3 min readPuneJun 9, 2021 01:08 PM IST
First published on: Jun 8, 2021 at 08:38 PM IST
Dairy farmers in Maharashtra will soon be able to procure sex-sorted semen straws at a heavily subsidised price of Rs 81 per straw as against its market value of Rs 1,200 per straw. This is possible thanks to the state and central government heavily subsidising such straws, which are going to be manufactured by international animal genetics giant ABS Global.
Artificial insemination is the act of introducing bull’s semen, in thawed form, into the female reproductive tract of the cow. These straws are made from fresh ejaculate collected from the bull and maintained in farms where pedigree bulls are grown.
A female calf is born if the X chromosome of the sperm combines with the X chromosome of the egg, while a male calf is born if the X chromosome of the egg combines with the Y chromosome of the sperm.
By the law of probability, the chances of a female animal being born is equal to that of a male animal. The latter becomes a non-productive addition to the farmer’s livestock. As Maharashtra has banned the culling of animals of cow progeny, disposal of male animals becomes a problem for farmers.
Sex-sorting technology offers a mechanism to sex-sort the semen, which would eliminate the probability of a male calf by sorting or filtering out Y chromosomes from the bull’s sperm. Across the world, this technology is patented by two US animal genetics giants, Sexing Technologies and ABS Technologies. Given patent and IPR protections, semen straws produced by this technology are available in the market at Rs 1,200-1,300 per straw as against the Rs 45-50 per straw of normal, non-sorted semen.
Addressing a virtual press conference on Tuesday, state Minister for Animal Husbandry Sunil Kedar said a decision to subsidise the price of sex-sorted semen straws was taken to help dairy farmers in the state. An MoU was signed between the Maharashtra Livestock Development Board (MLDB) and ABS Genus’s Genus Breeding India Private Limited, which would see the later supplying sex-sorted semen straws to the state government.
Under this scheme, the state and central government would subsidise the price of the straws heavily.
“ABS had quoted a price far below the base price and thus the straws at the production gate would be priced at Rs 575/dose,” said Kedar. The central government will provide assistance to the tune of Rs 261/straw and the state government’s subsidy of Rs 174/straw will bring down the effective price of one straw to Rs 140.
In the 10 milk-producing districts of Maharashtra, the cooperative dairy unions and private dairies would be paying Rs 100 per straw. With an AI (artificial insemination) charge of Rs 41/dose, the effective rate to be paid by the farmer would be Rs 81/straw.
This would be the lowest price in the world for sex-sorted straws, said Kedar. In districts where dairy unions or companies are not active, MLDB would be bearing the cost.
Genus Breeding India already has a production hub at Chitale Dairy’s Brahmanad Farms, in Palus taluka of Sangli district, where these straws would be produced. As per the agreement between ABS Genus and MLDB, 6.8 lakh straws would be made available for the state in the next five years.
State Minister for Animal Husbandry Sunil Kedar said a decision to subsidise the price of sex-sorted semen straws was taken to help dairy farmers in the state. (File Photo) 
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