Padma awardee offers to provide Murrah semen to dairy farmers

Vishal Joshi
Tribune News Service
Kurukshetra, March 11

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Narender Singh, a 47-year-old Padma Shri awardee progressive farmer, has announced to start free distribution of high-quality doses of semen of Murrah breed bulls among dairy farmers of Haryana.

A resident of Didwari village in Panipat, Narender told The Tribune here recently that his decision was a gesture to payback to society in recognition of the civilian award conferred on him at the Republic Day function this year.

He was at Kurukshetra University to participate in an inspirational talk with students in ‘Apni Baat’ programme.

“The improvement of livestock breeds is my passion and my cattle have been winning various championships since 2004. I got Padma Shri for successfully venturing into rearing of livestock, particularly Murrah bull Golu, who is known for producing scores of high-milk yielding buffaloes in Haryana and other places through artificial insemination,” he said.

Narender, who is also the president of the Haryana Murrah Buffalo Breeders’ Association, said he now wanted to assist dairy farmers in enhancing the milk yield of buffaloes and improve their financial position.

“I will soon start holding village-level camps for free distribution of high-quality semen of Murrah. I will also motivate people to be enterprising and avail incentives and subsidies of various government schemes,” said the progressive farmer.

Narender said as a social gesture, he had donated a progeny of Golu worth Rs 20 lakh to the semen bank of Hisar-based Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in 2009.

He said he had to venture into farming after his father died at an early age.

“I could not attend college but was able to make farming a highly profitable avocation. Today, I have about 150 high-quality head of cattle, including indigenous breeds of cows and Murrah. My wife Roshni Devi takes complete care of the dairy business,” he said.

‘To be certified by state agencies’

• Progressive farmer Narender Singh said the semen doses proposed to be distributed by him free of cost to dairy farmers would be certified by the state agencies
• Narender, who is president of the Haryana Murrah Buffalo Breeders’ Association, said they had been demanding a law to regulate semen banks
• He said the association hails the Haryana Animal (Registration, Certification and Breeding) Bill, 2019, as it would boost the dairy sector in Haryana and check the spurious sale of semen doses