Parliament Question: National Livestock Mission

O.I.H GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FISHERIES, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO *129 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11th FEBRUARY 2026 NATIONAL LIVESTOCK MISSION *129 SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR: Will the Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying be pleased to state: (a) the manner in which the National Livestock Mission (NLM) generates new livelihood opportunity in the arid and hilly regions of the country; (b) the objective of including camels, horses and donkeys in the NLM for the first time; (c) number of women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) beneficiaries out of the current beneficiaries; (d) the average time taken in getting Central Government grants by entrepreneurs; (e) the steps taken by the Ministry to ensure that there are no collateral-related problems while providing bank loan; and (f) measures being taken to increase livestock insurance coverage from the current level of 0.98 per cent approximately to the target level of 5 per cent? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF FISHERIES, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING (SHRI RAJIV RANJAN SINGH ALIAS LALAN SINGH) (a) to (f) A statement is laid on the Table of the HouseSTATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY OF RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 129 PART (a) TO (f) ON “NATIONAL LIVESTOCK MISSION” TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.02.2026 (a) Under the National Livestock Mission (NLM), NLM-Entrepreneurship Development Programme (NLM-EDP) is a key component which helps to generate new livelihood opportunity across the country including arid and hilly regions of the country. Under NLM-EDP, 50% capital subsidy up to Rs.50.00 lakh is provided to individuals, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Joint Liability Groups(JLGs), Farmer Cooperative Organizations (FCOs) and Section 8 companies to support establishment of rural poultry breeding farms, sheep/goat, pig, camel, horse, donkey breeding farms, as well as fodder value-addition units such as hay, silage, Total Mixed Ration (TMR), fodder blocks and fodder seed processing, grading and storage units. The entire scheme is fully end to end digitized through nlm.udyamimitra.in. (b) The Central Government included the camel, horse and donkey under the NLM scheme in order to bring these animals from unorganized farming sector into the organized sector, while promoting entrepreneurship in the fields of equine, donkey and camel rearing for sustainable breed improvement and popularizing various indigenous breeds. (c) A total of 858 projects led by women have been approved under the NLM-EDP. Out of these, 2 projects are from Joint Liability Groups and 1 project is women led Self Help Group (SHG) in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, while the remaining projects are attributed to individual women entrepreneurs. (d) The NLM-EDP subsidy disbursement process involves multiple stages of scrutiny at the State Government, banks and Central levels. The beneficiary is eligible to get the first and the second installment of subsidy when the beneficiary complies all the norms and submit requisite documents as per guidelines. (e) Under NLM-Entrepreneurship Development Programme (NLM-EDP) sanction and disbursal of loans is undertaken by banks and other lending institutions as per their internal guidelines. It is the prerogative of the bank to evaluate each loan application based on parameters such as the applicant's CIBIL score, credit worthiness, collateral security, repayment capacity and other due diligence measures. (f) The Department is implementing the Livestock Insurance activity under the Centrally Sponsored National Livestock Mission (NLM) scheme across all districts of the country. In order to increase coverage, the Department has increased subsidy benefits from 5 cattle unit to 10 cattle units per household for all animals (with 1 cattle unit equaling 10 small animals). Pigs and rabbits are limited to 5 cattle units. To improve affordability, the farmer’s share of the insurance premium has been simplified and reduced from the earlier 20 to 50% range to a uniform 15%. The remaining 85% of the premium is jointly funded by the Centre and States in a 60:40 ratio for most states and 90:10 for the Himalayan and North-Eastern regions. Over the past five years, Rs.161.07Cr. has been released under the scheme, insuring a total of 60.80 lakh animals. *****