Livestock as Leveler in Indian Agriculture

In our country, the distribution of livestock is more equitable than that of land. We take example of the marginal farmers here. A marginal farmer is one who holds less than 1 hectare of land. In our country, marginal farmers control around one fourth of the land, but they also rear more than half of cows and buffaloes. These livestock serves as insurance against vagaries of nature to which Indian farming is always subject to. Further, bovine economy has also been a greater poverty alleviating factor in comparison to the farming in rural parts of several states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Since distribution of livestock wealth is more egalitarian, compared to land; it should be an important component in the poverty alleviation programmes of the government.