Latest practices and techniques in Animal Husbandry

In order to compliment and supplement the efforts made by the States and Union territories to  assist farmers in acquiring better understanding of latest practices and techniques in Animal Husbandry and dairy farming thereby improving their livelihood Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing following schemes in all villages throughout the country:

Rashtriya Gokul Mission: One of the components of the scheme Rashtriya Gokul Mission is organization of farmer awareness programmes including organization of fertility camps, milk yield competition, calf rallies and farmer training programme. Latest breeding technologies are being made accessible to farmers including  Artificial Insemination (AI) with sex sorted semen, Bovine In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and genomic selection.

National Livestock Mission: One of the submissions of the scheme is innovation and extension and under the component extension assistance is made available to the States/ Union Territories for organization of seminars, workshops, training, capacity building for  livestock farmers/ groups, breeders associations, promotional activities related to Animal Husbandry, operationalisation of farmers field school, exposure visit for farmers, demonstration activities, creating awareness through social media and audio visual support etc. Latest technology like artificial insemination among sheep, goats and pigs is promoted under the scheme.

National Programme for Dairy Development is being implemented with the objective of creating dairy infrastructure for procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products in cooperative dairy sector.

Support to State Dairy Cooperative Societies and Farmers Producers Organisations: Under the scheme one time support in the form of Interest subvention on working capital loans has been introduced from the financial year 2020-21 in order to incentivise dairy cooperatives and farmers engaged in dairying.

Livestock Health and disease control Programme is being implemented for providing assistance for control of animal diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease, Brucellosis and also to provide assistance to State Governments for Control of other infectious diseases of livestock. Mobile Veterinary Units are established under the scheme to deliver quality livestock health services at farmers’ doorstep. Assistance is also made available under the scheme for creating awareness and publicity.

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) worth Rs. 15000 crore to facilitate incentivisation of investments in establishment of dairy processing and value addition infrastructure, meat processing and value addition facilities, feed manufacturing, vaccine and drug production units, animal waste to wealth management, breed improvement technology and breed multiplication farms.

For the first time, Government has extended Kisan Credit Card facility to Animal Husbandry farmers and Fisheries farmers for their working capital requirements wherein farmers either individual or joint borrower, Joint Liability Groups or Self Help Groups including tenant farmers having owned/rented/leased sheds are eligible for getting incentivisation under the scheme.

For generating awareness among farmers Department has inducted “A HELP” (Accredited Agent for Health and Extension of Livestock Production). A-HELP is acting as a local livestock resource person and a connecting point between the livestock farmers and Veterinary Services. Further, MAITRIs (Multipurpose AI Technicians in Rural India) are being inducted by the Department to deliver Artificial Insemination Services at Farmers doorstep. MAITRIs are also handling animal vaccinations, first aid, animal nutrition advice, and farmer awareness.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has no proposal to adopt villages to develop sustainable dairy farming in the country. However, in an effort to develop sustainable dairy farming following measures have been undertaken by the Department:

Implementation of  Rashtriya Gokul Mission in all villages of the country with focus on development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds, genetic upgradation of bovine population and enhancement of milk production and productivity of bovines thereby making milk production more remunerative to the farmers.

Department is promoting green fodder production, silage making, chaff cutting, and total mixed ration under National Livestock Mission. Ration Balancing Programme was promoted under National Dairy Plan-I. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has launched eGopala App on 10.9.2020 for farmers, this app is guiding farmers for balanced feeding of animals.

Better management of cow dung is promoted by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. With the efforts made by the Department National Dairy Development Board has taken up establishment of 4000 cubic meter biogas plant at Varanasi Milk union, which will use 100 MT per day of dung purchased from farmers. The biogas is used to produce thermal and electrical energy required for milk processing of the dairy plant. Bio-slurry obtained from the plant will be converted in bio-fertilizer and made available to member farmers at reasonable rates.

Banaskantha Milk Union has installed 2000 cubic meter of biogas plant. Around 40 Tonnes of dung is purchased by the union from its farmers to produce the biogas. The biogas produced is purified and compressed to produce compressed biogas (CBG).

Better management of dung is also promoted under Gobardhan Yojna by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has developed small size user friendly biogas plants for better utilization of cow dung and minimizing methane emission.

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is supporting Animal waste to Wealth Management component under Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) and 3% interest subvention is made available to eligible entities for establishment of Animal Waste Management units like production of Phosphate Rich Organic Manure (PROM), Bio CNG and infrastructure development for cow dung/cow urine processing units.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.