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Role and importance The world’s livestock systems can be broadly divided into three systems based on their degree of integration with crops:  Mixed Crop Livestock Systems (MCLS) Grazing Systems Industrial SystemsMCLS in which crops and animals are integrated on the same farms cover some 2.5 billion hectares of land globally and are the most dominant form of livestock systems. Mixed farming systems produce 90% of the global milk supply, all of buffalo meat, and approximately 70% of small ruminant meat. These systems are also the most benign production system from an environmental perspective, and are partially closed systems The waste products of one enterprise (crop residues) are used by the other enterprise, which in turn returns its own waste product (manure) back to the first enterprise. |
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Crop-Animal Interactions in Mixed Systems |
| Crop Production |
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Crops provide by-products in the form of residues and concentrates that can be utilized by ruminants and non-ruminants. Improved forages can be introduced into annual and perennial cropping systems to provide feed for ruminants. |
| Animal Production |
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Large ruminants provide draught power for land preparation and for soil conservation practices. Both ruminants and non- ruminants provide manure for the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility. In many farming systems it is the only source of nutrients for cropping. The sale of animals and animal products and the hiring out of draught animals can provide cash income. Animals grazing vegetation under trees crops can control weeds and help to increase yields of the plantation crops. |
| Mixed Farming Systems and Equity |
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Helps in diversifying the sources of income and employment for resource poor farmers and landless laborers and thus offers considerable potential for poverty alleviation. Livestock acts as a storehouse of capital and an insurance against crop production risks. Development of livestock sector promotes gender equity since women play an important role in animal production. Livestock rearing are a means of security and survival and supply vital dietary protein. |
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MCLS in India In India small- scale mixed crop-livestock farming is the common and most dominant form of animal husbandry. For small and marginal farmers animal husbandry based on family labour and residues and by- products of crops grown on their own land continue to be a substantial source of income and employment. Livestock in these systems are more equitably distributed compared to land. Small and marginal farms account for only 32% of the total land but own 59% of total bovines and 64% of total ovines (Table 1). The animal land intensity in India is high with an average land holding size of 1.57 ha supporting nearly 2.94 bovines and 1.14 ovines. This in turn puts pressure on common property resources. Table 1. Distribution of livestock according to the size of holdings: All India, 1991- 92 |
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| Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics 1997. | ||||||||||||||||
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Growth in Livestock Sub-Sector The contribution of the livestock sub-sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India has increased from 4.8% to 5.9% between 1980 and 1998, while the share of agriculture sector has declined from 35% to 25%. Consequently the contribution of livestock sub- sector to the Agricultural GDP has increased impressively from 13.9% to 23.4% (Table 2). Table 2. Share of agriculture and livestock sector in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
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| Source: Central Statistical Organisation, Department of Statistics, GOI. | ||||||||||
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The livestock sub-sector registered an annual compound growth rate of 7.3% compared to 3.1 % for crops sub- sector (Fig. 1).  Source: Central Statistical Organisation, Department of Statistics, GOI. Structure of Livestock Outputs In value terms milk continues to dominate livestock production structure and its share has increased between 1980 and 1999 from 43% to 57%. In 1997- 99 milk has become the number one farm commodity exceeding the value of paddy. In contrast the share of draught power declined from 33% to 10%. Meat and meat products share in 1997- 98 exceed the share of draft power (Fig 2). 
NB: Value of output from draught power is based on aggregation of16 states of IndiaSpecies wise cattle outputs (milk, meat and draught power etc.) dominated the shares in early eighties but by 1997 the share of buffalo exceeded share of cattle and now has the highest share (42%) in total livestock value from all species (Fig 3). 
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