Trends and contribution of grazing resources to livestock in different states of India

This paper examines grazing pressure on livestock per unit of permanent pastures (PP) and grazing lands (GL) and its implications to small livestock holders. Carrying capacity of pastures and grazing lands was estimated in terms of number of adult cattle units sustain on this resource. Information on area under PP&GL, livestock population and number of marginal and small holdings for 14 major livestock states were compiled from diverse sources. Analysis revealed that, at country level, area under PP&GL has declined from 120 to 102 lakh hectares during 1980–81 to 2007–08. High deceleration in area under PP&GL were observed in Karnataka (4.16 lakh hectares) closely followed by Andhra Pradesh (4.15), Maharashtra (3.27) and Madhya Pradesh (2.97). However, livestock population in the country has increased from 4230 to 5297 lakh between the years 1982 and 2007. Grazing pressure in terms of livestock per unit of PP&GL at country level increased from 35 to 52 animals during 1982 to 2007 whereas, carrying capacity of per unit of PP&GL was less than 1 adult cattle unit. Increasing trends in the grazing pressure were noticed in Punjab (833 animals ha⁻² of PP & GL) followed by Uttar Pradesh (142), Tamil Nadu (126) and Andhra Pradesh (69) during 198081 to 2007–08. The shrinking trends were more concerned to the states namely West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka where more than 75% of total land holdings belong to marginal and small farmers having high dependency on such common resources for green roughage. Hence efforts should be made to protect and rejuvenate common grazing lands to protect the interest of resource poor livestock holders. Some schemes focusing to enhance the productivity and value addition of PP & GL should be introduced, with a sense of urgency to augment the more nutritive bio-mass.