Genetic improvement of aboriginal cattle key to increasing milk demand in India: Expert

A senior scientist at the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Dr P. K. Singh, who was one of the many scientists who took part in the two-day seminar on 'Strategies for Improving Dairy Production in Tripura', has informed that to resolve the increasing demand of milk in India, the present government has emphasized on genetic improvement of indigenous cattle.

"In last 50-60 years the sincere effort for increasing the productivity of indigenous cattle has not been take up. We believed in cross-breeding and that was not sustainable aspect," said Dr Singh at the Pragya Bhavan here on Monday.

Dr. Singh added that with the socio-economic development of the people of India demands for organic products along milk of indigenous cow is on the rise to avoid health hazards caused by over use of inorganic fertilizer and chemical pesticides.

"In last 30-40 years lot of mechanization has occurred in our country therefore, the use of tractor instead of the bullock power, use of the chemical fertilizer instead of the organic manure that has caused various health hazards in human population. With the increase in the purchasing power of our India population now demand for organic produces is increasing day by day and people are ready to give more price for the organic agricultural produce as well as more price for indigenous 'deshi' (local) cow's milk," he added.

He also said that present Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, is focusing more on organic production and in saving the indigenous breeds and indigenous population of cattle.

He suggested that unlike the national scenario where more than 51 percent of the total milk supplies comes from buffalos in the eastern and the north-eastern state cattle, most of them indigenous along with a small section of crossbreed, provides around 90 percent of the milk and hence there is huge opportunity for increasing the milk production by introducing genetic improvement of the aboriginal variety.

"Now we are focusing on how to further improve the milk production in the country and we are also interested in the remote areas of the country where dairy was not given proper emphasis in the past. We are interested that areas like Bihar, eastern states of the country as well as the northeast states of the country, there should be increase in milk production," he added.

"In the north and the eastern part cattle is the main source rather than the buffaloes. Buffaloes are the main source for milk production in the western and the northern states but here in the eastern and northeastern state only cattle are producing 90 percent of the total milk and we have a proportion of cattle in this area of crossbreed cattle. But majority of the cattle is non-descriptive, we are planning to describe them, to register them in new breeds and make the strategies for genetic improvement of these indigenous cattle of this area of the country," he said.

Tripura Minister for ARDD (Animal Resource Development Department), Agriculture and Tribal Welfare, Aghore Debbarma inaugurated the seminar organised by Tripura Livestock Development Agency (TLDA).

Several senior scientists from renowned dairy related research institutes like the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal and National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal took part in the seminar aimed at improving production and reproduction of dairy animals besides exploring the possibilities of establishing frozen semen production unit in Tripura.

Other speakers at the seminar were Dr Amitabha Dasgupta, general manager of TLDA, and Tripura ARDD Minister Aghore Debbarma who stressed on raising improved variety of cattle in large scale by utilizing the technological development along with awareness of the farmer community for their economic development.

He viewed that the demand of milk in the state is gradually increasing and hence there should be initiative to increase the production of milk accordingly.