Draught animal power is a farm power resource that is available consistently at a low cost in most developing countries including India. However, the overall draught cattle population had shown a severe declining trend in India. Severity of negative growth rate in work animal population in the Tamil Nadu State was high compared to the national figures, which warrants their conservation. With this background, this book focused on draught cattle valuation at different market points, identification of factors influencing the valuation of draught cattle, development of index for valuation of draught cattle and arriving at co-variate and idiosyncratic risks associated with draught cattle maintenance. The readers of this book can gain an insight on the scenario of draught cattle market and breed-wise valuation of draught cattle that will help in assessing the price of the draught cattle. Also it focused on identification of the co-variate and idio-syncratic risks associated with draught cattle maintenance that will help academicians and veterinary practitioners to implement proper risk aversion techniques for the animal owners, thereby improving the sustainability of their livelihood.

Prof.N.K Sudeep Kumar is working as Professor in Veterinary University, Chennai, India. He has specialised in Animal Husbandry Extension. The area of interest being livelihood studies, ICT and rural development. He has guided six post-graduates and three doctorate. As a teacher in Extension, he has actively taught under-graduates for 20 years.