In India, of the 72% of the rural population,57% of the households (over 100 million) keep livestock as their only or important source of livelihood. Many of these (32%) small-scale livestock keepers have no access to land and depend on livestock as the only source of livelihood and the number of rural landless households is likely to increase due to the further subdivision of land holdings.

Livestock are thus becoming an increasingly important source of income for smallholders and the landless. Women in particular depend on livestock. That is 76% of total workers engaged in livestock are women compared with 37% in cropping agriculture.

Read more… (Year book Agriculture (India) )