Livestock production scenario The livestock consisting 25.8 million bovines, 17.3 million caprines and ovines and 135.1 million of poultry (BBS, 2012) contributes about US$ 2309.0 million as animal farming GDP sharing 18.6, 56.3, 19.8, 2.68 and 2.64%, respectively by dairy, meat, egg, hides and skin and others (BBS, 2011). It supported per capita intake of 14.3 kg milk, 8.90 kg meat and 115 eggs in 2011 (BBS 2012). The supply of milk and meat is only 15 to 20% of their annual requirement, and they are far below than that of the average of the developing countries (55.0 kg and 32.0 kg, respectively, Thornton 2010). The per capita annual egg consumption of the country in 2011 was 115 (BBS 2012) and the number is close to the average consumption of the developing countries (120 no). Livestock is an asset of the rural poor, who suffers most from social disparity in nutrition and income. About 73.8, 82.5 and 82.7% of the total bovines, caprines and ovines and poultry, respectively are kept by the landless and small farmers (Agri Census 2008), and their annual population growth was 3.98%, 3.1% and 54.8%, respectively during the period of the Agricultural and livestock Census 1983/84 to Agriculture Census 2008. The average share of the same animals by the medium and large farmers, on the other hand, was 26.2, 17.5 and 17.3%, respectively, (Agri Census 2008). The average annual population growth of the former two groups of ruminants was -1.98 and -2.0%, respectively and that of the poultry was 15.0%. Thus, the key performance indicator of livestock production being an asset of the rural poor is not only food production, but raising rural income, women employment and poverty alleviation are also their significant contribution to socioeconomic development. Farmers having an average two milking cows in an average herd of 4.43 annually spend about US$ 1000.0 out of his total annual income of US$ 1520.0 including US$825.0 from milk and animal sales, and daily make 0.85 litres milk available to his/her family or rear a flock of 250 layers earn annually US$ 1170.0 or fatten a bull may earn US$ 60.0 to 325.0 depending on its procurement price.
Genotypic share and trend in productivity The relative importance of cattle in dairy is about 98% and buffalo milk shares only 2% (The country report on FAnGR 2005). Fowl and ducks share 76% and 24% of the total egg production, and the two genotypes share 54% of the total meat produced in the country. Bovines share 40% of the total red meat production and the rest 6% is shared by chevon and mutton. During the period of 1996 to 2011 liquid milk production increased from 1552.0x103 to 1868x103 tons and around 13% liquid milk equivalent powder milk is imported every year, and the import is rising during the last decade. Inclusion of quality genes over the past decades through crossbreeding of cattle annually increased liquid milk production at the rate of only 1.17%. Similarly, bovine meat production increased from 325x103 to 413x103 tons and had a growth of 1.36% in the same period (BBS 2011). The production of chevon and mutton remains almost constant. Nevertheless, commercial poultry fed with mixed feed manufactured in local mills using mostly imported feed ingredients except a part of cereal maize, resulted in 29.1% growth of egg (2776 to 17177 million) and 26.0% growth of poultry meat (138.6x103 to 580.4x103 tons, respectively (BBS 2011). However, the growing population has continuously been influencing the per capita availability of animal products. HIES (2010) shows that the daily per capita bovine meat consumption was 8.30g in 2000 and 6.84g in 2010, that of caprine and ovine meat was 0.49g and 0.60g, respectively, and of poultry meat was 4.50g and 11.2 g, respectively. When per capita average bovine number is gradually decreasing, the market price of bovine meat is increasing during the period (US$ 1.29/kg in 2001 to US$ 2.87/kg in 2011). The present beef price in the local market has already exceeded the price of some beef exporting country in the world. The growing demand and price escalation of beef will definitely welcome a situation, like that of milk import. Import of meat and milk may be a consolation for affluent peoples of the society that deprives livelihood opportunity of the rural poor. Production and marketing of a ton of liquid milk may support livelihood of at least 30 rural farm families in the country (Huque 2005). Thus, any strategic development of dairy and meat will definitely increase not only products but also help alleviation of income and nutrition disparity of the country. The average yield of bovine carcass weight in the country is only 72 Kg/head. An advancement of about only 2.85% was observed during the period of 2000 to 2006 (Huque and Amanullah 2006), and replenishing of depleted cattle of low plane of nutrition or of draft use through fattening help boosting the carcass yield.