Impact of infrastructure and public investment on development of livestock sector in Jammu & Kashmir-India

Considering the crucial role of institutional support in the livestock growth, an attempt was made to analyze the development of livestock sector in relationship with public investment in livestock sector and selected infrastructure variables in J&K. Livestock sector has shown a significant growth and has increasingly contributed to the state gross domestic product over the years. Government has been pro-active with towards the development of livestock sector with various schemes; however, the public investment has experienced a deceleration and its intensity has reduced over the years. The stock of animal health institutions has increased though their density has remained almost stagnant. Livestock productivity model was development to quantify the impact of public sector investment, infrastructure and other variables on livestock productivity. The estimates of the model revealed that public investment in livestock sector and infrastructure variables including animal health infrastructure have significant contribution in the growth of livestock productivity. The study concluded with an emphasized upon the creation of necessary infrastructure and the reversal of the declining trend of investment to this sector among other policy options suggested for the sustained growthof livestock inthe territory.