Undivided Adilabad ranks lowest in agriculture development, but it is paradoxical that it tops the list of districts with large number of livestock per 1,000 population.
Livestock is a major component of agricultural economy in developing countries and closely linked to social and cultural lives of people.
Development Index
According to a report on Telangana districts’ Human Development Index released by the Planning Department, the most backward Kumram Bheem Asifabad district boasts of 630 large livestock for every 1,000 human beings.
This is followed by Nirmal with a livestock population of 470, Adilabad with 449, and Mancherial with 383 being placed at 11th position in the list.
Cropped area
KB Asifabad has a net cropped area of 1,27,432 hectares which is about 25% of its total geographical area of 4,878 sq km or 4,87,800 hectares and an irrigated area of just 11,755 hectares.
There are about 97,363 small land holding farmers in this district which creates a good scope for deployment of farm cattle in agriculture and dairying.
Surprisingly, a small number of cattle are used in agriculture in KB Asifabad and there is hardly any dairying activity, which is evident from the fact that all of its milk requirement is met by the Karimnagar Cooperative Dairy.
Mechanisation
Against a total geographical area of 3,845 sq. km Nirmal has 40% of it as net cropped area at 1,43,415 hectare, its irrigated part being 38,831 hectares.
However, due to mechanisation not many farmers use cattle in agriculture operations while a handful of small farmers even use bicycles to plough fields.
Dairying
The district has some dairying activity which is set to pick up as a bulk milk cooling unit opened recently. There is no dairy activity in the other two districts which had formed undivided Adilabad.
Residual Adilabad has a net cropped area of about 2 lakh hectares which comes up to 50% of its total geographical area of 4,153 sq km. Irrigation here however, is restricted to about 10,000 hectares and use of animals in farming remains dismal.
Among the four, Adilabad and KB Asifabad districts have become important hubs of trading in cattle for beef. Though sale of animals brings money to farmers, it is yet to be observed if the farmers breeding animals for meat have prospered in these districts.
