International Journal of Livestock Research ISSN 2277-1964 ONLINE Vol 5(6) June’15 Hosted@www.ijlr.org DOI 10.5455/ijlr.20150523095208 Page34 Dynamics of Livestock Sector and Challenges of Water Resource in India Nizamuddin Khan and Ashish Kumar Parashari Dept. of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, INDIA *Corresponding author: amu.ashish@gmail.com Rec. Date: Apr 04, 2015 02:55 Accept Date: May 23, 2015 09:52 Published Online: June 10, 2015 DOI 10.5455/ijlr.20150523095208 Abstract Livestock husbandry is an integral part of life of people in the agrarian economies. Livestock sector contributes significantly in the agricultural GDP of India. A large section of rural population in India is directly or indirectly related with livestock sector for various reasons. Moreover, livestock is a major source of employment generation, food and nutrients, draught power, manure for agricultural use etc. Present study elaborates the various aspects of growth of livestock and its impact on water resources in India. The growth of livestock during 1992 to 2007 and spatial distribution has been analyzed and resulting water demand in the country for various species of livestock has been calculated on the basis of per day consumption of water in all the states of India. Livestock in India has grown with a tune of 11.92 percent during 1992-2007 while the water demand for livestock is 24483.64 cubic metres per day in the country. The study has indicated that increase in number of livestock would exert an enormous pressure on water resources of country and responsible for decrease in water availability for the people in future.The present work would be very much helpful to agricultural planners in decision making process for diversification of agriculture and keeping in mind the demand of water for livestock as well as crops in India. The study will also attract the multinational companies to invest in commercial livestock farming in different agro climatic conditions. Key words: Agrarian economies, agricultural GDP, employment generation, spatial distribution, water availability Introduction Livestock husbandry is an integral part of agriculture in world. It is practiced in diverse forms in response to distinct socio economic and agronomic conditions of concerned area and people. Millions of population is involved in multi facet operations of this sector of economy. Nomadic herding, livestock ranching, dairy farming, Poultry farming, Swine farming and meat ruminant farming absorbed about 25 percent workforce in world. The demand of livestock derived products have been steadily increasing especially in developing counties like India during last decades on account of change in food habits, increasing disposable income, expansion in urban population and rising up health consciousness among young population. It is estimated that the demand for milk and meat will increase many fold till 2020. Developing countries as compared to developed nations as the latter achieved saturation level of consumption of livestock derived products earlier (Delgado, C.M et al. 1999).