National Dairy Plan-I

For Genetic improvement of Cattle and buffaloes of the country following projects pertaining to Animal Breeding were supported under NDP I:

  • Progeny Testing (PT) projects
  • Pedigree Selection (PS) projects
  • Strengthening of semen stations.
  • Bull production through imported Embryos
  • Import of pure Holstein and Jersey bulls
  • Genomic selection

Progeny Testing Project:

  • Under NDP-I, 14 Progeny Testing projects covering 9 States involving 12 End Implementing Agencies (EIAs) were implemented with a total outlay of Rs. 203.54 Crores. The Cattle breeds included under this programme were Pure Holstein Friesian, HF cross-bred, Jersey cross-bred and Gir while in buffaloes the breeds covered were Murrah and Mehsana.
  • All these 14 projects together, evaluated 1830 young bulls ( 1209 cattle and 796 buffalo), performed 40.53 lakh test AI, while 2.31 lakh animals (including daughters) were put to Milk Recording (MR).
  • By the end of the Project, PT projects together made 2185 HGM bulls were available for distribution to various semen stations of the country.

Table1. Achievements under PT projects

State

Activity

EIA Name

Total outlay (Rs. in Cr.)

Bull completed test

Test AI done

Nominated AI done

Conception Rate%

Animals put to MR

Animals completed MR

HGM bulls made available

HGM bull distributed

Karnataka

PT- HF Pure

Karnataka Milk Federation

           18.34

230

420322

2713

41.3

15359

6147

203

189

Tamil Nadu

PT - CB Jersey

Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Limited

           34.09

325

679492

15571

43.9

55288

44717

271

271

Gujarat

PT- Murrah

Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala

           13.42

121

310277

14755

41.7

15157

12680

217

209

Gujarat

PT- CB HF

Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala

           20.41

215

525571

9007

40.7

23039

22603

353

345

Gujarat

PT- Gir

Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala

           13.30

14

39367

2178

42.1

5806

6699

111

96

Gujarat

PT - Mehsana

Banaskantha Milk Union

             8.26

49

159347

2455

35.3

4787

6022

73

65

Gujarat

PT - Mehsana

Mehsana Milk Union

             9.99

83

221279

2982

30.4

8841

9429

98

86

Punjab

PT - Murrah

Punjab Livestock Development Board

           12.68

136

353405

28770

37.7

20373

16028

178

127

Andhra Pradesh

PT - CB Jersey

Andhra Pradesh Livestock Development Agency

           14.72

154

299469

6955

42.5

13178

8445

142

108

Uttar Pradesh

PT - Murrah

Animal Breeding Research Organisation

           10.47

121

263161

12559

45.0

9961

5330

122

93

Haryana

PT- Murrah

Haryana Livestock Development Board

           16.47

172

371863

67883

39.0

30785

26775

195

166

Uttarakhand

PT- CB HF

Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board

             8.09

70

149853

3115

39.6

6025

4941

72

52

Uttar Pradesh

PT- CB HF, UP

BAIF Development Research Foundation

           11.26

80

140418

5516

38.1

12065

10280

93

73

Kerala

PT- CB HF

Kerala Livestock Development Board

           12.03

60

119853

1823

36.7

10982

7623

57

53

Total

             203.54

1830

4053677

176282

 

231646

187719

2185

1933

 

Pedigree Selection Project:

  • Under NDP-I, 9 Pedigree Selection projects were implemented with a total outlay of Rs. 34.19 Crores, covering 5 States and involving 8 EIAs. Various breeds covered under Pedigree Selection programme were Kankrej, Hariana, Rathi, Tharparkar and Sahiwal in cattle and Jaffarabadi, Pandharpuri and Nili Ravi in buffaloes.
  • All these 9 projects together performed around 3.50 lakh AI through 346 functional AI centres. Total 25979 animals (including daughters) were put to milk recording.
  • By the end of the Project, PT projects together made 271 HGM bulls were available for distribution to various semen stations of the country.

Table 2. Achievements under PS projects

State

Activity

EIA Name

Total Outlay (Rs. in Cr)

No. of Functional AIC

General AI

Nominated AI

Conception Rate%

Animals put to MR

Animals completed MR

HGM bulls made available

HGM bull distributed

Gujarat

PS- Kankrej

Banaskantha Milk Union

       4.03

75

56188

1060

46

2481

3675

49

48

Gujarat

PS- Jaffarabadi

Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala

       4.69

50

79701

5836

37.9

3098

2486

30

25

Rajasthan

PS- Rathi

URMUL Trust

       5.69

42

72287

2518

34.2

3507

2316

31

31

Haryana

PS- Hariana

Haryana Livestock Development Board

       4.42

40

14783

4642

49.6

5141

4547

43

43

Maharashtra

PS- Pandharpuri

Maharashtra Livestock Development Board

       3.52

27

30728

2526

44.7

3290

2979

32

19

Punjab

PS- Nili Ravi

Punjab Livestock Development Board

       4.09

36

21814

7358

35.7

2572

2115

14

11

Rajasthan

PS- Tharparkar

Rajasthan Livestock Development Board

       2.42

27

26153

1133

44.6

1722

543

18

14

Punjab

PS- Sahiwal

Punjab Livestock Development Board

       2.29

25

13086

2562

43.5

1104

878

28

23

Rajasthan

PS- Sahiwal

Ganganagar Milk Union

       3.04

24

35576

2046

46.6

3064

721

26

25

Total

34.19

346

350316

29681

43

25979

20260

271

239

Semen Station Strengthening Projects:

  • Total 28 “A” and “B” graded semen stations from 16 states were strengthened under NDP-I with a total outlay of Rs. 294.98 Crores.
  • Under these projects, Semen Station Management Software (SSMS) were rolled out to all the 28 semen stations for managing daily routine activities and inventory management. Beside this, SSMS was made available to 5 more “A” or “B “ graded semen stations of the country.
  • 20 semen stations were provided with Computer Aided Semen Analysers  (CASA) and are being used routinely for objective quality assessment. 

Bull Production through imported Embryos:

  • Under NDP-I, Five sub projects have been approved for production of bull calves from imported embryos of HF and Jersey breeds. The Participating Agencies (PAs) for the activity are: Haringhata, PBGSBS in West Bengal; Kalsi (Dehradun), ULDB in Uttarakhand; BAIF, Urulikanchan, Pune and JK Trust, Vadgoan Rasai, Pune in Maharashtra and SAG, Bidaj in Gujarat.
  • Under NDP I, a total of 835 imported embryos (324 HF+511 Jersey) were transferred by five Participating Agencies (PAs).
  • An overall pregnancy rate of 35 per cent was achieved. By the end of Project, a total of 239 calves  (130 male and 109 females) were born from these embryo transfers. Total 95 male calves were made available for distribution to various semen stations.

Table 3. Achievements under BPTIE projects

Parameter

Achievement

Holstein Frisian

 

No. of embryos transferred

324

No. of pregnancies

122

Conception Rate (%)

37.6

No. of calvings

103

No. of male calves born

57

No. of male calves made available for distribution

42

Jersey

 

No. of embryos transferred

511

No. of pregnancies

170

Conception Rate (%)

33.3

No. of calvings

136

No. of male calves born

73

No. of male calves made available for distribution

53

Import of Bulls:

  • In order to introduce new and superior genetics, Seventy six purebred HF and Ninety five purebred Jersey bulls were imported, respectively under NDP-I and distributed to various “A” and “B “ graded semen stations of the country. 

Genomic Selection:

  • Under the Innovative projects of NDP I, a project entitled “”Developing Genomic Selection Methodology for various cattle breeds in India” was implemented by Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Bidaj (SAGB with the technical assistance of NDDB. Under this project, “INDUSCHIP” –a customised medium density chip developed by NDDB was used for genotyping of 9576 cattle. Standardised genomic breeding value estimation procedures for Gir, HF crossbred and Jersey crossbreds cattle. Accordingly, selection of male calves based on genomic breeding value was initiated at field level.
  • In addition to the above, NDDB also provided technical guidance to Animal Breeding Research Organization  (ABRO) for implementing a project entitled “Developing and Validating genotyping microarray chip for buffaloes for genomic selection” under NDP I. A de novo haplotype phased genome assembly “NDDB_ABRO_Murrah” of riverine buffaloes was developed for the first time. It may be considered as a milestone in buffalo genomics. Two hundred and ninety-six animals of nine breeds of riverine buffaloes and swamp buffalo were re-sequenced for identifying Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to develop a genotyping chip - “BUFFCHIP” - suitable for genotyping of Indian buffalo populations. So far 4992 Murrah and Mehsana buffaloes have been genotyped using BUFFCHIP.