Livestock is an integral and important component of Nepalese farming system. Agriculture contributes
about 33% to the total gross domestic production (GDP) whereas livestock contributes about 35% of the
total agricultural gross domestic production, which has been envisaged to increase at 45% by 2015. In
relation to the amount of land per person, the livestock population in Nepal is one of the highest in Asia.
However, the productivity of livestock is very low. The livestock production system in Nepal is
characterized with harsh agro-climatic conditions, geographic isolation, small holding, degrading soils
and diverse socio-economic structures. Nevertheless, livestock products are the important sources of
supplementing income for more than 80% of the total farming population of the country.
A survey carried out from June to August 2006 to investigate socio-economic and biophysical conditions
for sustainable livestock management in Nepal revealed that the herd-size was significantly correlated
with the land-size of the household. Milk selling by women was significantly correlated with the household
head’s education. Year-round forage production was also significantly correlated with the land-size. In addition
to these socio-economic characteristics, biophysical conditions, for example, adoption of the livestock
species across different agro-climatic zones, forage digestion ability, existence in low plane of nutritional
regime, cold tolerance and relatively smaller body size, were found to be significantly correlated to
sustainable livestock management in Nepal. Hence, along with the biophysical characteristics, education,
land size and women involvement in milk selling are found to be the most important socio-economic
determinants for sustainable livestock management and its improvement in Nepal.