Inaugurating a national seminar on the surveys done by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), he said the reducing cattle population was found in a survey conducted by the organisation.

Vasan said the stock of milking cattle in rural India showed slight fall of about two million from its earlier level of 30 million, but the buffalo population continued to grow from 69 million to 76 million.

The survey revealed that about 63 per cent of the aggregate household debt as on June 30, 2002 belonged to the rural households and about 40 per cent of farmers, given a chance, would like to change their profession, he said.

Source: Chennaionline.com