Importance of livestock

Livestock in agriculture and industry

Livestock are domestic animals kept for products and work: cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, camel, horse and poultry. In India they are a key part of mixed farming, where crops and animals support each other.

Contributions:

• Food: milk, meat, eggs; important sources of protein, especially for poor families.
• Draught power: bullocks and buffaloes plough land, pull carts and run water lifts.
• Manure and fuel: dung gives farmyard manure, compost and biogas; dung cakes are used as fuel.
• Raw materials for industry: wool (sheep), hides and skins (leather), bones, hair; dairy, meat, leather and wool industries give employment.
• Income and insurance: animals can be sold in an emergency; they give regular income, especially to landless and small farmers and women.
• Crop by-products such as straw are turned into milk and meat.

The White Revolution

The White Revolution was the rapid rise in India's milk production through dairy cooperatives. It grew from the Anand model (Amul) in Gujarat, a three-tier cooperative system: village milk producers' societies → district milk unions → state federation. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), set up in 1965 at Anand, launched Operation Flood in 1970. It linked rural milk producers with urban consumers, provided cattle feed, veterinary care and artificial insemination, and set up milk processing and chilling plants. Dr Verghese Kurien led the movement and is called the Father of the White Revolution. National Milk Day is observed on 26 November, his birthday. As a result, India became the world's largest milk producer in the late 1990s.

Key points

• Livestock give food, draught power, manure, fuel, raw materials and income.
• Operation Flood: 1970, NDDB.
• Verghese Kurien: Father of the White Revolution.
• Amul/Anand pattern: three-tier cooperative.

Exam tips

Questions focus on Operation Flood, Kurien, the Anand pattern and the uses of dung and draught animals.

Common mistakes

• Mixing up revolutions: White = milk, Blue = fish, Green = food grains.
• Thinking Operation Flood was a government-only programme; it was built on farmers' cooperatives.