Milk yield of indigenous cow breeds can be enhanced through artificial insemination: Vety Director
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, December 23 2019: A seven-day Artificial Insemination Training programme for private artificial insemination workers, MAITRIs (Multipurpose Artificial Insemination Technicians in Rural India) and Veterinary staff concluded in a simple valedictory function held at the conference hall of Intensive Cattle Development Project (ICDP) Complex, Porompat, today.

The training was organised under Rastriya Gokul Mission (RGM) in which 67 trainees from various districts of the State attended from December 16 .

It was organised with an aim to achieve the mission of two projects namely Animal Disease Control Programme and National Artificial Insemination Programme, which were recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 11, in the sector of animal husbandry.

Milk yield of indigenous cow breeds can be enhanced through artificial insemination: Vety Director

Talking to media persons on the sidelines of the function, Veterinary Director Dr H Chaoba informed that the indigenous cow breed found in the hills and valley of Manipur produce merely 1 or 2 litres of milk per day compared to other cow breeds.

However, the milk yield of indigenous cow breeds can be enhanced to around 6 to 7 litres of milk per day through cross breeding with other high milk yielding cow breeds like Sahiwal and Red Sindhi.

He also informed that artificial insemination of sex-sorted semen at strategic location of hill districts like Ukhrul, Chandel, Senapati and Tamenglong has been started minimally to get only female calves for demonstration and mass awareness.

Sex-sorted semen cost around Rs 1000 to 1600 per dose.

However, insemination programmes in the hill districts of Manipur could not be properly implemented owing to the traditional nature of cattle rearing, he added.

The Director appealed to all the farmer fraternity, those who are in the hill areas, to properly rear cattle so that the AI programme can be effectively implemented and the milk production is enhanced as well to achieve the objective of doubling farmer's income by 2022 .

It may be mentioned that "Rashtriya Gokul Mission" was launched by the Government of India for conservation and development of indigenous breeds of livestock in a focused and scientific manner.

The mission also envisages establishment of integrated cattle development centres (Gokul Grams) to develop indigenous breeds including upto 40% non descript breeds.

Rashtriya Gokul Mission is a focused project under National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development which aims to conserve indigenous breeds, improve programme for indigenous cattle breeds for enhanced genetic make-up and increased stock, enhance milk production and productivity, upgrade non descript cattle using elite indigenous breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi, Deoni, Tharparkar, Red Sindhi and distribution of disease free high genetic merit bulls for natural service.

Besides felicitating the trainees, certificates of participation were also distributed to them during the function.

The function was attended by Joint Director (Admin) Dr Ng Ibotombi, Project Officer (ICDP) Dr Kh Shantibala, Deputy Director Dr Khogendra and officials of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department.