Meat production registers 9% growth in 2016-2017

India’s meat production registered an increase of nearly 9% in the 2016-17 monsoon over the previous year with BJP-ruled Maharashtra ranks among the top five states.

According to the government data released on Thursday, total meat production increased to 2.43 million tonnes between July-October 2016-17, as against 2.24 million tones for the same period during 2015-16, registering a growth of 8.74%.

The Centre had set a target of 7.37 million tonnes of meat production for 2016-17, of which, 63.28% has been achieved in the past eight months.

“Nearly 47.86% meat production is contributed by poultry and 20.11% is from buffaloes,” an agriculture ministry statement said.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list of highest meat producing states, followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Interestingly, Maharashtra, which witnessed protests by the ruling BJP over consumption of cow and buffalo meat recently.

The findings are part of the Integrated Sample Survey of major livestock products conducted by the government every year.

According to the survey, the total egg production is estimated to be 55.11 billion till now, of which 29.09 billion eggs were produced during the monsoon. The year’s target is 87.05 billion.

The largest producers of eggs are commercial poultry farms with nearly 75.75% of the total produce and the remaining comes from household/ backyard poultry.

The top five egg producing states during the rainy season were Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Haryana.

The survey indicated that milk production during the period saw 4.38% growth and was pegged at 54.50 million tonnes from 52.21 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

The average milk yield of exotic and crossbred cows is estimated to be 10.85 kg and 7.40 kg per animal per day, respectively. In case of indigenous cows and nondescript cows, it is 3.56 kg and 2.29 kg per animal per day.

Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh were the largest milk producers during the monsoon.

Production of wool witnessed a marginal decline of 2.16% during the period under review. The total wool production was 5.78 million kg as against 5.91 million kg last year.

Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir are the key producers of wool.