Small and marginal farmers in Punjab have high yield of wheat and rice. But their net income often fails to meet the expenses for education, health and other family obligations.
The Punjab State Farmers? Commission plans to help farmers improve productivity of their cattle which will result in higher income. This will be done by introducing high-yield crossbred Holstein Friesian cows in dairy farms, in place of locally bred ones. The commission has also advocated implementing a buffalo breed improvement and management programme in the state.
According to PS Rangi, consultant with the commission, about 6.4 lakh farmers in Punjab cultivate land up to 10 acres. ?Of these, more than three lakh cultivate up to three acres only. The commission had earlier planned to introduce commercial dairy activities in these farms, with at least ten crossbred cows. However, availability of high-yielding cows has been a problem for farmers. With the present trend of reproduction, there is a possibility of setting up 1,500-2,000 commercial dairy farms annually. These will be of major help to small and marginal farmers,? Rangi said. There are around seven lakh breedable cows in the state.
Small farmers also face problems of low buffalo productivity. These farmers, and a large number of landless families, keep one or two buffaloes for supplementary income. But since these are low-yield buffaloes, farmers’ income from milk is also low. The average yield of buffaloes is about 1,300 litre per lactation of about 290 days.
The commission has recommended that there is an urgent need to propagate artificial insemination in buffaloes. The progeny of these buffaloes yield 4,000 litre per lactation. The state can benefit from Haryana?s experience in this regard.
The Farmers? Commission had earlier proposed that Milkfed could be roped in to undertake an intensive buffalo breed development and management programme by involving private players and NGOs. Under the programme, 600 integrated buffalo development centres covering 3,000 villages would be set up in Kandi, Bet, Border and trans-Ghaggar areas at a cost of Rs 60 crore. These centres will come up under the Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Yojana over five years. Two NGOs, JK Trust and BAIF, which have been successfully implementing breed development programmes in other states, will also be involved in this initiative.
Milkfed has the largest milk procurement base in the state, reaching out to about 3.5 lakh milk producers twice a day for collecting milk from 6,438 dairy cooperative societies. On the recommendations of the commission, Milkfed has been given the task to implement this project, which will be monitored by the commission.
The buffalo development centres will function under the guidance of qualified veterinarians and Milkfed will closely monitor the entire process. The cost of setting up one of such centre is around Rs 1.5 lakh, and its operational cost will be around Rs 2 lakh per annum.