Experts at National Milk Day, organised by College of Dairy Technology of Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), on Monday stressed on conserving and promoting Indian indigenous cattle breeds and improving its milk productivity.
They said the number of indigenous cattle breeds having higher adaptability; disease resistance and feed efficiency ratio was declining fast due to government’s continued focus on exotic germplasm based cross breeding. The situation was further worsened by unregulated blood levels in the cross breed progeny, in attempt to increase milk yield indiscriminately.
The event was organised to mark the 97th birth anniversary of Verghese Kurien, father of White Revolution in India. Despite being an engineer, he gave a new dimension to the dairy cooperative movement in India as a result of which India became the largest producer of milk and Amul established as the biggest dairy brand of Asia.
Arun Prasad, Associate Dean, College of Dairy Technology said replacement of indigenous cattle breed farms with foreign breeds started after 1974 as a result of which several indigenous breeds are now facing the threat of extinction. Haryana based National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources has so far identified and characterized 43 Indian cattle breeds including Gir, Rathi, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Nagori, Red Kandhari, Amritmahal , Gangatiri and Bachaur. Milk of foreign breeds Holstein Friesian and Jersey is of A1 category while that of Indian breeds is of A2 category. A2 milk has higher protein content and is better for human health as it increases brain stimulation and immunity power and reduces the risks of cardiovascular diseases.
Speaking on the occasion as chief guest Krishna Murari, Director Dairy Development, Govt of Jharkhand said milk procurement and distribution in the state was just 12 thousand litres four years ago which has increased to one lakh 20 thousand litres. Still per capita milk availability in Jharkhand is only 117 grams per day as compared to national average of 374 grams.
The State is likely to become self reliant in its milk requirement within a couple of years.
BK Roy, MS Yadav, ZA Haider and Sushil Prasad also participated in the deliberation on different aspects of milk and dairy cattle. Awards were given to the following winners of different competitions organized for students on the occasion: Poster making: Sonali Kumari- first, Prakash Kumar- second, Ankita Pandit- third. Essay writing: Anirudha Roy- first, Sneha Raj Sharma- second, Aditya Anand Jha- third, Elucution: Sneha Raj Sharma- first, Gairi Ji- second and Aditya Anand Jha- third.