Buffalo boom

At the time the project was launched,the number of buffaloes in Punjab had reduced from 61 lakh to just 32 lakh in a little over a decade till 2010.

“The average milk yield of buffaloes is quite low,around 1,500 litres per lactation (290 days in a year). Farmers’ incomes can be enhanced only by improving milk productivity,which can be done by upgrading the breed through artificial insemination using high-quality semen that has the potential to ensure up to 4,000 litres per lactation,” says the secretary of the Punjab State Farmer Commission,Dr Balwinder Singh Sidhu.

“Under the project,around 200 Integrated Buffalo Development Centers were started in the first phase in Kandi,Bet,and waterlogged areas of the state to provide AI services at the farmers’ doorstep. Milkfed Punjab was designated as the end implementing agency and it engaged two NGOs — BAIF and JK Trust — for executing the programme,” Dr Sidhu says.

Dr R S Jadhav,additional chief programme coordinator of BAIF,says,“We started providing the AI services in identified villages around the IBDCs. We are using the semen of buffaloes with a potential to produce 4,000 litres of milk per lactation,and of cows to produce 7,000 litres. Our target is to deliver 1,000 calves per centre during the project period of five years.”

In all,5.32 lakh instances of artificial insemination were carried out in the state between late 2010 and June this year,of which BAIF accounts for 2.98 lakh and JK Trust 2.34 lakh at their respective centres. Every centre covers five to six villages. As of June,1.11 lakh calves (61,000 buffalo,50,000 cow) were born with BAIF accounting for 71,430 as against JK Trust’s 39,409,says Dr Sidharth of Milkfed. He says Milkfed has a frozen semen station at Khanna with modern processing facilities.

“After providing training in AI,we have employed local youths at a salary of Rs 3,500 to help us with the task. They also get incentives on confirmation of pregnancy and delivery of calves,” says Anilpati Tripathi,district programme officer of BAIF. He says one of their centres,in Hoshiarpur,has conducted 200 AI instances per month and the results in Ropar district too are quite good.

The IBDCs have liquid nitrogen gas containers and AI kits. Farmers pay the NGO Rs 30 per insemination. This money is deposited with Milkfed,Punjab,which is using the fund to create a corpus to run IBDCs once the contract with the NGOs ends.

Dr Sidhu says the progress of the project is quite encouraging with farmers showing a lot of interest as they want to increase milk production. The calves under this project will mature in two to three years and their milk productivity will be monitored before the proposal to extend the project across the state is taken up,he adds.

An added advantage of the IBDCs has come in the form of help to farmers on de-worming,vaccination,first aid,management and supply of fodder seed.