Livelihoods of dairy farmers at stake in Puducherry

Abstract

Livestock sector in general and dairy in particular plays an important role in socio-economic development of rural households in India. It is well established that dairy cattle rearing, in addition to several of its advantages offers livelihood and nutritional security to resource poor families in rural areas, particularly among the landless agricultural labourers, small and marginal farmers. Puducherry region with majority of its population living in urban and peri urban areas (highest density of population in the country) provides a very good market environment for almost all the livestock products. The data indicates that the demand for livestock products especially the milk and milk products, is increasing at a faster rate owing to rapid urbanization, increased per capita incomes and shift in the taste and preferences of the people. But, the implementation of several animal husbandry schemes with a plethora of subsidies is not able to escalate the production of milk leading to a yawning gap between the demand and supply of milk and milk products. Rather the production is falling and the dependency on neighbouring states for supply of milk and milk products to meet the urban consumers’ demand is increasing. The farmers are losing their interest in dairying as they are not able to make a living out of dairying, which is reflecting on the decrease in milk procurement. The reasons for this pathetic situation of the dairy farmers in Puducherry are discussed in this paper.