Lost glory of indigenous cow breed to be restored: Dhankar

Haryana Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar today said the state government will restore the lost glory of the indigenous breed of cows even if it requires procuring these breeds from other countries.
"Sahiwal breed of cow was originally found in Pakistan and, if required, this breed will be brought from that country," Dhankar said at a function organised at Maharashi Dayanand University in Rohtak today.
He further said that efforts will be made to bring indigenous breed of cows from countries such as Brazil and Israel where such breeds were available.
Dhankar, who also holds the portfolio of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said the state government had entered into an agreement with Brazil on animal husbandry techniques for raising milk production and fodder.

Dhankar said the Haryana government will also hold a competition of indigenous cows as part of its breed improvement programme.
He said funds will be made available to cow sheds to take care of abandoned cows, saying that about 1.17 lakh such cattle are still on the roads.

The minister said a target has been set for increasing milk producing capacity of the state from two crore litres to 2.5 crore litres every day.
At present, Haryana has availability of 800 grams of milk per person per day whereas a target has been set to take it to one kg per person per day, he said.

"States like Punjab and Gujarat are ahead of Haryana in terms of milk production but we are making efforts to make Haryana number one state in terms of milk productivity," he added.