LOW PRODUCTIVITY OF INDIAN DAIRY ANIMALS: CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES

June 8, 2024

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LOW PRODUCTIVITY OF INDIAN DAIRY ANIMALS: CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES

Jyoti Singh Saket {M.V.Sc. Scholar}

INTRODUCTION:

India being a developing country in every aspect of science and technologies, still holds its reputation as an agriculture country in the dais of the world. In this scenario, livestock plays a vital role in Indian economy and being more specifically the dairy sector.

The recent data says India produced 230.5 million tons of milk in the year 2022-23 leaving developed countries like USA and China far behind in the race.

MILK PRODUCTION AND PER CAPITA AVAILABILITY OF MILK

[ALL INDIA]

Source- ICAR website

ANNUAL GROWTH RATE OF MILK PRODUCTION IN INDIA

Source- ICAR website

In current situation, India may be the world’s largest raw milk producers but the dairy sector is marked by poor on-farm efficiency and low-productivity which is hindering India’s growth as world milk exporter. There are multiple challenges associated with low productivity of Indian dairy animals including their general body health as well as their reproductive health, feed, management, technologies associated, financial condition of the farmers and a lot more.

Challenges in encountering low- productivity:

Poor health conditions: Health of the animals is the utmost priority in the animal farming as an unhealthy animal is like a debt on the farmer. Health of the animal includes its reproductive health as well, if the animal is physically fit but not producing it is of no use and therefore contributing in decreased productivity.
Inappropriate feeding practices: Nutrition is the key for developing a healthy animal and a healthy animal is the one with higher milk production.

Farmers in the Indian field condition either do not know the criteria for feeding or due to weak financial conditions are unable to feed their animals scientifically leading to low production.

Unhygienic farm practices: Healthy habits make a herd healthy and thus increasing the overall production of the herd. When these practices are compromised the production decreases along with.

Major issues under these practices are poor cleanliness management, unhygienic animal handling, improper milking, worn out sheds.

These all issues create an environment for the diseases and most important one in lactating animal(s) is ‘MASTITIS’.

Ineffectiveness of breeding programs in milch animals: Breeding programs run by government are not seeming effective as the science behind those techniques is not well understood.

There are lot of AIs being done but the results are not evident reason being coverage of AI is only 20% and is available in some specific places. Other issues are the timing of AIs is not correct, estrus detection is not done correctly, faulty AIs are very common in field condition along with many diseases which interferes with normal physiology of the reproductive tract.

Poor genetic makeup:Heredity plays a vital role in deciding production factor of animals. Indigenous cattle and buffaloes are well adapted to disease resistance because of their genetic make-up, but still lags behind in terms of productivity.

Unavailability of good pedigree bulls for the mating is also an evident reason for poor genetic makeup.

Financially weaker group of farmers:The new farmers in India are well aware of importance of feed, sanitation, good farm practices and even rear breeds of good genetic composition but the lacking comes in their financial condition through which they can support their farms and obtain good productivity.
Unavailability of sufficient animal health care and management:

It is very important to maintain the health of each and every animal whether giving high or low productivity. Even if an animal is high yielding animal and its health is compromised, then it affects the overall production.

In the field condition in India there are very less heath care providers (veterinarians, surgeons, consultants etc.) are available to tackle the emergency situations.

Lack of technologies and Limited extensions programs:Technologies and extension programs play an important role in increasing awareness between farmers being helpful in increasing production but if these programs are unable to reach to farmers the productivity could be held back and even reduced.

Mitigation measures for low- productivity:

Sufficient feed for surplus production: Every animal needs a proper diet for their survival and when the discussion is about lactating animals the feed intake elevates to a certain level higher than normal feed intake. Calorimetric studies have revealed that during lactation in an animal of 453 kg body weight, energy requirement is increased by over 2000 kcal per day.

Various researches have concluded and thus recommended an increase of 3% feed for each 10kg of milk produced above 20kg/day. The cheapest feed for milk production is good quality

fodders. For a wheat and concentrate mixture addition of Vitamin A and phosphorus are needed and can be supplied through a synthetic source of Vitamin A and 100g of sterilized bone meal for phosphorus.

Management is a must:

Management is the major aspect of farming and management of lactating dairy animals becomes very crucial as it is concerned with milk yield and finances of farmers.

An efficiently managed farm is well rid of basic diseases and also helps in reducing cost of treating those diseases.

A good management includes cleanliness as the priority, in which sheds of animals should be cleaned at least twice a day.
Proper record keeping is also a part of management and could aid in many phases of animals’ biological clock like heat detection, estrus detection, gestation, lactating time and dry period.
Proper handling of animals is mandatory as mal-handling could injure the animal and may become cause of inflammation of mammary glands (Mastitis).

Breeding programs and genetic improvements:

India has been running breeding programs like National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding since last 2 decades and this project’s result have shown marked increase in productivity as well as creation of herd with better genetic make-up.

Under this program good quality semen is made available to the farmers at subsidiarized rates and rate of AIs have been also increased.
Semen production and quality has also increased with time being which helps in increasing the genetic pool of the indigenous animals.
Providing Sex- sorted semen to farmers can increase birth of female calf and helps in increasing productivity.

An approach is also made where indigenous animals are crossed with high lactating exotic animals for the increase in production.

Health care availability and technologies associated:

In India there are around 65,000 veterinarians while the requirement is almost doubled in the field condition estimated around 1,20,000. This shortage is being overcome by appointment of many more veterinarians and projects like ‘Mobile Veterinary Units’, giving a helping hand in health care of dairy animals.

Various technologies could also be introduced to farmers which reduces their labor efforts and increased productivity of the animals.