Livestock are important to millions of poor households across the world not only as a source of income but also as a major source of protein and supplementary nutrition, draft power, fertilizer, fuel and a store of wealth. A large number of rural households across the world own livestock, the majority of them poor. A large majority of livestock owners comprise of small and marginal farmers, who also account for a large share of poor. In general, the distribution of livestock has been found to be more equitable than that of land, leading to a much more equitable distribution of gains from livestock production. This is specially true in subsistence economies with a predominance of smallholder production system. These are also the regions/countries with large concentrations of the poor where the depth of poverty is more severe, and where absolute poverty has shown a rising trend over the last few years.
