After Sahiwal, govt promotes Gir cow
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 10
From urine to milk, Punjab’s Animal Husbandry Department tried finding every magical remedy in Sahiwal cow for several years. Now, the department has taken another turn and started selling the idea of Gir cows to dairy farmers.
It is being done despite the fact that the idea of Gir doesn’t find any mention in the Punjab Livestock Breeding Policy-2012. With an aim to undertaking systematic improvement of dairy cattle and their productivity, the livestock breeding policy was introduced in the state in 2012. The policy is valid for 10 years. Thus it will remain valid till 2022.
However, the policy only mentions conservation and improvement of Sahiwal cattle breed among the indigenous breeds. But going against the policy, from last year the department has started selling the idea of Gir breed of cow. Even, a delegation of department officials, led by its financial commissioner, visited Brazil, where the breed is quite popular, to explore the possibility of introducing Gir in Punjab.
Following that, the department has imported Gir semen as well as procured 200 cows from the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. The department has also imported 2,000 straws of semen of Gir bull from Brazil. The department has started distributing it among dairy farmers.
Department sources said these cows had been kept at the Nabha farmhouse of the department. A senior functionary of the department said how the department could introduce a breed which didn’t find any mention in the breeding policy. “They should amend the policy,” he said.
“Till a few months back the department was counting the benefits of the urine of Sahiwal cow and promoting at as a medical remedy to every disease. Now they dream that Gir will be found at every farm. The replacement will be disastrous for Punjab’s commercial dairy farmers as they can’t meet the yield of crossbreed and HF cows,” he said.
As per the 19th Indian Live Stock Census, Sahiwal, Hariana, Rathi and Tharparkar are four breeds of “desi” cows available in Punjab. Sahiwal, which is most commonly used for dairy farming, has a population of 38,500. But the breed makes a little more than one per cent of the total cow population in the state, which is 24 lakh. Due to promotion since 1980, now Holstein Friesian (HF) constitutes more than 96% of the population.
