Dairy-based Livelihoods
65
important component to promote availabil-
ity of feed and fodder to substantially reduce
the gap between availability and demand.
5. Reliable data and information
Availability of reliable and in-time informa-
tion is crucial for livestock development
planning but there is an acute scarcity of
such information. Moreover, for meeting
the challenges of globalisation, it is impera-
tive to have comprehensive and reliable
knowledge of the ground realities on all
aspects of livestock production system.
Unlike crop sector where a number
of schemes and surveys for collecting the
information are made, there are only two
mechanisms for compiling information on
animal husbandry and dairying. These are
the (a) Quinquennial (five yearly) Livestock
Census and (b) Integrated Sample Survey.
In addition, the NSSO also conducts a
decennial survey on land and livestock
holdings. Integrated Sample Survey gener-
ates information on production and yield
of major livestock products like milk, eggs,
meat and wool on an annual basis. Not all
states carry out the Survey regularly and
not all of them carry it out in any given
periodicity. Therefore, the reliability of
data is doubtful.
NDDB compiles useful information on
the milk procurement, prices, value addi-
tion and other aspects of milk production
and processing collected from the vast
network of dairy cooperative structure in
the country. However, the public access
to this data base is limited. NDDB is now
bringing out state-wise statistical profile
for all major milk producing states; four
states have been completed. This includes
trends in human demographics, animal
population and production, inputs for
enhancement of productivity such as
breeding, health and nutrition and govern-
ment expenditure along with supporting
resources. The objective of this publica-
tion is to provide a detailed presentation
of various parameters, underlying factors
and their inter-linkages so as to enable
Balanced feed rations should be developed
depending upon the crop/fodder cultivated in a
particular region and optimally utilising locally
available feed resources, thus reducing cost and
increasing resource optimisation. Farmers feed
their animals based on their traditional knowl-
edge and information passed through genera-
tions and in most cases, the quantity of feed/
fodder offered to animals is either more or less
than the requirements. This leads to an imbal-
ance of protein, energy and minerals in their
ration. Animals on such an imbalanced ration
producemilk sub-optimally, making the cost of
milk production higher with adverse effects on
health and fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to
educate farmers on feeding of balanced ration.
NDDBhas developed a software that can be used
on computers as well as phones. With the help
of this software, balanced ration is formulated
considering the animal’s profile, i.e., cattle or
buffalo, age, milk production, milk fat, feeding
regime etc., and milk producers are advised
to adjust the quantity of locally available feed
ingredients offered to their animals along with
area-specific mineral mixture.
15
Under the
ration balancing programme introduced by
NDDB, more than 70,000 milch animals have
been covered in about 1,500 villages till March
2014. The result has shown that adoption of a
balanced ration can significantly reduce the cost
of feeding and increase the quality and quantity
of milk produced by milch animals, thereby
giving an economic benefit of
`
15 to
`
35 per
animal/day to the farmers.
16
The National Dairy
Plan proposes to reach 40,000 villages through
the Ration Balancing Programme.
Source:
Annual Report, 2013–14, NDDB.
Box 4.5:
Ration balancing programme of NDDB
15
NDDB, Ration Balancing Programme, 2015, avail-
able at:
/
rationbalance.
16
NDDB, Speech by Chairman at CII, Dairy Vision
2025, 2015, available at:
speech/dairyvision.
