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Increasing milk production in India - The challenges
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Saturday, 01 February, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Dr Suresh B Gokhale
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fiogf49gjkf0d Milk production in India has been on an upward spiral for the last few years. It went up from around 20 million tonne in 1960s to 115 million tonne in 2010-11. Further, it grew at an annual rate of 4.4% during 1990s and 3.8% during 2000s.
Although per capita availability of milk has increased from 128 gm/day in 1980-81 to 267 gm / day in 2010-11, it is still below the requirement of 280 gm. It is estimated that by the end of 12th Plan, demand for milk will increase to 141 million tonne. Between 1991-92 and 2008-09, India’s per capita income grew at an annual rate of 4.8% and urban population at a rate of 2.5%. These trends are likely to continue. Distribution of livestock is more equitable compared to that of land. In 2003, marginal farm households (=1.0h hectare of land) which comprised 48% of the rural households controlled more than half of country’s cattle and buffalo.
Improvement efforts
Historically, after Independence, the improvement efforts in dairy cattle were initiated by Government of India in the form of projects / schemes like Intensive Cattle Development Project (ICDP) and Key Village Schemes (KVS) to rationalise the breeding approach for livestock improvement. The research strategy adopted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for livestock improvement and its support extended to country’s state agricultural universities, gradually contributed to research results leading to adoption of developmental strategy.
Simultaneously steps taken by Indian Dairy Corporation (through National Dairy Development Board-NDDB) to reorganise and revamp dairy cooperative structure in the country helped bringing about significant progress culminating in achieving country’s top position in the world for total quantum milk production.
Growth is demand-driven
The growth in livestock sector is demand-driven, inclusive and pro-poor. Incidence of rural poverty is less in states like Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Rajasthan where livestock accounts for a sizeable share of agricultural income as well as employment.
Livestock production
The examination of present status of livestock production needs to be examined from many aspects such as rural versus urban, species-related, from technical and technological point of view, from managerial, commercial and marketing aspects and so on. Although it is difficult to deal with all aspects and their relevance to farmer participation for dairy livestock improvement, some of them need to be discussed with reference to both at national and rural levels.
It is known that the farming community aims at holistic utilisation of their livestock. The people rearing animals in cities and villages have different outlook in maintaining them. The dairy farmer in city looks to his animal entirely as a commercial unit, while that in village may in addition look to it as an efficient converter of his agro waste and therefore may compromise to some extent with the milking ability of an animal. The formulation and implementation of genetic improvement programmes thus have to take such aspect in to consideration.
Commercial venture
Farmer community of larger land-holding although smaller in number, has larger number of dairy cattle and approach to dairying as a commercial venture and opts for defined type and quality of animals. Though few of them have a tendency to get the animal management carried out through hired labour and have often potentially good animals giving lower performance, this fraction opts for crossbred cows / improved breeds of buffaloes and is actively involved in the milk commerce taking risk of adopting high technology by investment in automation, import of germ plasm, collection and transfer of high quality embryo, adopting specialised feed inputs like protected or bypass protein fat technologies and so on. This can give them viable and profitable business. This community can be helpful in implementing breed improvement strategies.
Nearly half of the farming community is holding less than a hectare of land, this class of community rears animals of moderate production for meeting home needs of milk and milk products and as a component of farming system needs; any surplus production is sold in the market but not with aggressive commercial outlook.
This community fraction is often seen looking for a combination of improved indigenous breeds or occasionally crossbreds. The dairy animal-holding of this fraction is just one to two per family, although average number of animals per household is found to increase with the increase of land-holding. This community although is curious and appreciative of the requirement of greater improvement through biotechnology but cannot afford it.
The marginal and landless fraction constitutes an important component of farming community, although owns smaller number individually, accounts for sizeable fraction of dairy animals in the country. Since these animal owners cannot afford to optimally feed their animals, they try to maintain them at zero cost input by essentially grazing on Common Property Resources (CPR), the housing is in open, under the tree or in temporary grass thatched cattle shed, and obviously the milk yield of these animals is low. They rear and manage dairy animals for sustainability. Communication with this type of farming community clearly brings out differential requirement of type and size of animal and the suitable genetic improvement model to be arrived at in the light of these considerations. Wherever landless community has adopted dairy farming as exclusive livelihood approach, they have been found to invent many ways to reduce cost / litre of milk production and entrepreneurs of this type if willing can be relied on for generating data for arriving at suitable models before implementing genetic improvement programme. It is interesting to note that the milk production of animals with such people is found to be higher than similar types of animals maintained by medium or large farmers. While many challenges need attention, following are few:
Dairy animals breeds, breeding and reproduction
Out of total more than 125 livestock breeds in the country, 34 cattle and 15 buffalo breeds contribute to country’s significant large animal biodiversity with merits of adoptability to climate and nutrition, resistance to diseases and stress. Presently, the breed structure, number within breed and qualitative performance status is not available to the extent required and in the manner desired to scientifically adopt breed related milk improvement strategies.
The average 20-60% lower than the global average milk production of an Indian dairy animal is a matter of discussion since long and need for specific efforts is realised for improving their production status if they are to survive in the changing economic scenario. Further, their production potential is not realised fully because of constraints related to feeding, breeding, health and management. Populations of most of the indigenous breeds have alarmingly gone down due to comparative preferences for high producing exotic breeds.
Use of genetically promising bull for breeding helps enhancing milk production in the female progeny it produces. Progress in the area of bull production and evaluation has been slow because of constraints of small herd size, lack of interest on the part of states, little or no initiative to support/ form breed societies, and absence of effective extension network. For achieving targeted growth rate of 5-6% in milk production, provision need to be made for production of required good quality semen from high genetic sources. To achieve that, the existing semen stations should be strengthened and upgraded to category ‘A,’ and / or new semen stations established to ensure availability of minimum 150 million doses of quality semen to cover 40% breedable cows and buffaloes and 70% AI delivery at farmer’s doorstep. Larger focus on field progeny testing for quality bull production, research on standardisation of field progeny testing procedures at rural level could help putting crossbred bulls to progeny testing to use selected improver bulls.
More efforts needed
Deficiency in production because of problems of breeding and reproduction is estimated to be 21%. Field level variation in reproductive status of animals and the extent of reproductive disorders indicates that for field implementation of higher biotechnological tools like embryo collection and transfer, hardly 3% indigenous breed females can be available as embryo donors although the situation in crossbreds is more favourable. More efforts seem to be needed to bring rationalisation in respect of estrus synchronisation, utility of existing protocols in embryo production and the need of modifications in the existing standards recommended for Bos Taurus breeds in this respect. The use of reproduction technologies like IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation), OPU (Ovum Pick Up), cloning, transgenesis and so on although has potential, it is more at research level and would take much more time before being adopted at rural level for commercial application.
Challenges due to feed and fodder availability
Deficiency of feed and fodder accounts for half of the total loss in production of the animal. Although availability of feed resources has improved, the deficit of dry fodder, concentrates and green fodder currently is 10, 33 and 35%, respectively.
Only 25% of forage seeds are available, that too of 15-20 years old varieties. Shrinking and degrading pastures coupled with limitations of suitable fodder varieties have added to the gravity. The schemes of fodder and feed development have not delivered the desired results. Although an “Accelerated Fodder Development Programme (AFDP)’ with a budgetary outlay of Rs 300 crore has lately been initiated, the lack of convergence between the two agencies (the one which implements it and the end-user) has seriously affected the fodder development programme. ‘Fodder Mission’ being formulated by apex agricultural research organisation in the country could be an example of disjointed and lackadaisical efforts which may not yield the desired results in enhancing the green fodder production in the country. A comprehensive strategy for rejuvenation of natural grasslands/ pastures/ common property resources for enhancing their productivity is required.
Animal health challenges
The losses due to the problems of diseases in dairy animals are estimated to the extent of 18%. Frequent outbreaks of diseases like FMD (Foot & Mouth Disease), BQ (Black Quarter), PPR (peste des petits ruminants), Brucellosis and so on continue to reduce productivity and production. Sufficient facility / setup for disease diagnosis, reporting, epidemiology, surveillance and forecasting are not on board. The existing immunisation programmes for FMD, PPR, Brucellosis and other important diseases need to be the national commitment. Privatisation of vaccine and diagnostic production with suitable incentives can help correcting the situation. Several diagnostic kits required for disease surveillance and monitoring are imported at a huge cost. The limited diagnostics available in the country are produced by few laboratories and are not of desired quality. Managing livestock diseases through prophylactic controls with strong laboratory diagnostic system is the only option. Appropriate measures to deal with imminent climate change are yet to become visible. The available veterinary support in terms of infrastructure (hospitals and diagnostic labs) and technical manpower is insufficient. The veterinary and animal science services are a highly specialised area and need qualified technical manpower. Shortage of technical persons and those for teaching and research (less than 50% available than required number), extension and for field services (availability of just 20% compared to number needed) is affecting quality of manpower and services.
Credit support and extension services
The livestock sector receives only about 12% of the total public expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors and about 4-5% of the total institutional credit flowing to agriculture and allied sectors. Livestock extension remains grossly neglected. The extension format, methodology and set-up established for agriculture has failed to cater to the needs of the livestock sector. Consequently, only 5.1% of the farm households are able to access any information on animal husbandry against 40.4% for crop farming. The only Centrally-sponsored scheme on “Livestock extension and delivery services” is largely non-operational.
Livestock insurance provided by the public sector insurance companies could cover only about 6% of the animal heads (excluding poultry). Cooperatives and agribusiness firms (in case of contract farming) should facilitate provision of insurance cover by providing premium on behalf of the farmers, which may be recovered in instalments or lumpsum from their sale proceeds. Innovative and acceptable insurance models may be designed to evolve a suitable scheme for various species / states.
A differentiated approach of providing extension and input services at the farmers’ doorstep should be adopted. Dedicated Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) exclusively for livestock training and demonstration would be useful. Para-vets should receive larger focus in respect of trainings and delivery of technologies. Public–Private-Partnership (PPP) in extension should be promoted for convergence and sharing of resources. Major programme on livestock extension, delivery of services and women empowerment need initiated to enhance efficiency of production.
Challenges in milk collection, processing and marketing
The dairy cooperative network in the country includes 254 cooperative milk processing units, 177 milk unions covering 346 districts and over 1, 33,000 village-level societies with a total membership of nearly 14 million farmers. Besides handling liquid milk, these plants manufacture value-added products.
Testing of milk for safety and quality parameters at the collection centres is almost non-existent. Lack of proper anaerobic waste treatment and dairy byproduct utilisation are the other concerns. Due to quality concerns of milk, value addition and export potential has not been fully exploited.
Microbial contamination, antibiotic residues and adulteration in milk, meat and animal feed is rampant. Quality control for veterinary drugs and vaccines is almost non-existent. There is a need to establish food testing laboratories duly accredited by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to check adulteration. Well-equipped laboratories for testing adulterants, antibiotic residues, and food-borne pathogens should be established to enhance safety and quality of animal feeds and foods. As in the developed countries, possibility of responsibility to inspect meat and milk resting with Veterinary Public Health specialists than with medical professionals should be explored..
Present inbuilt mechanism for anaerobic waste treatment and dairy by-product utilisation in dairy plants is far from adequate. Although the dairy sector has attracted considerable private investment in processing, value addition and marketing, investment linked tax incentives and attractive credit facility to private investors are missing, government could defray a sizeable portion of the capital costs and give some incentives in the form of tax holiday to further attract private investment in this sector. Flow of institutional credit, mainly the commercial banks is about 10% which needs augmented.
Livestock economics, business management and market intelligence should be strengthened. An establishment of institute for Livestock Information and Policy Studies would help strengthening viability approach to milk production. Aspects like increase of share of animal husbandry in agricultural credit at least to 10% and interest rate on animal husbandry credit at par with crop loan, facility of the Kisan credit cards extended to all livestock farmers. Livestock insurance coverage expanded to all types of production systems and species with appropriate incentive framework is recommended.
Research and technology challenges
Lack of needed infrastructure in taking up progeny testing at rural level is one of the limitations in increasing milk production in buffaloes. Research effort through World Bank-funded and Indian Council of Agricultural Research-implemented project in searching and identifying gene markers for milk and milk component trait for improvement in Indian buffaloes is nearing to its conclusion with promising results which if used on a large-scale at rural level in organised manner can lead to positive impact on quality improvement in Indian buffaloes besides international visibility on this achievement.
Research 'upgradation' in the field of frozen semen technology and national policy recognition of Standard Operating Procedures for semen and embryo technology can increase scope of provision and availability of high quality, healthy germ-plasm inputs to livestock production at world standards. Research on standardisation of field progeny testing procedures at rural level can help putting crossbred bulls to progeny testing and wide use of selected improver bulls for adding thousands of tonnes of milk per year in selected few districts of the state where the programme is under implementation.
The need for adaptive research for reduction in cost of animal feeding was / has been appreciated and outputs of researches undertaken on non-traditional feed resources, search for non-edible plants and technology for making them edible to cattle / buffaloes, selecting dual purpose (seed and foliage together) verities of cereals and formulation of complete feed approach have been adopted by the farming community.
Micro level studies
Large variability between and within livestock species across the country necessitates micro level studies before finalising approach for application and adoption of technology. For example many of the indigenous draft breeds of cattle get much less attention compared to milk breeds although their presence itself is an indication of utility, in-depth study undertaken can reveal the reasons for their maintenance.
Certain aberrations of beta casein component in milk of some cows is claimed to be leading to harmful effect on the human body, it is observed that such incidence is recorded high in some European cattle breeds compared to their indigenous counterparts. It is therefore argued that to avoid such harmful effects, milk of indigenous breeds should be promoted. Considering the implications of such recommendation on the existing strategy of augmenting milk production, more extensive research is warranted to arrive at the applicable reality. In the meantime, an immediate action to prevent already declining population of indigenous breeds of cattle be taken and systematic conservation, genetic improvement and sustainable utilisation of indigenous livestock breeds be planned.
Many times, research ideas are conceived at the research institute level. These researches are conducted and outputs made available to society at large. These searched and identified techniques and technologies are expected to trickle down from research institutes to society. There is thus a gap between day to day utility and requirements of farming community and the research outputs made available to them. This existing top down approach is invariably failure.
Challenges in tech aspects
The adoption of biotechnologies for improving milk production seem to be varying and often a mixed success is experienced due to reasons like the same technology suitable in one agro-geo-sociological environment not being convenient for adoption to other region, affect of farming system adopted by a farming family, financial status of the farming family, absence / minimal presence of mechanism for policy involvement in integrating research output to community through service provider and so on.
Although macro-level experience in livestock production systems is available, quantified micro-level region specific data about the relevance and importance of agro-geological and cultural environment in relation to livestock is needed and is scarcely available for technology. Sometimes decision regarding utility of advance technologies is taken up either at research or policy level and the developed outputs are expected to be adopted by the community. If the technology application is neither feasible nor adoptable, more often either technology is blamed or the community, for non-adoption.
(The author is director, research, Central Research Station,
BAIF Development Research Foundation, Uruli Kanchan, Pune)
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