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Existing livestock
management systems
The following
discussion and data is taken from
Khan (2003). There are three principal
types of livestock production and
management systems in the Northern
Areas - pastoral, transhumance,
and sedentary. However in big cities
commercial systems at the household
level have come into existence recently
mainly to supply fresh milk to the
urban population.
Pastoral
system
According to Livestock Census (1996)
there were 15,779 large and small
ruminants under the pastoral system
in the Northern Areas. These ruminants
are reared in a nomadic system of
animal husbandry, characterized
by a continuous search for pasture
and the year round movement of cattle,
sheep and goats. Only 0.5% cattle,
0.8 % sheep and 1.47% goats out
of their total respective populations
come under the pastoral system.
The pastoralists do not own any
land or do any farming. Non-local
pastoralists pay landowners to graze
their livestock for certain times
of the year.
Transhumance
system
A vast majority of the Northern
Area ruminants (0.143 million) are
managed under the transhumance system
of animal husbandry. Majority of
the ruminants, 95% of cattle, 99%
of sheep and 97% of goats, are kept
under this production system. In
this system farmers maintain their
principal home at lower altitude,
where they live for approximately
seven months of the year. During
the winter livestock are kept indoors
and fed on maize, wheat straw and
hay. In summer the animals are taken
up into the mountains to graze first
on sub-alpine pastures and finally
on alpine pastures.
The movement up and
down from the mountains usually
takes place in stages. In late April
or early May some household members
go up to the edge of the conifer
forest where a second house is located.
Here they stay for three to four
weeks before moving to a third house
located within the forest itself.
After a further stay of three or
four weeks both livestock and people
move to the high alpine pasture,
where they remain for up to two
month. The return journey begins
with the first snowfall in late
September or early October.
Sometimes, however,
the livestock owner remains in the
village and instead hires a shepherd
during the summer months to take
his animals to the high pastures.
Each shepherd is normally responsible
for 15 to 40 cattle, 100 sheep and
200 goats or a mixture of both cattle
and sheep/goats.
Sedentary system
In this system the animals are kept
on the farm all year round. Under
this system cattle, sheep and goats
are allowed to graze on gentle slopes
and in the fields after the harvest
is over. Animals graze on community
land and fallow fields. Only five
percent of the total population
of the ruminants in the Northern
Areas are said to be stall-fed.
Maize, stover, hay and grasses are
principal sources of stall-feeding.
In some villages maize, stover,
green grass and wheat straw are
sold or exchanged among farmers.
Commercial production system
Commercial dairy farming has not
traditionally existed in the Northern
Areas. However it has recently come
into existence in a few non-farm
households which maintain some cows
and buffaloes (one to five animal)
in the urban areas to supply fresh
milk to residents and teashops of
the area.
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