Socio-Economic survey of sheep farmers in western Rajasthan

The socio-economic status of migratory sheep farmers was assessed using a structured survey schedule containing aspects on location, family details, land holding, livestock holding, migration pattern, grazing protocol, labor input in livestock rearing and productive/reproductive efficiency of the flocks. 84.70% of respondents indicated sheep farming as main occupation of which 81.18% were marginal farmers with average land holding of 5.7 ha/family. Among the respondents 96.5% were Hindus, in that 88.2% belonged to OBC and 11.8% to SC community and among OBC 95.8% were Gujar and 4.2% Jat. The average family size of sheep farmers was 6.68 of which 3.06 were males and 3.62 female. Among the males 1.21, 0.84 and 1.01 and among female 1.91, 0.52 and 1.19 heads belonged to adult, 12–18 years of age and <12 years of age category, respectively. The literacy rate in male and female was 52 and 13 per cent, respectively. The average livestock holding of sheep, goat, cattle, buffalo, camel and donkey/family was 93.7, 14.3, 2.3, 1.9, 1.2 and 1.7 heads, respectively and the sheep flock composition was 1.3 ram, 62.0 ewe and 10.9 male and 19.5 female lambs. 94.12% surveyed sheep farmers resorted to annual migration while 5.88% were sedentary flock owners and among the migrating flock, 68.75% resorted to inter state while 31.25% opted for short distance migration, within the state. The major problems faced by sheep farmers en route migration were restrictive rules and regulation (66.25%), resistance by local farmers (63.75%), lack of graded breeding rams (80.00%), lack of veterinary health cover (95.00%) and lack of proper marketing for animal produce (53.75%). During migration the sheep farmers mostly used community rangeland (92.94%), cropped land after harvesting of standing crops (70.59%) and forest land (97.65%) for grazing sheep while road side grazing (27.06%) and other area grazing (4.71%) was used to some extent. The farmers on an average employed 6.9, 7.8 and 8.0 hrs grazing period/day during rainy, winter and summer season, respectively. The labor charges for grazing and management of the sheep ranged from Rs.45 to 150/animal/year with average of Rs.82.80/animal/year. The shrinkage of grazing area was mainly due to encroachment by villagers, construction of building, government allotments and construction of water harvesting structure in the village. The sheep farmers harvested on average three lamb crops in two year. Moreover the cost of health coverage in the migrating flocks ranged from Rs.12–15/sheep/year.