Demographic studies on sheep production systems in north coastal zone of Andhra Pradesh

A survey was conducted to analyze the sheep production systems in North coastal zone of Andhra Pradesh covering 960 sheep farmers from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts using stratified random sampling techniques. The socio-economic status of sheep farmers revealed that agriculture (69.06%) was main the occupation supported by animal husbandry (23.23%). Hindus (95.33%) were the main religious group followed by Christians (4.67%) and most of them belonged to backward community (75.31%), followed by scheduled castes (8.96%) other castes (8.65%) and scheduled tribes (7.08%). Among the total farmers, 31.14% reared cattle, goat and chicken along with sheep flocks whereas 9.37% reared sheep alone. Majority (71.04%) of the farmers had annual income of Rs.18781.92. The housing practices revealed that sheep were provided penning only during night time (88.75%) and the major housing pattern was penning (79.37%) in kutcha houses (76.14%). The manure was used for own farms (55.72%) whereas 13.95% had sold the manure. Almost half of the farmers (47.39%) dewormed sheep at 6 months interval. The major constraints perceived by the sheep farmers were in the order of disease outbreaks followed by shrinkage of grazing lands. The major factors that favored sheep farming were in the order of revenue from penning, traditional occupation, demand for manure, meat and easy marketability.