6,486 commercial livestock farms are across the country: CBS survey

Kathmandu, Dec. 4

Nepal has 6,486 commercial livestock farms that rear cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, pigs for milk, meat and reproduction, concluded the Commercial Livestock Integrated Survey – 2021 conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

It showed that goat farming tops the list in the commercial livestock farms in the country.

"Of the total 6,486 farms counted on the day of enumeration, goat/mountain goat farms stand as the largest farm type with 2,295 (35%) followed by cow farms with 1,233 (19%) and buffalo farm (14%)," read the report of the survey.

It also found that the distribution of farms showed a significant disparity among the provinces as well. Province 1 and Gandaki have close to one fifth of all estimated farms while Karnali and Lumbini stand on the second rank sharing about 17 % of the total farms. Madhes falls on the lowest rank with just about 6 % of the animal farms.

The first of its kind national survey which aimed to reveal the latest status of Nepal's commercial livestock sector excluding poultry was conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) and CBS in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). It was conducted in the last Fiscal Year 2021/22.

The CBS said that the survey has been able to provide insight on livestock sector's performance which include key measures on animal population characteristics and associated socioeconomic as well as environmental variables of interest.

The commercial livestock farms had 395,142 cattle during the survey time.

This survey covers each livestock farms that meet given minimum number of livestock population as per the different geographical locations. For example, to be a commercial entity, a farm in the  hills and Terai should have 10 cows, eight buffaloes and 50 goats/mountain goats while the number is eight, five and 50 respectively for the mountain region. It has also included hybrid farms that kept buffaloes/cows or goats/mountain goats or sheep.

Likewise, there are also differences in livestock population among type of the animal raised. Following the same rank as that of the number of farms, goat\mountain goat stands on the highest position close to 47 per cent of total animals while buffalo falls on the lowest position close to 9 per cent. Of the total animal population estimated at 388,656, sheep has the second largest size at about 23 per cent.

Improved breed category both in cattle and buffalo are reported to be significantly dominating as estimated on the day of enumeration, read the report.

"Four out of the five cows and buffaloes are of the improved variety out of the total estimated cows and buffaloes. This is a good sign for improved productivity of these animal categories. Of the total goats estimated, 45 per cent are of the improved breed category and it shows how the goat development programmes are in the country," it read.

Similarly, nearly 92 per cent of the improved pig population across the country can be regarded as another sign of livestock development in Nepal, according to the CBS.

The survey has estimated milking animal population by broad category and amount of milk production by breed. There are 26,221 milking animals on the day of enumeration of which cow dominates (59%) against buffalo.

Estimated total milk production over the average lactation period comes to be 69,034,548 liters. Milk production per cow per day supersedes that of buffalo. Average milk production per day for cow is 10 liter while it is 8 for buffalo. Holstein or Holstein crossbreed have highest milking rate compared to the Jersey or Jersey cross breed and others. Murrah has the highest milk production than other buffalo breeds.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 December 2022.