National Livestock Policy

The National Livestock Policy is a sectoral national policy. The main objectives of the Policy are a) to support the existing low input production systems for improving productivity and income so as to improve socio-economic status of a vast majority of livestock producers, most of which are women and small farmers, b) to support research and development initiatives on issues pertaining to livestock sector for improving production and productivity, bio-security and profitability, c) to encourage establishment and growth of self-supporting financially viable, medium and large commercial livestock production units capable of adopting latest technology including facility for processing and value addition, d) to improve the productivity of livestock and poultry by promoting and disseminating the technologies developed by the research system, e) to promote conservation of animal bio-diversity; conservation and genetic improvement of important indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry in the country, f) to increase availability of feed and fodder resources to meet the requirement of livestock to attain optimal productivity, g) to strengthen overall animal health cover through prevention, control and eradication of various disease conditions and encourage/enable the dairy cooperatives to extend veterinary services to farmers, h) to focus on production of quality livestock products as per the international standards for food safety, i) to encourage value addition of livestock products like milk and milk products, eggs, wool and meat & meat products etc., j) to expand capacity of milk handled by organized dairy sector including cooperatives, k) to ensure transmission and application of improved technology and management practices to the doorstep of the farmers and the entrepreneurs, l) to create an enabling environment to attract investment for improving infrastructure support, livestock production, processing, value addition and marketing in the sector.
The Policy underlines that breach of biosecurity in the livestock sector would endanger the livestock populations, ultimately impacting the food security.
Newer breeding and reproductive technologies will be adopted for increasing production. Efforts will be made to increase production of quality fodder seeds.
Farmers would be encouraged to be organized as cooperatives or Farmers’ Producers’ Organization. Human resource development would be given a high priority in livestock development to meet the qualitative and quantitative shortage of manpower. Developing skill sets among farmers required for scientific management of livestock will be emphasized. In order to provide remunerative marketing opportunities to farmers, mutually beneficial contracts between the poultry farmers and purchasers and poultry industry would be encouraged so as to minimize the risks of the farmers.
The principles of food safety will be emphasized in primary production system. Entire food sector is required to ensure quality, safety and suitability of food for human consumption. To improve quality milk production, necessary veterinary support, infrastructure and cold chain facility would be expanded by suitably encouraging cooperatives and incentivizing the private sector. The Policy would promote clean milk production with quality and food safety of international standards for benefit of farmers and consumers. By using existing and newly developed technologies, enrichment and densification of crop residue would be encouraged to avoid wastage of large quantity of straw and agro-industrial by-products. In addition, veterinary hospitals, dispensaries, Aid Centers and diagnostic laboratories would be improved and expanded. The quality of traditional medicines would be standardized through understanding and knowledge of the factors and conditions involved. Furthermore, Farmer producers’ Organizations including producers’ companies would be promoted to facilitate flow of credit for activities and projects related to livestock production and marketing.
To maintain the productivity and welfare of livestock and poultry sector during various types of natural calamities and drought conditions, contingency plans will be prepared. Quarantine facilities would be strengthened to prevent the ingress of exotic diseases. Mechanism for emergency preparedness against emerging and exotic diseases would be put in place. The research on impact of climate change on livestock production and also required measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on livestock production would be strengthened.
A National Steering Committee would be constituted with representatives of the States and UTs, cooperatives, reputed NGO and private sector stake holders to facilitate implementation and operationalization of the policy, review and advice on changes in policy as and when necessary.