Understanding the Indigenous Socio-Economic and Ecological Systems of Indigenous Livestock Breeds for Designing Appropriate Extension Service And Delivery System

-By Kanna K. Siripurapu, Sajal Kulkarni*, & Sabyasachi Das Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network, India. Address & Email of the Corresponding Author: Plot No-30, Near Renuka Mata Mandir,
Yashoda Nagar Phase-1, Post Jaitala, Hingana Road, Nagpur-440036. sajalskulkarni@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

.Indigenous livestock breeds represent the collective heritage of the communities they are associated with, and cannot be
conserved separately from their production systems. Such breeds will survive only when indigenous knowledge systems in which
they have been embedded also survives. Modern livestock breeding and development programmes, however, heavily rely on only
a handful of livestock breeds and genes, with narrow range of quantitative traits such as – quick growth and weight gain, etc.
Further, such development programmes and associated extension and delivery systems seldom acknowledge the role of
indigenous socio-cultural, traditional economic, and indigenous knowledge systems in improvement and conservation of
indigenous livestock breeds and germ plasm. A study was conducted in eleven districts of the Indian state of Maharashtra to
examine the relationship and embeddedness of a specific indigenous livestock breed within the socio-cultural landscape of its
custodian indigenous community. Results of the study suggest that Indigenous livestock management systems are highly evolved
and well positioned for improvement and sustainable management of both the indigenous livestock and associated genetic
resources. However, indigenous knowledge on animal breeding is often “tacit” and not necessarily an expressed knowledge.
Unlike modern science, the indigenous livestock management systems rely mostly on qualitative traits. Acknowledgement of
their role and a little encouragement through designing inclusive institutions, extension services and delivery mechanisms could
take improvement and conservation of indigenous livestock breeds/populations a long way.

Key Words: Gaolao cattle, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous livestock, and Nanda Gawli community.

INTRODUCTION

Indigenous livestock breeds have evolved over centuries within specific indigenous socio-cultural,
traditional economic, ecological, and indigenous knowledge systems (Marsoner, et al, 2018). They
represent the collective heritage of the communities they are associated with, and cannot be conserved
separately from their production systems. Such breeds will survive only when indigenous knowledge
systems in which they have been embedded also survives. Indigenous communities – especially
pastoralists – play an important role in the improvement and conservation of indigenous livestock
breeds/populations and stewarding the priceless indigenous livestock germplasm and gene pools (LPPS
and Köhler-Rollefson, 2005).

Prof. Rohit Jain

Rohit Jain is a Development Practitioner and former Faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) with more than 36 years of extensive experience working with grassroot organizations, civil society groups, and Academic Institutions. He was an Executive Director at SRUTI (Society for Rural Urban and Tribal Initiative), Delhi, and Associate Professor at TISS Tuljapur Campus. He designed and coordinated the MA/M.Sc. Program in Development Policy, Planning, and Practice. He was also an enabler for PMRDF (Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow) and Faculty Incharge for the NUSSD (National University Students Skill Development Programme). Currently, he is a member of the Indian Public Policy Network, a permanent member of the Indian Sociological Society, and a Trustee of Yuva Mitra, Sinnar Nashik, Maharashtra.

Jaideep Hardikar

Is a widely-travelled journalist, writer, researcher and educator with 27 years of experience in full-time and independent capacities with two decades of work in rural journalism; a Core Team member of the People’s Archive of Rural India, he has research interests in agrarian society with a focus on collective social enterprise, food systems, water, institutional governance, climate change, commons, and caste and gender issues. Recipient of many coveted awards and fellowships, he is an author of ‘A village awaits doomsday’ (Penguin India, 2013) and ‘Ramrao – the story of India’s farm crisis’ (Harper Collins, 2021); his journalism appears in Indian and foreign publications; he is a Visiting Faculty at the IFMR-Krea University, Sri City, AP. The CPC was born out of his and other friends’ long-thought idea; he helps the CPC’s teams with designs and social theory to augment the grassroots works. His other interests are cricket, films, traveling and wine-making.

Pravin Mote

Is a social activist, researcher and policy advocacy worker with 30 years of work in the field of forest and natural resources governance with communities across India, mainly the tribal and backward classes, policy, institution and capacity building, and networking with the communities at the forefront of deepening of the democratic governance in the country; currently based out of Nagpur, he looks after the CPC’s vertical on Community Forest Rights under the Forest Rights Act [A3] and forest governance within the Gram Sabhas; is the thematic anchor for Maharashtra RRAN on forest rights act; manages the CPC’s student internship programmes; he contributes to the policy making and implementation processes with several civil society groups, and is leading efforts to form collective social enterprises on forest-based livelihoods and products.

Gautam Nitnaware

Has a Master’s in Social Work and is the CPC’s Chief Training and Capacity Building officer, with nearly two decades of field experience with forest and agrarian communities in Vidarbha; he is currently leading the training and capacity building of the community leaders within the Forest Rights Act regime and helps the community organizations with all documentation work; he has been a former consultant to the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) in their ongoing ‘Green Collar Jobs’ project, and has deep interests in functioning of Gram Sabhas; he also leads the CPC’s field surveys and scoping studies.

Abbey T Andrews

A Master’s in Social Work with 10 years of experience in social field with multiple organisations, he heads the CPC’s programme verticals of pastoralists’ rights and access to forests, building of collectives among the agriculturists, and indigenous cattle breeders of Vidarbha; his task is to coordinate with the community resource persons that work with the CPC, synthesise the collective learnings and challenges, and generate ideas that seek to solve the functional problems of the community models; a football afficionado, he is CPC’s grassroots team accelerator. His interests are social action, research, collective enterprise, WASH, low-cost housing, child rights, and forest and agrarian communities.

Ajinkya Shahane

Has an MBA in IT Management and a bachelor’s in computer applications; handles all the IT and ITES related work for the CPC, building e-learning solutions for the CPC and community collectives; and works on the CPC’s projects to provide IT solutions; he has been a former consultant to the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) in their ongoing ‘Green Collar Jobs’ project. Ajinkya has keen interests in the social landscape of Vidarbha, particularly the ever-migrating pastoralists, human migration, and photography. He enjoys spending time in the field with different livestock rearing communities as much as he enjoys playing cricket.

Sajal Kulkurni

Is a budding biodiversity scientist, a scholar of the pastoralism in India, and researcher; he anchors the CPC’s vertical of agro-pastoralist communities and their social enterprises, in addition to building networks with many like-minded individual and institutional partners; is the convener of the Maharashtra chapter of the Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (Maha-RRAN) where he networks with the individuals and institutions working on the structural problem of rainfed family farms and allied sector livelihoods, while conceptualizing and steering the agro-pastoralists’ institutional models and governance. Sajal has several research papers to his credit; he was instrumental in characterization of the lesser-known breeds of cattle in Vidarbha region reared by pastoralist communities & their conservation . As the CEO of the CPC, he heads the projects that are at the intersection of forests, pastoralists and agriculture, and leads grassroots research from the framework of social action theory and biodiversity. He is a product of Nirman, a youth innovation programme run by the SEARCH, Gadchiroli, and has interest in poetry.