Low productivity of Indian Dairy Animals : Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
Abstract
The Indian Dairy industry plays a critical role in achieving food security, creating employment opportunities, reducing poverty and providing a regular source of income to rural households, and improving the overall country’s financial improvement. This article primarily focuses on the principle dairy animal of India i.e. “Cow”. The Indian Dairy Industry faces many challenges, this Article aims to highlight these challenges and possibly provide mitigation strategies to increase production.
Key Words
Challenges, Mitigation, Dairy Industry, Animal Husbandry, Milk Production, Livestock Health Management, Livestock.
1. Introduction
According to the 20th Livestock Census, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, total bovine population in India is 303 million, amounting to production of 221.1 million Tonnes of milk in the year 2021-22. See graph (Figure 01) as obtained from ICAR 2022-23 Annual Report correlating Annual Growth Rate and Milk Production.
From this data we observe that there has been a steady growth of milk production in India. This growth peaked in 2017-18 at 6.62%. Though there has been a growth in milk production, the growth rate has decreased in recent years.
Nonetheless, Dairy production in our country has increased many folds. However, to increase the growth rate and to increase the efficiency of our dairy sector certain constraints must be listed and correspondingly firm actions at both government policy level and individual level must be taken.
Animal Husbandry involves many aspects: (Figure 02)
- Proper Feeding
- Housing
- Sanitation
- Health Management
- Efficient Marketing
- Educating Farmers
- Upgrading Policies
- Proper Breeding
2. Challenges and Mitigation Strategies
The Dairy industry suffers from multiple challenges and constraints and to mention a few:
- Scarcity of Feed and Fodder
- Lack of proper Housing and Sanitation
- Lack of Healthcare for animals
- Inefficient Marketing
- Environmental Factors like climate and geography
- Improper Breeding Techniques and Lack of high producing gene pools
- Archaic or inexistent policies
- Lack of awareness among Farmers
2.1 Scarcity of Feed and Fodder
2.1.1 CHALLENGES:
Birthal and Jha (2005) in their study estimated that feed scarcity is the most important challenge of the Indian Dairy Industry and accounts for nearly half of the total losses in production. Lack of proper feed and unbalanced nutrition is one of the key causes of lower productivity in India. Various forms of feed challenges are shown in Dairy Industry like:
- Low availability of quality nutritious fodder
- Unavailability of green fodder
- High price of concentrate mixture
- Land constraints to grow fodder crops
Available fodder is often of inferior quality and can get contaminated by antinutritional factors and other foreign materials due to improper storage and maintenance. Hence there is a pressing need to develop low cost fodder technology for enriching the quality of fodder. Indigenous cattle suffer from nutrient deficiency that many farmers are unaware of. Also, Lack of awareness among farmers, causes unavailability of certain technologies to livestock for example Urea Molasses which increases palatability and nutrient content in feed and is readily available in premier Agricultural Institutes. Singh et al. (2013) in their study projected that by 2025 there is an expected deficit of 65% of green fodder and 25% of dry fodder in the Indian livestock industry. Also, increasing pressure on land for production of human food crops for human population and development of human habitat is dwindling the available pasture and fodder crop lands.
2.1.2 Mitigation Strategies
Silage, Hay, Bailing process help in storing and preserving the feed and fodder resources. Mixing Silage with Molasses and Urea increases palatability and nutrient content of the feed. These processes can help make feed available to cattle throughout the year. Feeding animals according to their body weight can help provide them with required nutrients.
The Agro Industry generates a large amount of waste. Some of these byproducts can be used for animal feedstuff. Certain bioactive compounds derived from fruits and vegetables processes have a substantial application on Animal nutrition.
Conserving what’s left of pasture lands, seasonal rotation in common grazing grounds, growing human food crops whose residues which can be used to feed animals can help mitigate the feed challenges of the Indian Dairy Industry.
2.2 Health Management
2.2.1 CHALLENGES
Many Health Management issues are faced by the Dairy Industry primarily due to:
- Small farmers being unable to afford Treatment costs
- Limited Veterinary Hospitals and care in rural areas
- Limited methodology to isolate and treat sick animals
Impacting the overall care of Animal health.
Diseases like FMD, Bovine Pneumonia, Rinderpest, Brucellosis, Mastitis are common In Dairy animals. Animals can become more susceptible to these diseases due to poor sanitary conditions and undernutrition. Low and middle income group farmers due to cost constraints delay and sometimes even deny proper Veterinary care to livestock which can add up worse adverse effects of many diseases.
Birthal and Jha (2005) paper reported a staggering loss of INR 14,039 Million in Northern States Due to diseases alone, while The Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and surveillance in a 2011 study found that mastitis caused a loss of INR 5000 crores in India.
2.2.2 Mitigation Strategies
Labor forces who work on ground with animals must be taught proper methods and practices of care and management of animals. Proper feeding of a balanced diet with ample nutrients, timely cleaning of housing, checking animals for parasites, deworming procedures, hoof trimming and providing proper exercise to animals can dramatically increase animal health and production. Mastitis can be prevented by following a proper milking routine, hygienic milking practices, proper milking techniques (Avoiding Knuckle method at all costs), housing and bedding management.
Efficient and responsive veterinary networks are vital for the development of dairy. Providing veterinary services at the doorstep of farmers is essential for animal health. Mobile veterinary hospitals initiative taken by various state governments and the most recently by Uttar Pradesh government with mobile veterinary units with capabilities even of “surgical facility” is a major step in the direction of good health of animals and production. The UP government launched 540 Mobile Veterinary ambulances with capacity of vaccine, drugs, veterinarian etc. in 2022. While the Central Government has released a sum of Rs.681.57 Crore to 33 States/UTs including hilly regions and North Eastern States, towards procurement & customization of 4332 Mobile Veterinary Units (MVUs) during the year 2021-22 as per the Minister for Fisheries, Animal husbandry & Dairying.
2.3 Proper Breeding
2.3.1 CHALLENGES:
Focusing solely on increasing milk productivity of animals is leading to formation of new cattles which have dangerously low adaptability to regional climate and also reduced immunity to diseases thereby reducing productivity in the long run. We are also losing the gene pool of our indigenous cattle due to rampant and irresponsible cross breeding leading to continuous erosion and loss of indigenous cattle diversity. This way we might lose the massive gene pools of cattle across India that are adapted to various climatic conditions of our country. A March 2023 study report by ICAR-ATARI reported that exotic and high breed animals are more prone to diseases as compared to local indigenous breeds. Exotic and high breed animals also show low adaptability to heat stress and climate changes as compared to indigenous breeds.
2.3.2 Mitigation Strategies
Our Indigenous Milch breeds like Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi and Tharparkar are well adapted to harsh climate conditions. They also show great resistance to diseases and the extreme climate of our country. Gir is known for its hardiness and disease resistance and has been exported to Brazil to produce high producing and disease resistant breeds.
Various projects like National Project for cattle and buffalo breeding, Progeny testing program, National Bull Production Programs and extension of Frozen Semen technology are great initiatives taken by the government and are expected to intensify breed improvement programs and minimize losses due to poor performing breeds while also conserving and understanding more about our Indigenous breeds.
2.4 Liberal Rules on Ban of Slaughtering Cattle
Indian Conditions have a large number of stray cattle that are left to roam on roads. These stray cattle do not have access to proper veterinary care and feed. These cattle not only often cause nuisance to the public but also are major carriers of diseases like FMD and Lumpy skin disease. Recent outbreak of Lumpy skin disease can be taken as an example. First case of LSD in India was observed in Odisha (Sudhakar et al. 2020). The outbreak of the disease in 2022 had infected around 29.45 lakh cattle and caused nearly 1.55 lakh deaths while spreading havoc across 251 districts in 15 states of India as reported by ICAR-ATARI in March 2023. This report also observed that stray cattle pose a high risk problem because they are comparatively weaker and have low immunity in general and are difficult to isolate. Overcrowded cattle Ashrams are a hotpot of communicable diseases. These ashrams should be provided sufficient funding, Veterinarian presence with facilities to perform surgery or administer drugs and vaccines should be a must or if these facilities are unavailable then proper slaughterhouses access and liberal laws for culling of diseased cattle, can protect the vital producing bovine population of our country.
3. Conclusion
India has shown tremendous growth in the Dairy Industry due to the hard work of Dr V Kurien. We celebrate National Milk Day to honor the Father of White Revolution, The Milk man of India. His thoughts and ideas helped the Indian Dairy Industry reach astounding heights hence remembering him young students must walk forward share their ideas and innovative techniques to make Indian Dairy Industry reach new heights.
4. Future Prospects
Our country has one of the largest Bovine Populations in the world. Our Indigenous cattle are show hardiness and great adaptation to harsh climate. Hence, we have the gene pool of good cattle which can be bred to increase productivity. We have a large labor force to tend to cattle, they just need to be taught proper management practices. Multiple well-established institutes across the country consisting of Veterinary Colleges and Hospitals, Agricultural Universities are constantly producing and innovating new techniques and methodologies to increase production of our dairy industry.
The Indian domestic dairy demand is very high but due to the efforts and innovations by Dr V. Kurien and farmers of the dairy industry our country went from being a net importer of Dairy to achieving the top place in Milk production in the world. There is a huge foreign market for dairy for us to tap into and it can bring huge economic gains and innovation to the players in the dairy industry.
Bibliography
References:
- Birthal, P. S., & Jha, A. K. (2005). Economic losses due to various constraints in dairy production in India. The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, 75(12).https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/IJAnS/article/view/9411
- Singh, R.K, and Singh, Krishna M. and Jha, Awadhesh and Kumar, Abhay, A Micro Analysis of Fodder Production and Marketing in Bihar (December 19, 2015). Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 85 (12): 1379–1383, December 2015/Article, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2705779
- Sudhakar S.B., Mishra N, Kalaiyarasu S.Lumpy skin disease (LSD) outbreaks in cattle in Odisha state, India in August 2019: Epidemiological features and molecular studies. Transbound Emerging Diseases. 2020;67:2408– 2422. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.13579
- Indian Council of Agriculture Research- Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ICAR-ATARI), LudhianaMarch 2023 Report on LSD
- Annual Report 2022-23 by “Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries and Animal husbandry and Dairying, Government of India”: 20th Livestock Census
Image Sources:
- Figure 01 is obtained from Annual Report 2022-23 by “Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries and Animal husbandry and Dairying, Government of India”
- Figure 02 is produced by the Author
- The Representational Image of Cattle on Page 1 is a “stock photo image” therefore is copyright free.
