NEW DELHI: India’s ongoing Artificial Insemination (AI) programme, which enables farmers to choose the gender of their cattle breeds, is not moving at the desired pace due to low semen production, inadequate supply of sex sorted semen and shortage of trained manpower in the country, a parliamentary panel which submitted its report to Parliament during the recently concluded monsoon session has observed.The AI coverage in the country is currently limited to 30% of the breedable bovines, unlike in developed nations such as the USA, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, where 100% of the bovine population is under AI coverage.At present, there are 61 semen stations in the country. But all of them don’t produce sex sorted semen, the technology which aims to produce female progeny by exploiting the genetics of superior bulls. Its extensive use will increase the number of female animals, helping raise the income of farmers through sale of females or through sale of milk. Use of sex sorted semen will also reduce male cattle population and limit the number of stray cattle.Observing the shortfall in outcomes, the panel — standing committee on agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing — recommended that sex sorted semen production and distribution facility should be made available at all semen stations across the country, to enable farmers to easily choose the gender of their cattle breeds and address the menace of stray animals as well. It also suggested setting up of exclusive semen stations for northeastern states and far-flung places like Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Ladakh and Lakshadweep, and pitched for increasing semen production in the country from 119 million doses to 200 million doses annually, so that the AI coverage can be increased from the existing 30% of breedable bovine females to 70% of breedable bovine females.The panel also observed that despite full utilisation of funds under a scheme to increase yield, the target of raising bovine productivity in the country, in terms of milk per animal per year, from 5.34 Kg/Day in 2021-22 to 8 Kg/Day by 2025-26 could not be achieved.Considering it a failure of the review mechanism, the committee recommended that responsibility be fixed at the reviewing authority levels as to why, despite regular review and monitoring, the productivity target could not be achieved. Though the department of animal husbandry and dairying has revised the timeline for achieving the target to 2029-30, the panel asked why it had to extend the same by four years.
