Livestock Development for Sustainable Livelihood of Small Farmers

Livestock is significantly contributing to livelihood and food security of more than a billion people in different parts of the world. However, the performance has been poor in many developing countries, due to various reasons. This paper reviews the distribution of different species of large and small ruminants and their status of production in different countries. The Indian experiences of improving cattle and goat husbandry to generate sustainable livelihood, has been very successful in empowering the poor, which has also been presented. Significant factors which have contributed to the success were genetic improvement, promotion of suitable technologies, development of infrastructure to strengthen the value chain and mentoring of small livestock owners to address their technical and business related problems. This review on status of livestock in different countries, demand for various products of livestock origin and impact of various interventions on performance will help to set priority for investment on development of different species.