An overview of the livestock sector in Assam

Livestock sector has been emerged as an important growth engine of rural economy of India and its share in gross domestic production has gradually increased. Besides agriculture, livestock is one of the prime occupations in the North- Eastern state of Assam. The state has been occupied highest number of livestock in respect of all the livestock in the region. Assam is rich in livestock resource, which are includes cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and poultry. In the 19th livestock census, 2012, a total livestock population of Assam is 19080.30 million. Assam is highest numbers of pig’s production among the Indian state with a share of 15.88 percent in 2012. However, the performance of the other livestock productions in Assam is not satisfactory as compared to other state of India. In the Production of cattle, goat and poultry, the ranking of Assam is 8th, 11th and 7th rank in respectively. In the North-Eastern region almost 90 per cent of people are non-vegetarian and hence, there is huge demand of livestock product in the state. However, the livestock population in the state is very a large in numbers, but its production and productivity is very low as compared to other parts of the country. In spite of having huge livestock resources and ample potentiality as growth engine, the sector has lagging behind due to some perennial obstacle in the state. Proper understanding of the value addition to this sector and awareness and implementation of innovation along with institutional credit facility is mass important criteria for growing of this sector in the state. In this paper attempt has been made to analyze the overall performance of livestock sector in Assam based on the secondary data.