Buffalo Husbandry for Sustainable Development of Small Farmers in India and other Developing Countries

Aim of this paper is to explore the potential of buffalo husbandry for providing sustainable livelihood to small farmers in the developing countries. The world population of 200 million buffaloes has been distributed over 40 countries, but 97 percent population is confined to Asia and India with 109 million buffaloes hosting 57 percent of the total population. These include swamp buffaloes, which are used for meat and draught purposes and river buffaloes which are mainly maintained for milk production. Buffalo is hardier than cattle because of its ability to digest coarse fibre but susceptible to high temperature. India is the highest buffalo milk producer in the world with over 20 breeds of river buffaloes. Among these, Murrah and Jaffarabadi are popular because of high milk yield. Introduction of breeding services using frozen semen enabled small farmers owning nondescript buffaloes, to produce superior progeny and enhance the productivity of buffaloes. With genetic improvement, health care, proper feeding and establishment of marketing network, it should be possible to enhance the milk and meat production of buffaloes in the future. There is also scope to promote buffalo husbandry for milk production in other developing countries.