The livestock sector provides promising opportunities and is assumed to bring desired growth in farmers' income, especially in less and poor endowed regions. The present study has delineated the entire country into four zones, viz. Least Performing Zone (LPZ), Average Performing Zone (APZ), Good Performing Zone (GPZ) and Well Performing Zone (WPZ) based on district level livestock income for effective policy formulation and implementation. The drivers of livestock income were identified through multiple regression framework for regional interventions. Crossbred adoption and crossbred milk yield with elasticity of 0.09 and 0.42, respectively, are found to significantly contribute to enhancing livestock income. Thus, crossbreeding should be geared up especially in LPZ as an income enhancement strategy. The buffalo farming has emerged as an important contributor in raising farmers' income through meat production. The productivity enhancement strategy for buffaloes along with indigenous cattle will be a win-win situation as these animals are well adapted to tropical climate of the country. Further, special attention is required for strengthening marketing network through cooperatives for better procurement and prices with utmost priority in LPZ, as only 12 per cent of milk produced is sold to the cooperatives. The state governments in conjunction with all stakeholders, including research institutions and private players have to play a catalytic role in mainstreaming the livestock development, especially in the identified disadvantageous regions/zone as an entry point for the socioeconomic upliftment of the region as well as the nation as a whole.
Since regional associations and free trade are perceived to be welfare-enhancing, this paper has examined the structure and flow of trade among SAARC economies. The study has revealed that India alone accounts for 74 per cent of the agricultural exports from the region and 55 per cent of the agricultural imports of the region. Cotton, cereals, fish & crustaceans, and tea & beverages have emerged as the most exported commodities accounting for more than 50 per cent share of exports from SAARC countries to the world. Animal or vegetable fat, cotton and rubber are the most imported commodities by SAARC. India enjoys comparative advantage in exports of cotton, cereals, fish and tea, while Pakistan has a greater comparative advantage in export of cotton and cereals. A unidirectional causality has been observed between gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural exports, where agricultural exports Granger cause GDP and not vice versa. A one-way causal relationship has also been observed between agricultural GDP and agricultural exports. This indicates that growth in agricultural exports has contributed to the overall and agricultural growth in India. The study has suggested that Indian trade policy environment needs to be made more favourable for attracting foreign buyers and making Indian exports competitive globally.
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