India is an agriculture-intensive country. Moreover, in India, many people rely on it to sustain their livelihood and treat it as an earning opportunity. Today, people have so many farming types to sustain their living; one such underlooked but promising farming type is pastoral farming or cultivation.
Let’s dive into the what is pastoral farming, its types and major benefits:
What is Pastoral Farming in Agriculture?
Pastoral farming is a traditional practice of raising and rearing livestock. It contrasts with arable farming. In some areas, farmers often refer to it as ranching. This kind of farming includes:-
- Cattle raising
- Dairy farming
- Sheep breeding to obtain wool
This kind of farming can be started at less cost, and you will earn major income as an outcome.
Also Read: What is Subsistence Farming in India? Types & Characteristics!
2 Types of Pastoral Farming in India
Pastoral cultivation has been generally classified into two categories:-
1. Traditional Pastoral Farming
Earlier pastoral farming was done to raise sheep to extract dairy and wool products for personal sustenance or commercial trading. This was referred to as traditional pastoral farming.
2. Modern Pastoral Farming
Modern Pastoral agriculture practice involves the rearing and breeding of animals like cattle, sheep, goats and other herds. Furthermore, that too with advanced farm mechanisation tools, techniques and processes.
Now we know what types of pastoral farming are there, let’s discuss some pastoral farming advantages.
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Benefits of Practicing Pastoral Farming
Here are reasons why commercial practising pastoral farming is proven beneficial for both farmers and the agricultural landscape.
- This farming type helps in reusing or recycling animal waste.
- It helps in fulfilling food and dairy needs.
- It helps fulfil the demands of local markets for meat and dairy products.
- The waste produced by animals is used to provide nutrition to the crops for better yield.
- If we adopt pastoral agriculture, we can significantly reduce the need to import goods.
- The output or products produced from this farming method are full of nutrients and provide better health.
- It is a helpful alternative to obtaining a profitable income with minimal cost and resources.
In nomadic terms, the process is also called Pastoralism. Pastoralism is the nomadic herding process for animals in large ratios across Greenlands to procure their by-products.
Pastoral Farming – Important Factors to Take a Note of!
- For pastoral farming, factors like land topography, soil, land size, sun exposure, and rainfall frequency matter.
- Selecting soil is important as it helps prepare fertile grazing land and quality crops for large animal herds.
- Other than that, understanding climatic conditions is important. As it further helps understand whether the cattle or animal can survive in a given temperature or not.
Furthermore, pastoral farming is classified into the following 2 categories:
1. Intensive Pastoral Farming
This Pastoral farming system requires high investment and fewer fields. Moreover, high investment required to acquire advanced machines for supporting the quality breeding of animals.
2. Extensive Pastoral Farming
This method is the complete opposite of intensive pastoral farming. So, here the investment tends to be less. However, in this kind, the crop area is huge.
Generally, farmers use both the above types or techniques to suit their land and budget allocation.
Shortcomings of Pastoral Farming – What’s Stopping it from Scaling?
Despite being advantageous, this farming technique has still some shortcomings that need conscious reviewing and addressing:
- You would require large crops or fields to pursue this farming kind.
- This might require the trading of farm animals at some point. As some farmers emotionally attached to their farm animals, they might not do this practice.
- Additionally, this practice will invite overgrazing, which might result in soil erosion.
- Farmers will be entitled to take full responsibility for their farm animals. Moreover, they would be required to take care of them even when they fall sick.
- Also, farmers would require constant access to water and food amenities to feed the breeding livestock.
- Awareness about pastoral farming is still very less. Farmers are little aware of how with minimal cost outlay they can set up a profitable farming practice.
The advantages and disadvantages of pastoral farming go hand in hand. Though this method has several shortcomings it doesn’t mean they cannot be addressed or resolved.
To increase awareness, farmers should get thorough training from farmer development centres around this farming practice. Moreover, they should get enough information on how much cost, what area size and other factors they need to take into account for starting their pastoral farming practice.
Top Agricultural Questions & Answers You Must Know!
Conclusion!
Pastoral Cultivation is a great practice for rearing, breeding and managing livestock. In addition, It’s hugely beneficial as it requires less setup investment and has huge profit figures in the end. So the practice is easy to start, provided you need a well-maintained field, quality agro-resources to feed the farm animals, and a range of livestock to rear.
Following this, ensure to get modern farm mechanisation solutions like advanced 4d tractors and farming implement to cultivate the field.
Frequently Asked Questions on Pastoral Farming
Que. What is pastoral farming in India?
Ans. Pastoral farming is a kind of animal husbandry that deals with the rearing & management of animal livestock such as goats, chickens, sheep, camels, yaks, bovine, etc.
Que. Difference between arable and pastoral farming.
Ans. Simple farming involves growing & harvesting crops. Whereas pastoral farming deals with the rearing and breeding of livestock. Moreover, it involves dairy farming, cattle raising, and sheep breeding to extract the finest wool.
Que. What are the types of pastoral farming?
Ans. Pastoral farming can be of two types traditional and modern pastoral farming.
Que. What are the products of pastoral farming?
Ans. Pastoral farming helps individuals extract major by-products like dairy products, wool, and other by-products that are viable for commercial trade.
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