Low Productivity of Indian Dairy Animals: Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
Shradha Shetty
Assistant Professor, Department of Livestock Production Management, Veterinary College, Shivamogga
Abstract
In all parts of the world including India, dairy farming has become an inevitable part of agriculture to have a sustainable livelihood. Dairy farming plays a greater role in the life of the smallholders in terms of their livelihood, food security and nutrition. India is the largest producer of milk in the world, contributing 24.64 per cent share to the total production. Due to cooperative milk movement, Operation Flood Programme, dairy industry has grown tremendously. But still the productivity per animal is very low when compared to other country, which is mainly because of poor quality animals which are tolerant towards diseases and heat stress but low in productivity. Majority of bovine population is concentrated among the smallholders who mainly follow traditional and unscientific feeding, breeding and housing, affecting the milk production directly or indirectly. It is necessary to solve the ground level problems of such farmers by providing trainings to them regarding challenge feeding, artificial insemination (AI), regular screening of animals for diseases, deworming and vaccination along with hygienic procuring, processing, storing and transporting of milk. Apart from this, at institute level advance technologies like genomic selection and use of sexed semen can set a new benchmark in improving individual animal’s productivity which in turn will help in socio-economic upliftment of the small and marginal farmers.
Keywords: Artificial Insemination, Livelihood, Milk production, Smallholders.
Introduction
Globally the milk production has reached 884 million tonnes (MT) in 2021 with India being the largest producer of milk and contributing 24.64 per cent share to the total production. The total milk production of India in the year 2022-23 was 230.58 MT with per capita availability of 459 g/d, where majority of the milk production contribution was from smallholders. Dairy animals play a greater role in the life of the smallholders in terms of their livelihood, food security and nutrition. In majority of rural areas of the country, milk is a source of revenue generation to the farmers and is employing more than eight crore farmers directly. As per 20th livestock census, India stands at the top in livestock population (535.78 million), cattle population (192.49 million), buffalo population (109.85 million) and bovine population (302.79 million). Although the bovine population is highest in India but, the productivity per animal is still very low as compared to other countries, the reasons for which can be traditional and unscientific rearing practices followed by most of the livestock farmers. In this article, an effort will be made to discuss the constraints faced by the livestock farmers in rearing the animals and easy package of practices will be briefed to boost up the productivity and improve the income of farmers.
Growth of dairy farming
Indian dairy industry saw the development with the initiation of five year plans. Under the Key Village Scheme (KVS) which was started during first five year plan (1951- 56), artificial insemination (AI) was established at 146 key village blocks. Although from 1961-1970 several breeding programmes, milk co-operative societies, veterinary dispensaries, goshalas and gosadhans were established and the bovine population increased greatly but, the total milk production barely increased from 20.4 MT to 20.8 MT and to meet the requirements of the country’s population, large amount of milk and milk products were imported from other countries. To overcome this problem, a co-operative milk movement, Operation flood programme was launched in three phases for over three decades. In this programme, a simple idea of leaving the middle-men and bridging the gap between producers and consumers was applied. With this, the farmers got good price for their milk and it encouraged them to produce larger quantities of milk. During the first phase of operation flood (1970-1980), 13,000 village co-operatives were established covering 15,000 farmers; while during second phase (1981-1985), 34,500 village co-operatives covered 36 lakh farmers and during the last phase (1985-1994), 9.4 million farmers were covered under 73,300 dairy village co-operatives. This movement not only helped the farmers to improve their milk production but also encouraged them to get involved in the production of different dairy products thereby, reducing the dependency on imported milk and milk products. Annual growth rate in milk production was 4% since 1970 and India reached the highest milk producing country in the world in 2006.
Present Dairy farming scenario
As per 2022-23 data, exotic cow produces an average milk yield of 11.42 kg/day, cross-bred cow gives 8.41 kg/day, indigenous cow 4.17 kg/day, non-descript cow 2.87 kg/day and buffalo 6.06 kg/day. In a decade, milk production increased by approximately 58%.
Challenges faced by Indian dairy farmers
Poor quality animals: Most of the farmers in the rural areas are rearing the non-descript breeds of cattle and buffalo which produce lower quantity of milk when compared to cross-bred and exotic breeds. The main reason for low quality animals and lack of genetic improvement in these animals is the unavailability of high genetic merit indigenous and exotic bulls.
Non-availability of feed: Majority of the animals which are reared by smallholders need to acquire their nutritional requirements from extensive grazing alone. Ad libitum quantity of the nutritive green or dry fodder will not be available for grazing throughout the year for the animals. Thereby, the nutrients acquired by grazing will be sufficient just for maintenance of animal and the productivity will be lowered. On the other hand, high cost of concentrates and mineral mixtures makes it difficult for small farmers to purchase the feed.
Poor quality feed: With the increasing human population and urbanization, availability of land for agriculture has decreased and requirement of nutritive food for growing human population has increased. The land now available for pastoral grazing is decreasing and also to avoid feed competition between humans and animals, animals are commonly being fed with left over feed residues which are of poor nutritive value.
Artificial Insemination: To improve the quality of animals, Artificial Insemination (AI) programmes are being implemented throughout the country. But the success rates of AI is very low because of many reasons like, lack of AI technicians in the remote rural areas, poor heat detection and silent heat specially in buffaloes, poor insemination timings and lack of maintenance of freezing chain which is more important for sperm viability.
Repeat breeding and infertility problems: At rural levels, repeat breeding cases are increasing which can be because of inaccuracies in heat detection or insemination timings or due to uterine infection, hormonal imbalance, delayed ovulation or embryonic death. Animals are not monitored on regular basis for diseases; even in case of abortions, the reproductive tract of the female is not thoroughly examined for any infection and the animal is let outsuch for grazing. The infection causing organisms thereby lower the conception rates, reducing the lifetime milk yield of female.
Climate change: The effects of climate change on the productivity of animals are to a greater extent. The rising ambient temperature where the temperature humidity index (THI) is more than 85 is causing severe heat stress to the animals, lowering their immune status and making them susceptible to different infectious and non-infectious diseases. When the animals (specially the high yielding animals) are let out for grazing during hotter parts of the day, to protect themselves from solar radiations they seek shade and prefer consuming larger quantities of water rather than grazing which will result in drastic reduction in milk production. When the animals solely have to depend on grazing for nutrients, they will be completely deprived of nutrients resulting in lean and debilitated condition, affecting growth, reproduction and production of animal.
Inadequate housing facilities: Due to high cost of raw materials required for shed design, dairy farmers usually prepare unscientific sheds where the floors are uneven with no proper drainage facilities making it difficult for hygienic waste disposal. The accumulated waste in the sheds will act as media for growth of micro-organisms which cause different diseases in animals.
Lack of knowledge among farmers: Although several scientific technologies are being developed at institutional levels to improve the productivity of animals but such practices are not reaching the farmers to implement at their farm level. Even if the farmers are aware of the technologies, they do not adopt them as they are scared to take risks.
Poor health of milch animals: Due to unscientific and unhygienic practices, most of the animals suffer from diseases like Foot and Mouth disease, brucellosis, tuberculosis and pasteurellosis. Most of farmers fail to seek veterinary care in time worsening the condition of animals. Apart from this, the dairy animals reared by smallholders are more commonly infested with ticks, mites and lice causing diseases like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, trypanosomiasis etc affecting the health as well as productivity to a greater level.
Mitigation strategies: The productivity of individual bovine can be significantly improved by proper care and management from the foetal level. The strategies that can be adopted to improve individual animal’s productivity can be classified as: 1. Feeding management 2. Breeding management 3. Housing system and 4.General management
- Feeding management: Although there is a feed and fodder shortage in the country,we have to look out for the alternative options to meet the nutritive requirements of the Also, the availability of green fodder throughout the year is difficult. The alternative preservative methods that can be adopted to provide nutrient rich feed throughout the year to animals is by preserving the surplus feed and fodder in the form of silage and hay and providing it to animals during lean season.
During summer, the availability of green fodder is very minimal and the animals most commonly feed on the dry fodder like straw and stover which are very low in nutrients. The nutritive value of such dry fodder can be enriched by treating it with urea and molasses. This treatment improves the nitrogen content, palatability and digestibility of straw.
Farmers should adopt practices like feeding their animals as per their body weight as a thumb rule to meet the requirements of the animals. Animals in third trimester of gestation should be provided with 20% extra feed which will be utilised exclusively for the growth of the foetus. In high yielding animals, two weeks prior to the expected date of calving, animals should be provided with increased amount of concentrate feed which is generally referred to as challenge feeding. Initially start with 500 g of concentrate feed and increase the quantity on a daily basis by 300-400 g until the cow is consuming 500-1000 g per 100 kg body weight. This kind of challenge feeding will adjust her digestive system for increased amount of concentrates and provide essential nutrients which will be enough to maintain lactation on a higher plane.
In order to maintain the persistency in milk production during lactation, cows should be provided with 1 kg of extra concentrate for every 2.5 kg of milk, and buffaloes should be provided with 1 kg of concentrates for every 2 kg of milk produced.
To avoid the effects of heat stress on production of the animals, allow the animals to graze early in the morning and late in the evening. Animals should always be provided with clean and potable water. Instead of continuous grazing, rotational grazing system can be adopted where, the entire grazing land will be divided into small paddocks and the animals are allowed into single paddock at a time and other portions rest. This practise will reduce the incidence of overgrazing.
To reduce cost of feeding, farmers can adopt the concept of complete feeding where the roughages and concentrates are mixed together in a desired proportion and processed in such a way as to avoid selective eating.
- Breeding management: The animals which are very poor in the production should beculled and replaced with better On a regular basis, in larger farms nearly 20% of the old stock should be replaced with newer young and active heifers. Genetically superior females should be selected for breeding either based on individual animal’s records or pedigree records.
At places where natural mating is practised, genetically superior bulls which are healthy, active, free from physical deformities have to be maintained and also to avoid chances of inbreeding, regular purchase or exchange of bulls should be followed.
To increase the rate of conception through AI, farmers as well as the AI technicians should be provided with the trainings regarding heat detection and timely insemination. The newly developed techniques of heat detection like heat mount detectors, pedometers, inked chin bowls or vasectomised bulls can be used for heat detection. The semen straws should be kept in the liquid nitrogen cans where a temperature of -196 ⁰C is maintained. On regular basis, the cans should be checked for the liquid nitrogen levels and to improve the conception rates, proper thawing of semen straws prior to insemination should be practised.Infertility problems are the major concerns which require great attention. The primary cause of infertility should be understood. In majority of animals, inadequate diet is major reason which can be easily rectified by providing nutritive diet to animals. In case of abortions and uterine infections, treatment protocol should be followed and only after the complete recovery, animal should be bred.
- Housingsystem: Scientific sheds with locally available cost effective materials should be designed for housing the dairy animals. A proper drainage system should be made so that, the floor on which the animals stand and lie down is kept dry and clean. Proper ventilation should be provided so that the stale air flows out and fresh air circulates in the To reduce the effects of heat stress, ceiling fans, wall mount fans, sprinklers etc can be installed in the sheds. At the entrance of the shed, foot dip should be present which has to be filled with antiseptic solution to reduce the chances of diseases.
- General management: A regular deworming and vaccination schedule should be Animals on a regular basis, should be screened for diseases like tuberculosis, brucellosis etc. The animals found positive to diseases should be culled. Diseased animals should be prominently identified, segregated from rest of the herd and thoroughly treated for the condition. The newly purchased animal should be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days to check for any incidence of disease.
Apart from these management practices, the government has to take measures like providing training and field demonstrations to the farmers to adopt new technologies and seek veterinary care when needed. A proper marketing channel should be established for farmers for sale of milk and milk products and encourage farmers specially the youths to take up dairy farming by providing subsidies along with training. At institute levels, genomic selection can be adopted to increase the population of high genetic merit animals and also sexed semen straws can be supplied at field levels to speed up the genetic improvement.
Conclusion
Dairy farming has been backbone of many small and marginal farmers. The business is providing direct employment to more than eight crore farmers. There are many factors and practices which are limiting the individual animal’s productivity. Those practices can be changed by educating our farmers through training programmes regarding the scientific management practices related to feeding, breeding, housing and health care. Apart from this, to meet the standards of urban population, the milk that is obtained from animals should be properly processed, preserved, stored and transported. In order for India to maintain top position in milk production, it is necessary to provide more concentration towards small holders and improve their practices which will not only improve the individual animal’s productivity but will also encourage other farmers and youths of the nation to take up dairy farming.
References:
- 20thLivestock Census, by Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairing and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, of India; 2019.
- Basicanimal husbandry statistics (BAHS); MoFAHD, DAHD,
- DAHDAnnual Report 2022-23.
