4.18 million buffaloes yet to litter even once

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The fertility rate seems to be dropping all around. While reports say it is dropping among people in the country, its cattle too seem to be procreating less.

In fact, the situation is alarming with the animals as over four million buffaloes have not calved even once to date, says the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Haryana.

A concerned Tamil Nadu government has now decided to establish bovine infertility diagnostic and training centres and a state of the art frozen semen bank at Namakkal to arrest the trend.
“The 2007 census placed the number of breedable buffaloes at around 54.48 million in the country.

But 4.18 million of them have not littered even once and about 10 per cent of cattle are sterile,” says Prof Anil Kumar Srivastava, director, NDRI, Haryana, blaming delayed sexual maturity, uterine infections and summer infertility for the worrying trend.

Meanwhile, the state government has sanctioned projects worth Rs 240 crore, which include establishment of a food processing training centre, and mass breeding of ornamental fish.

The government, which is supporting these projects under the national agriculture development programme, has set aside Rs 15.9 crore for monitoring emerging and remerging poultry diseases, according to sources.