CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DAIRY FARMING IN INDIA
- Nithya Quintoil1 and A.Varun2
1Assistant Professor, RIVER, Puducherry
2Farm Manager, PGRIAS, TANUVAS, Kattupakkam
Introduction
Agriculture and dairying are two bounded activities which depends on each other. Among all the livestock ventures dairying is the most important occupation in the improving rural economy of land less poor. In recent years, the dairy sector has emerged as a most significant source of rural employment and economy of the country and also provides the nutritional security to the people. India has largest livestock population in the world i.e., 535.78 million which constitute 192.49 million cattle and109.85 million buffalos, respectively. India ranks first in milk production with a production level of 209.96 million tonnes milk during the year 2020-2021. The state now has the highest per capita milk availability in the country at 1,181 gram per day against the national average of 427 gram.
In spite of the tremendous growth in milk production during the past few decades, productivity of dairy animals continues to remain constant to very low and especially dairy farmers faces various constraints like infrastructural, nutritional, technical and marketing which hinders further growth and development of dairy industry.
Key words: Dairy farming, Ethnoveterinary practices, Clean milk production, Entrepreneurship, Capacity building training, Hydroponics fodder production, constrains and Livestock insurance.
Infrastructural constraints
Infrastructural constraints like lack of training institute in rural area, lack of knowledge about schemes of Animal husbandry department, lack of knowledge about insurance, lack of knowledge on scientific rearing of animals, lack of awareness on vaccination/ deworming and absence of milk testing facilities in rural area.
Nutritional constraints
Green fodder is an essential and important component of the livestock ration to enhance their productive and reproductive performance. Nowadays, it is very difficult to supply quality green fodder throughout the year due to various constraints like unavailability of fertile land, shrinkage of grazing land and pastures, scarcity of water, labours for agricultural operations more harvest time and natural calamities. The 34th Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture report has also indicated a shortage of 122 million tons of dry fodder, 284 million tons of green fodder and 35 million tons of concentrate in the country by 2020 (NAPG, 2018).
Technical constraints
Technical constraints also affect the dairy farming with serious impact. Constraints like lack of knowledge about value addition of milk and milk by-products, lack of knowledge about scientific housing practices, lack veterinary assistance, less knowledge about clean milk production, lack of knowledge on balanced ration, unavailability of artificial insemination in rural and hilly areas and lack of awareness on vaccination/ deworming. Lack of knowledge especially on anti-nutritional factors like gossypol, mimosin, tannins, cyanide, organophosphorus, etc.
Marketing constraints
Market plays an important role in diffusion and adoption of new technology. Constraints like fluctuation in price of milk and milk products, difficulty in marketing of milk and milk products, distress sale due to perishable nature of milk and milk products, less knowledge about marketing channel of milk, interferences of middle man in marketing.
Breeding and health constraints
- Infertility problem
- Poor conception rate of Artificial Insemination
- Abortion and
- Unable to detect heat symptoms
- Repeat breeders
- Disease outbreak
Constraints confronted by dairy farmers
- High concentrate feed cost
- Lack of green and dry fodder
- Difficult in procurement of concentrate feed and raw material for concentrate feed
- High transportation cost
- Unsold milk during flush season
- Middle man interference
- Lack of knowledge on value added products
- Difficult in sale of animals
- Lack of availability of labour and lack of insurance facility
Strategies for the sustainable dairy farming in India
Good management practices is one of the major solution for sustainable dairy farming in India. These practices include,
Nutritional strategies
Nowadays, it is inevitable to produce quality green fodder by alternative methods for feeding livestock in future. One such alternative method is hydroponic fodder production which provides year-round supply of fresh green fodder while using minimal labour, land, water and space. It is one of the emerging technologies widely adopted in many parts of the world and proved as the most feasible and easily adoptable one for improving the growth and reproduction in farm animals. Hydroponic fodder is a germinated grain with shoots and root, highly palatable and consumed without any wasting. It has high feed quality and is rich in proteins, fibres, vitamins and minerals.
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Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University developed mobile app on feed calculation which can be easily used for preparation of concentrate mixture with low and affordable price. Some other recent techniques like hydroponics, ration balancing programme (RBP), compound cattle feed, bypass protein feed, mineral mixture, urea molasses mineral block etc can be popularized among the farmers for sustainable dairy farming.
Silage and hay are preserved or stored feed given to the cattle during a shortage of green fodder. Silage undoubtedly is very good for dairy animals, especially during dry seasons.
Healthcare strategies
Prevention is better than cure. In India FMD is biggest threat. Hence, proper vaccination coverage of about 80% of population is required for proper prevention and control of the animal diseases. Awareness camp should be conducted which helps the farmers for early identification of disease symptoms and proper treatment. Importance of deworming should be explained to the farmers and regular deworming must be encouraged.
Clean milk production
Full hand milking should be practiced for complete milking. Knuckling method should be avoided. Sub-clinical mastitis is the biggest problem faced by the dairy farmers in rural areas. Early detection of sub-clinical mastitis is important which will reduce the treatment cost and maintains the sustained milk production. Many kits available for early detection of sub-clinical mastitis such as California mastitis kit, TANUCHECK mastitis kit (TANUVAS developed), which can be easily used for early detection of mastitis by assessing somatic cell count in milk. Proper cleaning of utensils, proper cold storage and milkers hygiene also plays important role in clean milk production.
Ethnoveterinary practices a first aid
Major health issues affecting livestock are ecto-parasites, particularly ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBD). In recent days, anthelmintic resistance is most common problem due to frequent use of anthelmintic drugs. Traditional knowledge as Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) practices can be successfully tried for treating diseases in livestock. Neem (Azadirachta indica) and Notchi (Vitex negundo) based poly herbal solution can be used for control of external parasites, ticks, mites, etc., Acalypha indica (Kuppaimeni) a medicinal herb which is commonly used to treat skin infection. This is important to the dairy farmers especially in the areas where animal healthcare services are not readily available. EVM is important to the dairy farmers especially in the rural and hilly areas where animal healthcare services are not readily available.
Breeding strategies
Artificial insemination should be encouraged. Proper treatments are available for infertility problems, repeat breeders and abortion cases. In order to increase the milk production, there is a need to increase the production potential of non-descript local animals through scientific methods like crossbreeding and selective breeding. Progeny testing and Pedigree Selection coupled with Artificial Insemination and milk recording should be regularly monitored for genetic gain/ progress. Capacity building programmes in the areas like detection of heat, proper time of insemination, drying off milking animal, dystocia, infertility and its management, progeny testing and sex sorted semen technology should be educated to the farmers.
Others strategies
- There is a need to provide the basic infrastructural facilities to the rural farmers such as availability of training institute, dairy equipments facilities, milk testing facilities, milk storage and preservation facilities, disease diagnostic facilities in their resident area so that they farmers run their enterprise in a better way.
- Organizing animal welfare camps, awareness camps, regular technical guidance about scientific breeding, feeding, healthcare and management practices through radio, television and other social media.
- Need to improve marketing system so that milk producers will not face difficulty in marketing of milk and milk products.
- Middle man problem should be clearly underlined in marketing and direct sales should be encouraged (One to one sales/ door to door sale).
- Loss of animal is the biggest issue faced by the farmers during outbreak/ accident/ natural calamities. Hence, knowledge about livestock insurance should be made among the farmers which will compensate the loss.
- Hydroponics green fodder production, azolla production, silage production, urea molasses blocks, paddy blocks, urea molasses paddy blocks and mineral mixtures are tried in dairy farming for the balanced nutrition and sustained production.
- Management of summer and cold stress (use of forgers, sprinklers during summer)
Conclusion
Knowledge enrichment of dairy farmers especially in the areas like livestock insurance, hydroponic green fodder cultivation techniques, silage production, vaccination, deworming, early detection of sub-clinical mastitis, clean milk production can lead to sustainable dairy farming in India. Uninterrupted supply of feed and reliable veterinary services is most important strategies in dairy farming along with a stable market, availability of resources, better pricing, will pave a way to overcome the challenges for sustainable dairy farming in India.
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