Livestock is emerging as a driving force in the growth of agricultural sector of India. Several factors underline this development. Contribution of livestock to agricultural gross domestic product (AgGDP) has been rising; it increased from 14 percent in 1980-81 to 23 percent in 1997-98. While the share of agricultural sector in gross domestic product (GDP) declined from about 35 percent to 26 percent during this period. Demand for livestock products is income-elastic, and sustained growth in per capita income, rising urban population, and changing food habits and lifestyles are fuelling further growth in it.
The importance of livestock goes beyond its food production function. It provides draught power and organic manure for agriculture and fuel for domestic purposes. Livestock is an important source of income and employment for millions of landless and small landholders particularly in the less favored environments. In general, livestock wealth is more equitably distributed than land. Growth in livestock sector is thus reckoned to reduce interpersonal and interregional inequities, and alleviate poverty.
On the other hand, there are apprehensions that the current growth momentum may not sustain long. A number of supply side factors such as burgeoning livestock population and its very low productivity, feed and fodder scarcity, deterioration in common grazing lands, inappropriate disease management, lack of appropriate technologies, poor infrastructure, sociocultural and legal rigidities and unfavorable external market conditions may act as impediments on the growth process. The past growth in many livestock outputs has largely been population-driven. Therefore, technology will be a key factor in sustaining the growth momentum. While the research resources are becoming scarcer to meet the emerging challenges. These forces thus underscore the need for a critical and objective evaluation of livestock research priorities at the national and regional level. This study provides an objective assessment of macro level research priorities for the livestock sector.
The study generates indices of research priorities for the livestock sector in terms of regions, species and commodities keeping in view the national developmental goals. It covers all states and union territories (The study reports results for 25 states only), eight livestock species, and their products and services. Required information was collected from numerous published and unpublished sources. Multi-criteria scoring model, which is flexible to accommodate multiple research objectives, was used to assess research priorities. Research objectives have been derived from the developmental goals mentioned in different five-year plans. The objectives are: growth (efficiency), equity, sustainability and trade participation. The analysis begins by assessing priorities with the objective of improving efficiency, and then modifies these successively by superimposing other developmental goals to examine the tradeoffs between goals/objectives in the process of resource allocation. All goals have been considered equally important and assigned equal weights in the analysis.
Livestock research receives about 19 percent of the agricultural research resources. This however has witnessed considerable variation over time. In 1970s, share of livestock research was 27 percent, higher than the relative contribution of livestock sector to AgGDP. The emphasis during this period was to strengthen research infrastructure. The share of livestock research fell drastically (14 %) in 1980s, but increased in 1990s. Yet, it is low compared to its contribution to AgGDP. At present, India has well-developed research infrastructure with species/commodity orientation.
An assessment of priorities with the sole objective of accelerating growth suggests highest priority to Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana. These states contribute considerably to the national value of livestock production. The considerations for equity, sustainability and export promotion cause tradeoffs in regional resource allocation. In the multi-criteria framework Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kahsmir, West Bengal and Kerala lose heavily over the growth-promoting criterion. While northeastern states, Orissa, Bihar, Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh improve their stakes in incremental resources. Figure 1 depicts regional allocation of livestock research resources.
Most of the states that lose are in a fairly advanced stage of economic development with low incidence of poverty and undernourished population. While those gain are either backward or in the developing stage. For instance, in Punjab -the most agriculturally developed state, about 10 percent of the population is below poverty line, and less than 20 percent is undernourished. Corresponding figures for one of the least developed states Bihar are 54 and 29 percent respectively. Unfortunately, state level information on investment in livestock research is not available to examine the congruence between the suggested and existing allocations.
Fig. 1
Regional priorities in livestock research
India is rich in animal diversity. Some important livestock species in the country are cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, pig, poultry, camel and equines. At the national level, buffalo research appears as the main priority demanding a share of 40 percent in the livestock research resources. Cattle research comes next with 38 percent. Though, buffalo population is considerably less than the cattle, higher priority to buffalo is due to its higher milk yield with better fat content that commands a premium price in the market. About 10 percent of the livestock research resources need to be allocated to poultry, and 7.5 percent to goat (Figure 2). Shares of other species are in the range of 1-2 percent. Is this pattern of allocation in line with the existing pattern of allocation of livestock research resources in ICAR? A comparison of the two indicates substantial under-investment in buffalo and cattle research (Figure 3) that needs to be corrected in future allocations. Cattle and buffalo have long generation interval compared to small ruminants and monogastrics, and thus the research on these animals is long-term and capital-intensive. The rates of return on bovine research may be lower compared to monogastrics and small ruminants. Besides, the wide distribution of cattle and buffalo cutting across agroecological andsocioeconomic boundaries also favours higher resources for research on these species.
Fig. 2
Existing allocation of research resources by species
Fig. 3
Suggested allocation of research resources by species
Most of the livestock species in India are maintained for dual or multiple purposes. Thus, given the resources for research on a species we have identified commodity research agenda for each species. In case of buffalo, focus of research should be on milk production (93 %). So is in case of cattle research (73 %). But, draught power research should also be an important consideration in cattle research (17%). Research on goats should focus on meat production (57%), and followed by milk production (33%).
Investment in sheep research should be mainly for meat production (76%). Wool production shares only 11.4 percent. Poultry research resources should be allocated to meat and eggs in the ratio of 2:1. Meat production should be the main concern of pig research. For camel and equine, research should focus on improving their draughtability. The relative emphasis however varies greatly across states depending on the utility of products and services provided by a species. The details are provided in this study.
Most of the species are widely distributed cutting across agroclimatic boundaries, but in varying density depending on their relative utility in provision of food and other products and services. The species priorities therefore vary across regions. Cattle research should target mainly the western region (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra). Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Tamilnadu, Assam and Gujarat are other target domains for cattle research. Most of these states are rainfed and have sizeable number of cattle for both milk and draught supplies. Buffalo research activities should concentrate in Uttar Pradesh in the north, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra in the west, Andhra Pradesh in the south and Bihar in the east. Goat research should largely target eastern states mainly Bihar and West Bengal that together put a claim for about 43 percent of national goat research resources. Target domain for sheep research is southern region. Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are the main candidates for incremental poultry research resources. Pig research should focus northeastern states, and Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Target domain for camel research is Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh ranks highest in priority for equine research. The regional distribution of species-wise research resources thus indicates the necessity of taking into consideration the regional distribution of different livestock species and their relative utilities in the process of allocation of research resources.
Assumption of equal weights to different research objectives is liable to criticism, as the developmental goals themselves never receive equal emphasis. Thus, sensitivity of the regional and species priorities was examined by attaching varying importance to different developmental goals (research objectives). With higher importance to growth (efficiency) there are no significant changes in priority ranking of states. However, the states of Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal are benefited considerably in terms of higher share in national research resources. While the shares of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and most of the northeastern states are reduced significantly. Other states either gain or lose at the margin. Higher emphasis on both efficiency and equity also results in a similar pattern of distribution. Species priorities too are not much sensitive to changes in weights to developmental goals of research.
In conclusion, the study suggests target domains, species and commodities for livestock research. It makes tradeoffs between efficiency and other developmental goals explicit. There are obvious limitations of data particularly the research investment data at state level. Reallocation and redeployment of resources has no operational significance in absence of such information. The research administrators and managers may use their wisdom and experience to moderate the results. Further, the study has not attempted the research agenda in terms of disciplinary research, which concerns the demand-side aspects of animal science research and requires considerable amount of information at the micro level. Next phase of this study targets this.