Coplementary Occupations with Farming in India

Animal husbandry is the science which deals with the scientific ways of uses, rearing, tending and breeding animals. Man uses animals for food and several other purposes. ¤Some Occupations in India with Farming as Complementary Occupation to Enhance income. 1. Sheep rearing : i) Food of sheep : A farmer does not incur any expenditure to feed the sheep. Sheep feed by themselves on the leaves of bor and babhul tree, wild shrubs, stubble and waste of jowar, groundnuts and horse gram, etc. ii) Uses of sheep : Sheep give wool, meat, skin, and also manure through their droppings. One Indian sheep gives one and half kilogram of wool and 10 to 12 kg of meat. Nitrogen, phosphorous, potash and sodium content of the sheep droppings is very high. 2. Poultry farming : i) Layer hens that give eggs and broiler hens that supply meat are reared in poultry farming. ii) White leghorn which eats less and lays more egg is widely used for poultry. Each hen consumes 125 gms of nourishing diet daily and lays 200 to 250 eggs per year. Unfertilized eggs are used for eating purpose and are known as table eggs. There is no possibility of obtaining chicks from such eggs. 3. The variety of hens such as Broiler, Rhode Island Red and White leg horn are used for obtaining meat. In a period of 8 to 10 weeks, they become 1300 to 1500 gms in weight. 3. Pearl culture : Pearls are considered to be important in making ornaments, decorative articles and in embroidery since ancient times. This great demand has resulted into pearl industry. Naturally, pearls are formed in a marine animal called oyster. With the help of new technique a sand grain is inserted inside the oyster's body. This helps in the formation of larger cultured pearls. Cultured pearls are produced by oysters, they can't be considered as artificial ones. 4. The lac industry : In offices, sealing wax or lac is used to seal envelopes. This lac is also used for making beads and costume jwellery. Red coloured lac is the secretion produced by lac insect. Lac insects live on cacti or flame of the forest tree (palas). Lac is produced only in india. 5. Sericulture : High quality of silk fibres is secreted by silk worm. Since this is a profitable business the sikworms are reared. There are two types of silkworms, one that lives and feeds on a mulberry tree and the other that lives on ain tree. The worm living on mulberry tree yields very fine variety of silk while the one living on ain tree yields tussore silk. There are 4 stages in the life cycle of silkworm : These are eggs, larva, pupa, and adult moth or imago. The larva of silk substance from its salivary glands. This substance upon exposure to air becomes a silk thread. The larva winds the silk thread around its body to form cocoon. 6. Pisciculture : Both fresh water and marine fish are consumed as food. Earlier man depended upon catching the fish available naturally in the water bodies. Now Government supplies such good quality fish seed. This seeds or larval forms of fish (spawn) are reared in water bodies and fishes are grown into desirable and marketable sizes. Rohu, Catla, Mrigal and Carp are some fresh water fish while boi, muddushi, renavi and khasi are some of the marine fish which are used for pisciculture.