Assessing Potential Contribution of Livestock Farming on Poverty Alleviation in the Rain-fed Areas of Punjab

This study was an effort to evidence the poverty alleviation in rain-fed areas of Punjab with the help of livestock. For this purpose survey research design was used and data was collected with the help of an interview schedule from randomly selected 200 samples from two purposively selected districts Chakwal and Rawalpindi. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Data depicts that the maximum number of respondents were belonging to the age category of above 40 years of age and 70 respondents were recorded as illiterate. There were 75% of respondents (148) who claimed that there are multiple major income sources. The respondents who had a low level of poverty and a high level of poverty were the same in the study area. Among respondents, 25% said that they don’t have easy access to the local livestock market for selling animals and their products. Moreover, according to the livestock farmers cow has proven the least productive species in the study area. There is an ignorable trend of spending on mechanized livestock management/handling, paid extension services, and loan repayments. Almost 81% of the livestock farmers said that they only keep the health record of their livestock head. Above 50% of the farmers said that are unable to afford the veterinary services available. In the case of LDDD, LED and DVS, farmers said that they have assisted us. But the farmer organization and NGOs have not contributed a little in this regard. There should be pro-poor policies and reforms in helping the development practitioners for institutional reforms to support vulnerable livestock farmers.