Livestock technology transfer service in India: A review

Abstract

The Planning Commission, Government of India (GOI), in its document, “Agriculture Strategy for Eleventh Plan: some critical issues” has observed, ‘unfortunately, extension advice is almost totally absent in animal husbandry, special efforts need to be made in this area”. This motivated the authors, besides the experience they gained in detailed study of extension role of state departments of Animal husbandry, to write this review indicating a direction to livestock technology transfer service suitable to India. To cater to the diverse needs of livestock farmers, among others an efficient livestock extension services delivery system is required. Whereas, there is no exclusive livestock extension service in India to cater to the specific needs of livestock farmers, as also the general extensive services are oriented mainly for crops. The Government of India (GOI) spends below 10% on livestock extension activities. The State Departments of Animal Husbandry (SDAH) - the major stakeholders for the livestock development in India is mostly dominated by animal health concerns with negligible attention to production related advice to farmers. Moreover, their spending on livestock extension activities is only around 1–3% of their total budget. Consequently, the NSSO survey revealed that only 5.1% of the farmer households in India were able to access any information on animal husbandry against 40.4% of the Indian households accessing information on modern technology for crop farming. This situation was analysed towards improving the framework for livestock extension services delivery system suitable to India.