Though India boasts of a rich and diverse pool of genetic resources, livestock quality in the country in terms of disease resistance and milk yield, leaves much to be desired. No doubt, today, India is the largest milk producer in the world even as the per capita milk-yield continues to be below world standards.
While India boasts of the world’s largest livestock population, India’s per capita ownership of the dairy animals is abysmally low at 0.15.Poor infrastructure for the genetic improvement of cows and buffaloes and a glaring failure to make optimal use of feed and fodder is at the root for the poor productivity of dairy animals in the country. Even so India boasts of some of the prized and most sought after cattle breeds. Significantly, sometime back, a media report had revealed the theft of a large quantity of Murrah buffalo semen from a sperm bank in Hissar in Haryana. Murrah on an average yield 32 litres of milk per....
