Certified Livestock Advisor: An Institutional Innovation for Livestock Development

An NSSO survey has revealed that only 5.1 per cent of the farmer households in India are able to access any information on animal husbandry as against 40.4 per cent on crop farming. Due to the shortage of manpower at the field level, livestock extension system is not able to transfer innovative technologies to the needy farmers. In addition, the present livestock extension services are primarily focused on ‘health-related services’, while livestock education receives tertiary importance. Therefore, to meet the challenges in livestock extension sector, there is the need of creating more manpower like ‘Para-vets’ through offering diploma programmes and recognizing them as a ‘certified livestock advisor’. The study is focused on developing a framework for creating an exclusive group of extension workers called ‘Certified Livestock Advisors’ with appropriate skills and knowledge to deliver the animal husbandry extension services to the needy farmers.