat and paddy in Punjab’s agri economy. The falling share of Punjab in value of output from livestock sector of India at large and that in case of milk, meat and egg, the pillars of livestock economy of Punjab point towards convergence amongst Indian states on one hand and need for ensuring better prices to livestock producers of Punjab to make livestock rearing more remunerative.