58
S
tate
of
I
ndia
’
s
L
ivelihoods
R
eport
2015
availability and affordability of quality
feed/fodder and also lack of farmers’
knowledge on how to better use the
existing feed resources.
•
Poor animal healthwith limited extension
services. Reliable veterinary services are
not available inmany parts of the country.
•
Low genetic potential for milk produc-
tion, insufficient and ineffective cattle-
and-buffalo-breeding programmes.
2. Improving genetic quality
of breeds
Artificial Insemination (AI) technique has
been found to be the most economical
tool for breeding animals as it allows the
efficient use of genetically superior bulls
to improve the genetic potential of a large
number of breedable cow and buffalo
population. The GoI has an ambitious tar-
get of expanding the AI programme from
its present level of coverage of about 25
per cent to 50 per cent of breedable bovine
population by the end of the 12th Five-Year
Plan.
4
The limited availability of quality AI
services means that about 75 per cent of
breeding in the country is through natural
service which predominantly involves non-
descript or inferior bulls. After more than
three decades of cross-breeding, the cross-
bred population is only 18 per cent in cattle.
Production of good quality, disease-
free semen and effective AI services are
key to a successful genetic improvement
programme. Although about 25 per cent of
the animals are bred using AI, only about 20
per cent per cent of the bulls in the country’s
semen stations have come through a genetic
improvement programme.
5
Progeny-testing
programmes for evaluation of bulls for
buffaloes, cross-bred cattle and indigenous
breeds have not been largely undertaken
because of constraints of technical man-
power, small herd size and lack of interest
on part of the states and absence of an
effective extension network. Information on
progeny-tested bulls and their performance
is hardly published. To achieve improve-
ments in the quality of animals, increasing
the number of genetically improved bulls to
produce high- quality semen and expanding
AI services are very critical. These invest-
ments are necessary to build a foundation
for increased milk production.
Dr Pande, Senior Vice President, BAIF,
mentions that “Every year, 8,000 high
quality bulls have to be replaced in India.
Under the World Bank funded National
Dairy Plan, NDDB will be able to develop
about 3,000 progeny-tested bulls over five
to seven years which is inadequate. The
current trend in developing countries is to
undertake genome testing and 70 per cent
of semen used in developed countries is
from genome-tested bulls. Though in India
this may take a time frame of five years, a
national level platform of research institu-
tions, government departments, NGOs, to
take up genome testing has to be created”.
Moreover, current production of 50 mil-
lion semen doses needs to be increased to
around 150 million doses to cover at least
50 per cent of the breedable population.
BAIF Development Research Foundation
which established the Bull Mother Farm
and Bull Station at the Central Research
Station, Uruli Kanchan, Pune, mentions
that for high-quality-disease-free semen
production, the breeding bulls need to be
biologically tested for TB, herpes virus etc.,
using reagents. For the country as a whole,
the reagents used in testing are produced
only at the Indian Veterinary Research
Institute, Izatnagar, UP, which closed
down for sometime. BAIF had to procure
and store antigens in large quantities. State
livestock boards also had to import antigens
for their breeding farms. The GoI and state
4
Annual Report 2014–15, Department of Animal
Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries; Ministry of
Agriculture, Government of India.
5
The World Bank.2010. National Dairy Support
Project NDSP, Project Information Document, http://
wwwwds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/
IW3P/IB/2011/07/27/000003596_20110727150106/
Rendered/PDF/NDSP0PID00Revised0July021.pdf
