104 Sources of risks in livestock production and their management strategies in฀ northern India SUBHASH CHAND 1 , PREM NARAYAN 2 and KHYALI R CHAUDHARY 3 ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012 India Received: 12 October 2017; Accepted: 14 December 2017 ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to analyze the opinion on risks sources and their management strategies in livestock enterprises. Data collected through a field survey conducted in Haryana and Rajasthan in 2015–16 from 913 livestock farmers on structured schedule forms the basis of this paper. Rajasthan depicts dry and harsh tract and Haryana with assured irrigated, and both contribute significant share in milk production. The socio-economic and demographic factors did not vary significantly except milk yield, experience in dairy, annual income for different categories of farmers. Our observation indicated that livestock owner faced risks from different sources, viz. breeding, animal health, marketing, institutional and policy related. Further risk management strategies including better breed, animal health checkup, seeking advice of veterinary expert, friend consultations, forward selling contracts, maintenance of farm inventory, accessibility to different financial, extension and government institutions etc. were adopted to cope up with risks in livestock enterprise. The determinants of source of risks were significantly influenced by a number of socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The herd size had negative relation with extent of various risks. Rajasthan farmers face higher degree of risk than Haryana. Higher education status also indicated that the lover risks and other factors like knowledge level and milk yield indicated positive influence of source of risks means higher knowledge level and yield, reduce the risks. The policy makers and researchers should see the solutions and options to minimize the source of risks in livestock production and management. Key words: India, Livestock farming, Perception, Risk management strategies, Source of risks Livestock production in smallholder production systems is vulnerable to a number of biotic and abiotic stresses, such as frequent occurrence of diseases and inadequate supplies of feed and nutrients that restrict realization of the production potential of animals. In addition, climate is emerging as a big threat to the sustainability of livestock production system. Climate change will affect livestock production through competition for natural resources, quantity and quality of feeds, livestock diseases, heat stress and biodiversity loss while the demand for livestock products is expected to increase by 100% by mid of the 21st century (Garnett 2009).These affect not only livelihood only of the livestock producers but also of all the stakeholders on livestock value chain, especially consumers. Reduction in supply raises product prices forcing consumers either to pay more or consume less. The consumption of disease-infected animals may adversely affect human health. Likewise, other stakeholders on the value chains especially those engaged in product marketing also face a squeeze in their incomes. In India, livestock besides being an important source of food, make significant contribution (>25%) to agricultural gross domestic product. Nonetheless, the importance of livestock goes beyond its food and income contribution. The distribution of livestock is more egalitarian than arable land, and at similar rate of growth, the livestock income has a larger effect on poverty reduction that does the growth in crop income (Birthal and Negi 2012). Livestock production in India is largely in the domain of women, and thus helps empower rural women (Jaya and Birthal 2015). Birthal and Negi (2012) observed livestock income less susceptible to weather shocks compared to crop income, and thus sustains agricultural growth and smoothened household consumption. Livestock in India, however, are low-yielding and livestock producers face several risks or constraints related to animal health, nutrition and breeding in improving livestock productivity. The empirical evidence on the production losses in livestock is scarce and anecdotal. In their seminal work, Birthal and Jha (2008) estimated that more than 26% of the milk production in India was lost due to these constraints, and half of these was due to insufficient availability of feed and fodder, and the rest were shared by diseases (21%), breeding problems (18%) and inappropriate management (11%). Their study also provides Present address: 1 Principal Scientist (s.chand@icar.gov.in), Agricultural Economics; 2 Chief Technical Officer (prem.narayan @icar.gov.in), 3 Assistant Chief Technical Officer (kr.chaudhary @icar.gov.in). Indian฀Journal฀of฀Animal฀Sciences฀88฀(5):฀612–619,฀May฀2018/Article https://doi.org/10.56093/ijans.v88i5.80012