Livestock & Fisheries Statistics of Nepal: Populations & Production

Three official publications anchor almost every credible statistic on Nepal's livestock sector. The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MOALD) publishes the annual 'Livestock and Fisheries Statistics of Nepal', which estimates animal populations and production of milk, meat, eggs, wool and fish for each fiscal year. MOALD's own yearbook, 'Statistical Information on Nepalese Agriculture', reproduces and extends these tables alongside crop and macroeconomic data. The third pillar is the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2078 BS (2021/22 AD), conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO, formerly the Central Bureau of Statistics), whose results were released in September 2023 (Bhadra 2080 BS).

Nepal's fiscal year runs from mid-July to mid-July (1 Shrawan to end of Ashadh), so fiscal year 2080/81 BS corresponds to 2023/24 AD. The most recent complete official dataset at the time of writing is MOALD's 'Statistical Information on Nepalese Agriculture 2080/81 (2023/24)', published in 2025, and this page uses those figures as the latest national numbers unless otherwise stated.

One methodological point is essential for anyone comparing years: from fiscal year 2079/80 (2022/23) onward, DLS re-based its estimates on the Agricultural Census 2078 count rather than the older projection series. Official cattle numbers therefore fall abruptly from 7.41 million in 2021/22 to 4.75 million in 2022/23, and buffalo from 5.13 million to 3.08 million. This is a statistical correction of long-running over-estimates, not a sudden collapse of the national herd, and any decade trend that ignores the series break will be misleading.

For fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24), MOALD estimates Nepal's livestock population as follows: goats are by far the most numerous large livestock at 15.29 million, followed by cattle at 5.20 million and buffalo at 3.31 million. Pigs number about 1.50 million, sheep 633,222 and yak/nak/chauri 71,913, while the standing fowl (chicken) population is about 56.9 million and ducks about 797,000. There are also roughly 33,850 horses, mules and donkeys, concentrated in Karnali.

Livestock keeping is extremely widespread. The Agricultural Census 2078 counted about 3.41 million livestock-raising holdings nationwide: 71.7 percent of them kept goats, 52.8 percent kept chickens, 50.2 percent kept cattle and 41.6 percent kept buffalo. Geographically, Lumbini Province has the most buffalo (802,685), Koshi Province the most cattle (1.32 million), and Koshi also leads in goats (3.40 million), while Karnali dominates sheep (254,536) and horse rearing. Among districts, Morang has the most cattle, Sarlahi the most buffalo, Salyan the most goats and Chitwan by far the most poultry.

Yak, nak and chauri (yak-cattle crossbreeds) remain the backbone of high-mountain herding. The 2080/81 count of 71,913 animals is concentrated in Solukhumbu (10,400), Dolpa (11,288), Manang, Mustang, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchok and Dolakha, supporting the chauri-milk hard cheese (chhurpi) economy of the Himalayan belt.

Nepal has an estimated 3.31 million buffalo as of fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24), per MOALD; the Agricultural Census 2078 physically counted about 2.92 million on holdings in 2021/22, down from 3.17 million in the 2068 BS (2011/12) census. About 1.25 million of these are milking buffaloes at any one time.

The buffalo is arguably Nepal's single most important farm animal in economic terms. Raw buffalo milk alone contributed 7.69 percent of agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) in 2080/81 — the largest share of any livestock commodity — and buffalo meat added another 4.03 percent. Buffalo supply just over half of Nepal's milk and, until poultry overtook it, buff was the country's largest meat source. Because cattle slaughter is prohibited in Nepal, buffalo also fill the beef-substitute role in the national diet.

Buffalo keeping is strongest in the Tarai and mid-hill dairy belts: Lumbini Province leads with over 800,000 head, and Sarlahi, Rupandehi, Kailali and Banke are among the top buffalo districts.

Nepal produced about 2,683,874 tonnes (2.68 million tonnes) of milk in fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24): 1,402,156 tonnes of buffalo milk (52 percent) and 1,281,718 tonnes of cow milk (48 percent). That works out to roughly 90 kilograms per person per year against the 2021 census population of 29.16 million. Buffalo produce more milk nationally than cows despite there being far fewer of them, because a much higher share of the buffalo herd is milked and buffalo milk yields are commercially prized for their higher fat content.

Milk output has grown steadily for two decades, more than doubling from 1.16 million tonnes in 2001/02 to 2.68 million tonnes in 2023/24, with cow milk growing fastest as crossbred Jersey and Holstein cattle spread through commercial dairy pockets. Morang is the top milk-producing district (about 135,000 tonnes in 2080/81), followed by Sunsari, Banke, Kailali and Chitwan. Koshi and Lumbini are the leading milk provinces, each producing over half a million tonnes.

Milk is also the sector's economic mainstay: buffalo and cattle raw milk together contributed about 11.8 percent of AGDP in 2080/81, more than any single crop except vegetables and rice paddy.

Nepal's net meat production was about 447,767 tonnes in fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24). Chicken is now the largest source at 180,076 tonnes (40 percent), followed by buff (buffalo meat) at 138,271 tonnes (31 percent), chevon (goat meat) at 86,280 tonnes (19 percent), pork at 39,183 tonnes (9 percent), and small amounts of mutton (2,762 tonnes) and duck (1,195 tonnes). Chicken overtook buff as the top meat around fiscal year 2076/77 (2019/20), when DLS also revised its poultry meat estimation sharply upward, lifting the whole meat series.

Total meat production has more than doubled from about 198,895 tonnes in 2001/02, driven almost entirely by commercial broiler poultry and rising goat output; chevon production grew from about 38,600 tonnes to over 86,000 tonnes in the same period, reflecting Nepal's strong cultural demand for khasi (castrated goat) meat, which peaks around Dashain. In March 2021 the government declared Nepal self-sufficient in meat and eggs, although live goats and buffalo are still imported seasonally to meet festival demand.

These are net (dressed) production figures estimated by DLS from slaughter rates and carcass weights; year-to-year jumps in the series usually reflect methodology updates rather than real swings.

Nepal's standing fowl population was about 56.9 million in fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24), including about 13.5 million laying hens; there were also roughly 797,000 ducks, of which about 444,000 were layers. The DLS fowl series is volatile because broiler flocks turn over several times a year — it peaked at 82.6 million in 2019/20 before bird flu outbreaks, COVID-era disruptions and feed costs trimmed commercial flocks. The Agricultural Census 2078 separately counted about 45.1 million chickens on farm holdings in 2021/22 and found that improved commercial breeds now make up around 55 percent of the national chicken flock.

Egg production reached about 1.645 billion eggs in 2080/81 (1.603 billion hen eggs and 42.7 million duck eggs) — roughly triple the 538 million produced in 2001/02, or about 56 eggs per person per year. Chitwan district is the undisputed poultry capital: with about 10.85 million fowl it holds nearly one in five of Nepal's chickens and produced about 604 million eggs in 2080/81, some 37 percent of the national total. Kathmandu Valley, Kaski, Morang, Jhapa and Dang are the other major poultry clusters.

Nepal produced about 123,403 tonnes of fish in fiscal year 2080/81 (2023/24), continuing a steady climb from 83,898 tonnes in 2073/74 (2016/17). In 2079/80 (2022/23), the last year with a full DLS breakdown, aquaculture supplied 92,736 tonnes (about 82 percent) and capture fisheries from rivers, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands an estimated 21,000 tonnes — a capture figure DLS has held constant for years, so treat it as indicative rather than measured.

Pond carp farming dominates aquaculture: in 2079/80 some 50,326 ponds covering 14,745 hectares produced 82,161 tonnes at an average yield of about 5.6 tonnes per hectare, overwhelmingly in Tarai districts. Rainbow trout raised in raceways in the hills added about 1,007 tonnes, with the balance from wetland (ghol) capture-based culture, cage culture in lakes and reservoirs, and rice-fish systems. DLS put per-capita fish availability at about 3.9 kilograms in 2079/80, with imports of about 3,732 tonnes topping up domestic supply.

Fisheries directly engaged about 62,400 aquaculture households and provided employment to roughly 159,000 people in aquaculture and 362,000 in capture fisheries in 2079/80. The fishery subsector contributed about 1.56 percent of agricultural GDP in 2080/81.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributed 24.12 percent of Nepal's gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices in fiscal year 2079/80 (2022/23), per the National Statistics Office. Within agricultural GDP in 2080/81, livestock contributed 23.92 percent, crops 65.80 percent, forestry 8.71 percent and fisheries 1.56 percent — putting the livestock subsector at roughly 6 percent of the whole economy. The biggest livestock line items in AGDP are buffalo milk (7.69 percent), cattle milk (4.14 percent), buffalo meat (4.03 percent), goats (3.27 percent) and chickens (1.52 percent).

The structural story of the past two decades is a shift from draft and subsistence animals toward market-oriented species. Between the 2068 (2011/12) and 2078 (2021/22) agricultural censuses, cattle fell from about 6.43 million to 4.56 million and buffalo from 3.17 million to 2.92 million, as farm mechanisation reduced the need for oxen and outmigration thinned rural labour. Goats moved the other way, rising from about 10.99 million to 14.24 million, and commercial poultry and aquaculture expanded fastest of all. Sheep declined to 478,000 as trans-humant herding contracted, and wool output has fallen to under 400,000 kilograms a year.

This page is the national hub for Nepal's livestock and fisheries data. Per-species pages (cattle, buffalo, goat, poultry, fish) and per-district statistics pages break these national totals down further, and all figures on this page can be traced to the DLS, MOALD and NSO publications listed in the sources below.