Insights into Editorial: Just what the doctor ordered for the livestock farmer

Introduction:

The twentieth livestock census indicated that India today has a livestock population of approximately 537 million of this, 95.8% is concentrated in rural areas.

Given the fact that most of the country’s livestock is in rural and remote areas, access to veterinary services is a major challenge.

Livestock farmers are often compelled to travel far from their villages whenever their animals need treatment, a scenario that adversely impacts the longevity and the productivity of their livestock.

Livestock Sector in India:

India has 56.7% of the world’s buffaloes, 12.5% cattle, 2.4% camel (10th in camel population in the world) and 3.1% poultry (2nd largest poultry market in the world).

Livestock sector contributes 4.11% of GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP. Rapid growth of this sector can lead to more egalitarian and inclusive growth.

This is because those engaged in it are mostly small landholders and the landless farmers.

The focus now: Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs):

1. To mitigate this problem, the Government has identified a slew of measures within the revised provisions of the Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH&DC) programme.
2. A major focus has been on the ‘Establishment and Strengthening of Veterinary Services – Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs)’.
3. Until now, the Government has been providing doorstep services related to artificial insemination and vaccination for livestock.
4. The Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) will build on the doorstep delivery model, as stationary hospitals cannot be easily accessed by most livestock farmers.
5. The Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has observed that inadequate testing and treatment facilities for veterinary diseases pose a major challenge, especially now where there is a drastic rise in cases of zoonotic diseases.
6. Most villages in the country lack testing facilities, and even when samples are collected, they need to be sent to blocks/districts nearby for test results.
7. So, Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) can play a major role in plugging the gap in this regard.

Challenges faced by livestock farmers:

1. The K. Jain Committee Report has highlighted that livestock farmers face greater challenges in comparison to traditional agricultural farmers especially while accessing credit and livestock insurance.
2. Since a majority of livestock farmers have two to four animals per household, enhancing the longevity and the productivity of their livestock will go a long way towards alleviating rural poverty.
3. Presently, there are an estimated 66,000 veterinary hospitals, polyclinics, dispensaries, aid centres across the country.
4. And the LH&DC scheme seeks to plug the challenges posed by the limitations of stationary hospitals by providing veterinary diagnostic and treatment facilities at a farmer’s doorstep for ailments, diseases or any other emergency veterinary conditions by MVUs.
5. Now, a typical MVU is a four-wheeler van, with working space for one veterinarian, one para-veterinarian and a driver-cum-attendant.
6. It also has space for essentials such as equipment for diagnosis, treatment and minor surgery, other basic requirements for the treatment of animals, audio-visual aids for awareness creation and GPS tracking of vehicle.
7. The LH&DC scheme envisages one MVU for one lakh animals; however, the number of vans in use could be higher in regions with difficult terrain.

Antibiotic resistance:

1. Quacks or untrained animal health workers have been popular in rural India as they charge less for consultations and are easily accessible.
2. This has led to the inappropriate administration of antibiotics because of flawed prescriptions especially in cases of mastitis (inflammation of the udder in cattle).
3. So, problems pertaining to antimicrobial resistance occur when the animal no longer responds to a drug to which it was originally responsive.
4. Antimicrobial resistance can be caused because of factors such as high or low dosages, incorrect duration of medication, and over-prescription.
5. The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens” — a catalogue of 12 species/families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.
6. The Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) model will mitigate the issue of antimicrobial resistance and is in alignment with the ‘One Health vision’ laid down by the Global Action Plan of WHO.

Livestock Sector Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs): As a job creator:

1. The increasing adoption of Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) across the country will lead to a surge in employment opportunities for veterinarians and assistants.
2. In the lockdown/s during the novel coronavirus pandemic, we witnessed innovations by start-ups that provided video consultation sessions between livestock farmers and veterinarians, along with apps that provide detailed information to farmers on livestock health and nutrition.
3. Thus, there is a great deal of scope for innovations and intervention by the private sector in the context of animal health and Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs).
4. Further, with the growing prevalence of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, the Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) model is poised to generate higher returns on investment.
5. As approximately 70% of India’s milk supply is sourced from farmers who own less than five animals, losses due to mastitis alone amount to a milk loss of approximately 10 litres per day per farm.
6. So, for most farmers, death of or disease in livestock could mean the difference between sustenance and starvation.
7. The animal health issue is compounded by the growing presence of salesmen of drug distributors in rural communities.

Conclusion:

With increasing population, persistent rise in food inflation, unfortunate rise in farmer’s suicide and majority of the Indian population having agriculture as the primary occupation, the practice of animal husbandry is no more a choice, but a need in contemporary scenario.

Its successful, sustainable and skillful implementation will go a long way in ameliorating the socio-economic condition of lower strata of our society. 

Linking the animal husbandry with food processing industry, agriculture, researches & patents has all the possible potential to make India a nutritional power house of the world.

Animal husbandry is the imperative hope, definite desire and urgent panacea for India as well as the world.