To promote desi cows, govt orders semen from Brazil

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi led government, which has been keen to promote domestic cow breeds over the Jersey ones currently popular in various parts of the country, has entered into an agreement with Brazil to get one lakh doses of semen of the Gir variety of bulls for artificial insemination.
“Within one-and-a-half months, the agreed doses of semen of our indigenous Gir bulls will be available in the country,” Sanjeev Balyan, minister of state for animal husbandry told ET. “This will be distributed across the state to promote breeding of indigenous cows within the country.”

In 2017, the government tried to import the frozen semen from Brazil, but postponed the decision due to objection from cattle breeders.

Gir or Gyr is one of the principal Zebu breeds that originated in India. It was gifted by the Maharaja of Bhavnagar to Brazil in 18th century and Brazil has preserved the original breed of Gir cows. Over the years, Gir has become a high milk-producing breed and is quite popular in South American countries due to its ability to survive extreme weather.

On the other hand, India saw a constant decline in the number of indigenous varieties as farmers preferred breeds like Jersey, which yield more milk than the local variety.

According to the 2012 livestock census, there were 151.17 million indigenous cattle. The livestock census for 2019 will be released soon and the government expects a significant decline in indigenous cattle numbers.

The animal husbandry ministry is also rapidly working to tag all cattle in the country.

“We have, as of now, tagged 2.28 crore cattle across the country,” Balyan told ET.

“Around 27,000 cows and buffaloes are getting tagged every day. Once this is complete, we will also start tagging other livestock such as lamb and goats.” The tags will provide a unique identity to cattle and the data will have details such as breed, productivity and approximate age.