Status of Livestock Sector: A Micro Study of North Eastern India

Abstract

This paper tries to find out how the livestock sector is performing in North-eastern (NE) region. The share of livestock sector to the agriculture GDP is decreasing over the years in NE states. In between 1997 and 2003, the population of cattle, buffalo and yak has declined in the region but registered significant increase in sheep (51%), pig (25%) and poultry (13%) population. Maximum growth in crossbred population was observed in Nagaland (58%) and Sikkim (54%). Milk production has increased by nine per cent during 1998-99 and 2005-06. In aggregate level in NE states, egg production is only two per cent of the total egg production level in the country during 2005-06. The meat production in recognized sector has also gone up by 63 per cent in NE region between the period of 2000-01 and 2005-06. The study concludes that rearing of small ruminants, pig have good scope for the landless and marginal farmers as they are prolific and require low input.