Shuddh desi gau: Govt doles out Rs 500 cr to protect indigenous cows

Amid concerns over extinction of of indigenous cattle breeds, the government yesterday launched ‘Rashtriya Gokul Mission’ with an outlay of Rs 500 crore to be implemented in the ongoing 12th Five Year Plan for protection, preservation and conservation of the breeds.

“We have about 200 million cattle. Of this, 83 percent are indigenous. The mission aims to conserve and develop the indigenous cattle breeds in a focused and scientific manner,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told reporters.

An outlay of Rs 500 crore has been set aside for this purpose in the current five year plan period (2012-17) under the National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development. Around Rs 150 crore will be allocated for this year, Singh said.

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The guidelines of the mission will be discussed in detail in a meeting of state agriculture ministers to be called on September 16, he added.

Under the mission, funds will be allocated for setting up of integrated indigenous cattle centres i.e ‘Gokul Grams’, establishing breeder’s societies called ‘Gopalan Sangh’, strengthening of bull mother farmers to conserve high genetic merit indigenous breeds and assisting institutes which are repositories of best germplasm among other activities.

The mission will be implemented via state implementing agencies (SIAs).

Under the mission, Gokul Grams will be set up near native breeding tracts and near metropolitan cities housing urban cattle. The cattle centres, with a capacity to take care 1,000 cattle, will maintain milch and unproductive animals in the ratio of 60:40. Each Gokul Gram will be set up as a public-private partnership. The animals’ nutritional requirements will be met through in-house fodder production programs and the animals will regularly be screen for diseases likebrucellosis and TB, according to the _ Times of India_.

The Gokul Gram will be self sustaining and will generate economic resources from the sale of milk, organic manure, vermi-composting, urine distillates, and production of electricity from bio-gas, the minister said.

Out of 37 recognised indigenous cattle breeds, breeds such as ‘Krishna Valley" breed in Karnataka, ‘Nimari’ in Madhya Pradesh, ‘Vechur’ in Kerala, ‘Punganur’ in Andhra Pradesh and ‘Pulikulam’ in Tamil Nadu are rapidly declining in the country warranting immediate attention.

At present Indian farmers rely on several foreign cow breeds - like the Jersey-Holstein cross-breeds, black-and-white Holsteins from the Netherlands and the British Brown Jersey cow - for a variety of needs like breeding and better quality milk, according to The_ Hindustan Times._

India is the largest milk producer in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, with a 16 percent share of global production.

With inputs from PTI