Milk farmers in Jharkhand will soon be able to choose a pack of semen that would ensure birth of female calf, thereby reducing the burden of rearing male calf or bull which becomes useless for those who are not into farming.
Jharkhand Milk Federation(JMF) under the state animal husbandry department is all set to enter into an agreement with theNational Development Board(NDDB) that has indigenously developed theArtificial Insemination(AI) technology of sexed semen that ensures birth of female calf last year.
NDDB had already worked to provide dairy farmers with sexed semen in states likeBihar,Assamand some states in South India.
The AI facility was available in the state earlier andBharatiya Agro Industries Foundation(BAIF) used to operate centres across all the districts. The BAIF centres, however, provided semen for breed improvement, thus targeting more milk production. For some technical reasons the arrangement with BAIF was discontinued by the State Government almost five years ago.
India is worlds largest milk producer, with 22% of global production. Jharkhand still lags in milk production. Farmers have repeatedly raised the demand for AI centres so that they can obtain quality semen for their cows. JMF officials said that the demand for female calves by farmers encouraged them to approach the NDDB for a solution.