A quantitative analysis of the supply and demand of veterinary manpower in India: implications for policy decisions

The objective of this study was to estimate and forecastthe supply and demand of veterinary manpower in India. Intake numbers of veterinary students and numbers of graduates and postgraduates were collected for the period 1997 to 2007. Based on the annual growth rate, the demand and supply for the years 2015 and 2020 were predicted. Between 1997 and 2002 the average annual number of veterinary graduates was 1,675. This increased to 1,707 between 2002 and 2007, with a marginal growth rate of 1.87%. With a growth rate of 1.87% in graduates, and 4.5% growth rate in the Indian livestock sector, the number of additional graduates required to fill the gap between supply and demand for the years 2015 and 2020 would be 1,710 and 2,364, respectively. The annual postgraduate requirement for education and research and development is 310. However, between 2002 and 2007 the average annual number of veterinary postgraduates was 995, with a growth rate of 5.3% when compared with the period between 1997 and 2002, indicating a more than three-fold surplus. With a 5.3% growth rate in postgraduates and 4.5% growth rate in the livestock sector, the surplus postgraduates available by 2015 and 2020 will be 1,027 and 1,316, respectively. The study revealed that India is training fewer veterinary graduates and more postgraduates than the system requires. Therefore, it is recommended that attention and resources be directed to the expansion of professional undergraduate veterinary education, while postgraduate veterinary education should be contained and consolidated.