Speaking on the occasion of “National Milk Day” Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that 10 semen centres have been identified for the production of Sex Sorted Semen for the production of more female animals. It is essential to have good quality livestock breed in order to increase production, he added.
Proposals for two centres, in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, have been approved. The foundation stone of sex sorted semen centre in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand was laid in June 2018. Besides, INDUSCHIP has been developed for genomic selection of indigenous breeds and 6000 dairy animals have been genetically evaluated using it.
He informed that under the RGM, 20 Gokul Grams in 13 states at a total cost of Rs 197 crore have been approved. Apart from this, Under the Pashu Sanjivni component of the scheme, 9 crore milch animals are being identified using UID (Unique Identification Device).
He further added that 20 Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT) centres are being established in the country and proposal of 19 centres have been approved so far. These centres are producing 3000 high genetic merit bulls of indigenous bovine breeds.
The Minister informed that this year a new scheme the Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) has been initiated by the government. It aims to benefit 95 lakh milk producers in 50,000 villages and provide both direct and indirect employment to many skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.