Among the traditional sources of livelihood, animal rearing is one and practiced by almost all rural households of district. It is an alternate practice that has been followed by the rural households to supplement the family income.
Vital ingredients of daily diet like milk, milk products i.e. cheese, curd, butter, ghee are produced in the rural households. Almost all rural households keep cattle in their house as it is a source of different daily use components like dung for cooking fuel, manure etc. In a costal district like Balasore, cattle dung is the main source of cooking fuel as well as a source of organic manure. ().
Majority of the farmers are either marginal (67.98%) or small (22.11%) with less than 2 ha of land (Census 2011). These two categories of farmers operate only 65% of total holdings. Percentage of large and medium farmers (>4 ha) are very less in the district in comparison to state averages.
Average land holding size of the farmers is also very less, .i.e.
0.93 ha as against 1.25 ha in the Orissa state. This is because of high population density in the district.
