Cattle story

Cattle story

Data from the Livestock Census suggests that economic calculations underpin rural economy.

The provisional results of the 20th Livestock Census provide useful insights into the livestock economy. Cattle and buffalo make up more than half the livestock population and are an important part of the rural economy. Their population growth in the period between two censuses, 2012 and 2019, has been lacklustre. But a look at the granular data shows that some recent trends in the rural economy are clearly discernible in livestock data. If the overall population of cattle and buffaloes is growing slowly, it is because the structure of agriculture has changed.

Population trends of male and female cattle have begun to diverge noticeably. Between the 2012 census and 2019 census, the male cattle population in India decreased by 30.2%. For the same period, the female cattle population increased by 18%. This trend has been in place for a while, catalysed by the favourable economics of mechanisation. This reduces the economic worth of male bovine population. The divergence between males and females is also noticeable in buffaloes. The population of male buffaloes declined by 42.35% from 2012 to 2019. This trend has been facilitated by the government’s encouragement of artificial insemination in cattle.

One of NDA’s programmes, Rashtriya Gokul Mission, aims to develop indigenous breeds of cattle. But the Indian farmer has displayed a noticeable preference for crossbreeds on account of the higher milk yields. In 2019, the population of crossbreed milch cattle was 25.67 million, higher by 32.2% in relation to the last census. By way of comparison, the indigenous breed milch cattle registered an increase of 0.81% from 2012 to 2019 to 48.51 million. Data from the livestock census suggest that Indian farmers are strongly influenced by the economics of owning livestock assets. The gap in the provisional data is the absence of information on stray cattle. Hopefully, the final results will plug this gap.