Buffalo as a social animal for humanity

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Livestock is one of the important socio-economic resources for alleviation of poverty and raising the standard of living of teeming millions in the rural areas. Buffalo rearing jibes well in the social agenda because it is a triple purpose animal providing milk, meat and draught. Food security along with employment and shelter is the major concern of all the countries of the world. It is the guarantee to political stability and economic well being of the people of Asia, where food insecurity is one of the major causes of poverty. The last green revolution made substantial contribution towards improvement of livelihood of the poor. However, with the rising population and decline in per capita agricultural land available, it is predicted that the crop production alone will no longer be able to provide sufficient livelihood opportunities to the rural poor. Therefore, livestock offers immense potential for livelihood. In most of the Asian countries, livestock accounts for about 25% to the agricultural gross domestic products. The importance of buffalo in South Asia, can be gauged by the fact that it is increasing faster than cattle, although in some East and Southeast Asian countries buffalo population has declined rapidly, which is a matter of concern. The primary importance of buffalo is more for milk in South Asia and, secondarily for meat production. Therefore, its role for food security in South Asia is well established. The price of buffalo meat is much cheaper than chevon, mutton, pork and poultry and is therefore a cheaper source of protein to the weaker section of the society. Because of its competitive prices and better blending characteristic it forms a major ingredient in corn beef, hotdogs and other value added products. The meat from buffalo is mostly produced when they are retired from their productive life. Paradoxically, even the males are also not basically reared for meat production by the farmers and are allowed to die to save the milk from the dam for disposal in the market. In India, every year, about 8 million such male calves are removed from the buffalo production system due to intentional killing by the farmers to save dam’s milk due to non remunerative cost of raising male animals, thus incurring a loss of about US $ 15 million per annum. These calves could otherwise be salvaged for meat production, which will not only improve the economic condition of the farmers but would also provide quality meat for domestic consumption at competitive prices and also for export market. Raising these male calves will generate additional employment.