Report by Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing examines National Dairy Development Board's (NDDB) role in protecting and developing indigenous cattle breeds in achieving the targets set under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission.

Status of Indigenous Breeds of Cattle and Buffaloes

• India officially recognizes 53 indigenous cattle breeds and 21 indigenous buffalo breeds.
• Average daily milk productivity: For indigenous cattle rose to 3.54 kg by 2023-24, and for buffaloes to 5.92 kg.
  • Despite increase, productivity remains significantly lower than exotic/crossbred cattle (8.52 kg/day in 2023-24) and international benchmarks (e.g., Israel: 13656 kg/year, USA: 10954 kg/year for cattle in 2022).

Reasons for Low productivity

• Limited Artificial Insemination (AI) coverage: AI coverage is restricted to only about 30% of breedable bovines across the country.
• Shortage AI technicians: Against a requirement of 2,02,469 AI technicians, only 1,16,586 are currently available.
• Poor scalability: More than 80% of low-producing indigenous animals are reared by small and marginal farmers and landless laborers.

Key Recommendations

• Revision of Criteria for Critical Cattle and Buffalo Breeds: To a minimum population of 50,000 animals to ensure a sufficient reference population for genomic selection and to provide a buffer against mass eradication from disease.
• Inclusive Breed Improvement Programmes: To include state-dominant indigenous breeds from all states of the country to prevent their replacement by a few high-yielding breeds.
• Fix accountability:Disincentivize shortfalls and fix responsibility for recurring issues in semen production and sale across all semen stations, ensure sex-sorted semen production and distribution, etc.