E-pub.

/vv2014/2

February 20, 2014

Planning AnGR Breeding and Improvement Activities in Jharkhand

Vikas Vohra1

National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal

In

India the livestock population has increased from 485 million to 529.7 million during 2003-2007 with an overall growth of 9.2% (18th All India Livestock census 2007). In the same period cattle population in the country increased by 7.5%; buffalo 7.6%; sheep, and goat by 16.4% and 13% respectively. Also the total poultry birds have increased substantially from 489 million to 648.9 million which is an increase of 32.7% (Table 1). Livestock genetic resources in India comprises of 199 million cattle (16 % of the world) and about 105 millions buffalo (>50 % of the world) besides 83 thousands Yak, 2.64 lakhs 2.64 lakhs Mithun, 75.02 million Sheep, 14.05 million Goat, 53.2 million Pig, 4.74 lakhs Horses, 4.38 lakhs Donkeys, 4.24 lakhs Rabbits and 648.3 million Poultry. Huge Livestock diversity of the country is represented by 34 well defined breeds of cattle; 12 breeds of buffaloes; 40 breeds of Sheep; and 20 breeds of Goat. Out of which 16.5% cattle are descript type and only 6% well defined indigenous milch and best dual purpose breeds among total indigenous cattle population. Still, huge population is undefined and has very low productivity. Managing and planning development activities for such a huge Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) are a colossal task. Today India produces 116.2 million ton milk (2010-11) and is leader in the world in terms of milk production (15% of the total milk of the world), with two times higher growth compared to the world (2.4%). Growth in milk production in the country since independence was 1.5% annually before Operation Flood and increasing three times thereafter (after Operation Flood), reaching up to 5%. Geography of Jharkhand State The word Jharkhand, meaning "forest region" applies to a forested mountainous plateau region in eastern India, south of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and west of the Ganga's delta in Bangladesh. The tribal peoples are mainly from two groups, the Chotanagpurs and the Santals regions of the state. This region is India's primary source of coal and iron, Bauxite, Copper, Limestone, Asbestos, and Graphite. Though Jharkhand State is endowed with vast and rich natural resources mainly those of minerals and forest, 80% of its population residing in 32620 villages & depend mainly on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood. The different types of soils found in the state are: Red soil, Micacious soil, Sandy soil, Black soil, and Laterite soil. According to classification laid down by Planning Commission, Govt. of India, and the Jharkhand will falls under Eastern plateau and hills region. Though Jharkhand State is endowed with vast and rich natural resources mainly those of minerals and forest, 80% of its population residing in 32620 villages & depend mainly on agriculture and allied activities, especially livestock rearing for their livelihood.
1

Senior Scientist, email: vohravikas@gmail.com

There is vast scope in the state for planning livestock development activities besides establishing food processing units including those of fruit and vegetable preservation, milk and meat preservation and for processing of minor forest produce.

Animal Genetic Resources of Jharkhand

The overall AnGR available in the Jharkhand state as per 2007 estimate is shown in Table 2, although a large number of livestock is available in the state, but animals from Camel, Yak, and Mithun species are not naturally found in Jharkhand. The animal genetic resources of Jharkhand as per 2007 estimate shows that the state shares about 5.17% of indigenous cattle and 1.42% of total buffalo population in the country. On the other hand sheep and goat population of Jharkhand comprises of 0.67% and 4.69% of the country. Horses in the state are less than one percent (0.87%) of the country. Good percentage of Pig genetic resource (9.37%) of the country is available with the Jharkhand state. However, the poultry genetic resource of the state is 1.57% of the country but it seems to have a potential to grow in this region, as backyard poultry farming. The species wise adult male and breedable female genetic resources of Jharkhand are presented in the Table 2, which indicates that there is a wide variation of genetic resources. So there is a bounty of opportunity to exploit the variability of genetic resources in the state. It is interesting to note that breedable indigenous cattle male and females have shown a positive percentage change from 2003 to 2007 with 1.50% and 3.41% respectively. Adult males are considered as the backbone of genetic improvement of livestock, although the state possesses about 28765 breedable indigenous buffalo bulls but they are lower in number looking in to the total breedable 742125 indigenous female buffalo population in the state. Indigenous goats are present in good numbers and as the 18th census projects they have grown in number from last census. Table 1: Percentage change in AnGR population dynamics of India from 2003 to 2007 (000)
S.N 1. Cattle Indigenous Cattle Total males Females in Milk Females Dry Total Females 2. Buffalo Breeding Males Total Males Females in Milk Females Dry Total Females Sheep Crossbred males Crossbred females Indigenous males Indigenous females 160495 77534 27626 19229 82961 166015 76779 30687 17355 89236 3.43 -1.0 11.1 -9.7 7.6 AnGR Year 2003 Year 2007 Percentage Change

641 17888 33319 13905 80034

866 19597 35643 12999 85745

35.1 9.6 7.0 -6.5 7.1

3.

1679 405 14721 41019

1144 2586 16730 51098

-31.9 -36.2 13.6 26.6

4.

Goats Males goats Female in Milk Female Dry Total Female Total Goats Pigs Exotic males Exotic females Indigenous males Indigenous females Poultry Total

35815 34241 29535 88543 124358

40793 37043 25440 99744 140537

13.9 8.2 -13.8 12.7 13

5.

1077 1103 5175 6165 4890112

1209 1180 4134 4610 648830

12.3 7 -20.3 -25.2 32.7

6.

Table 2: Animal Genetic Resource of Jharkhand State and Percentage change in population dynamics from 2003 to 2007
Species Cattle Breeds Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Hariana, Bachaur, Gangatiri, and Purnea Murrah and Jaffarabadi Cross bred / Indigenous CB Indigenous Indigenous males Breeding males Indigenous females Total CB Indigenous Total Indigenous males Indigenous females Total Total Total CB Indigenous males Indigenous females Total Total Total Jharkhand 2003 145 000 7 513 000 710 000 634 000 1 343 000 680 000 5 031 000 5 000 200 1 108 000 14 429 000 Jharkhand 2007 257 373 8 590 119 763 419 28 765 742 125 1 505 544 2 792 480 544 483 336 2 302 078 4 289 514 6 591 592 5 353 808 86 926 310 870 645 553 1 043 349 5 936 10 192 974 Percentage Change 15.50 2.87 1.50 3.41 2.42

Buffalo

Sheep

Goats

Crosses of Merino and Ramboulliet Chottanagpuri and Shahbadi Barbari, Beetal, Black Bengal and Jamnapari Kathiawari & Marwari Italian and Desi Crosses of Landrace, Yorkshire, Longwhite and Desi Angora

-5.78

Horses Donkeys Pigs

6.20 1.41 60.80

-1.17 -29.35

Rabbits Poultry

Livestock keeping system in Jharkhand state

Livestock farming systems are rather complex and generally based on traditional and socioeconomic consideration mainly guided by available feed resources. This system in Jharkhand areas are traditionally based on the low cost agro by-products as nutritional input to animal for producing quality food of high biological value. Livestock provide not only food and income from milk, meat, dung and draft animal power but also provide greater opportunity for employment especially of women. Livestock rearing including pig and backyard poultry in Jharkhand area is mostly done by small and marginal farmers and landless labours. The need of technical improvement / refinement in Jharkhand area to increase productivity of crops and animal within the system which will consequently increase farmers income and total food supply to meet the demand of rising human population in Jharkhand area. The productivity of the livestock in Jharkhand area is generally low which is primarily due to poor nourishment, the feed and fodder produced in this area are poor in quality and grossly insufficient to meet the requirement of livestock population in the area. This deficiency of feed and fodder suggests for reduction in livestock number and improving the quality of livestock and agricultural by-products, which are mainly used as feed for animals.

Production Trend in Jharkhand

According to 2010 estimates, the Jharkhand state produced about 1.463 million tonnes of milk. The milk production scenario in the state is not up to the mark while the state (Table 4) has shown a marginal increase in milk production during last 6 years. Keeping in mind the future requirement of the state the growth in milk production is not good. Similar is the case with meat production. On the contrary the egg and wool production has decreased in last 5-6 years. The major worry is that event the per capita availability of milk increased is very low, Jharkhand state has 130 gm/day in 2009-10 compared to 127 gm/day in the year 2004-05 (Fig 1). At present the state has per capita availability of milk is much below than the ICMR, recommended 269 gm/day and still lower than national average of 263 gm/day (2009-10).

Table 3: Comparison of Per capita availability of milk (gms / day) in Jharkhand vis-a-vis India
Year 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Jharkhand 127 126 131 132 132 130 India 233 241 246 252 258 263

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Fig 1: Per capita availability of milk in Jharkhand vis-a-vis India Per capita availability (gms / day) of Milk from 2004 to 2010 Jharkhand Per capita availability (gms / day) of Milk from 2004 to 2010 India

The state had egg production of 6619 lakh in 2002-03 but it has reduced to almost half in 3925 lakh in 2009-10. Similarly, the wool production has declined drastically (Table 5) from 3.58 lakh kg (2002-03) to 1.36 lakh kg (2009-2010). The documentation of district wise milk production, meat and wool and egg production is not readily available. Therefore, there is an urgent need to generate this information along with other parameters to further assess and monitor the growth of livestock production in the state. Jharkhand state is lagging far behind and there seems to be regional imbalance with regard to requirement of animal protein in the state.

Table 4: Year-wise contribution of Cattle, Buffalo and Goat in Milk production of Jharkhand state (in 000 tonnes)
Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Cattle 550 747 746 822 826 766 Buffalo 281 477 484 543 566 621 Goat 123 106 105 77 75 76 Total 1330 1335 1401 1442 1466 1463

Table 5: Production status of Jharkhand state since 2002-03

Year Cows /Kg/day 6.35 6.05 5.95 5.57 5.34 5.34 5.38 Buffalo /Kg/day 5.93 6.11 5.59 5.58 5.39 5.41 5.44 Goat /Kg/day 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.12 0.14 0.14 0.15 Eggs (in lakh) 6619 6445 6980 6970 7130 3995 3925 Wool (000 Kg) 358 314 148 150 147 149 136 Meat (000 tons) 39 41 43 43 44 44 47

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

14 12 10 8 Goat /Kg/day Buffalo /Kg/day

6
4 2 0 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

Cows /Kg/day

Fig 2: Milk production trend of Jharkhand state from 2002-03 to 2009-10

Salient Points about production status of Jharkhand Milk production in the state have marginally increased from 2005-2010 Production trend in buffalo is positive throughout last 5 yrs (2005-2010) Goat production is decreasing throughout last 5 yrs (2005-2010) Cattle production has shown a sharp decline from 2009 to 2010 Average milk yield / animal / kg / day in cattle have shown a steady decline from 2002 to 2010 with almost static production of 5.3 kg / animal / day since, 2007 to 2010 Average milk yield / animal / kg / day in buffalo is between 5.3 to 5.5 kg from 20042010 Average milk yield / animal / kg / day in Goat production have shown a positive trend from 2002 to 2010 with an average of 0.15 kg milk per goat per day in 2010. State has a good potential for Goat rearing, Piggery and Poultry farms. Jharkhand has 12 registered layer farms and 380 Broiler farms and 06 Duck farms with 7520 layers, 994848 broiler birds and 3362 ducks. Wool production in the state has gone done in the last decade Egg production has considerably dropped in 2008-09 and 2009-2010 Meat production has marginally increased in the last decade with 47 thousand tons in 2010

Breeding Policy for Genetic improvement of cattle in Jharkhand The livestock in Jharkhand are usually nondescript with few recognized breeds, reared mainly by small, marginal and landless farmers of different socio-economic levels. Therefore, development of breeding strategies for improving the productivity of livestock along with different socio economic levels of farmers and based on perception and needs of farmers in that area, is required for development and conservation of AnGR in the state. It is needed to follow a multidimensional approach to enhance the productivity of indigenous cattle of Jharkhand state by enhancing their genetic potential through selective breeding, grading up of non-descript animals with available dairy breeds in this area. For overall development of livestock sector in Jharkhand comprise selecting the animal for overall adaptive value, production of superior males and dissemination of their semen in vast population, improving conception rate from AI under field condition and developing need based and economically viable technologies for small and marginal farmers. To understand and formulate the breeding policy and development programme of livestock, it is imperative to explore the available genetic and other resources in the state. Looking in to the percent share of genetic resources, though the average ratio of milch and dry indigenous cattle in major Jharkhand areas is not satisfactory indicating that there may be more number of unproductive indigenous milch animals in Jharkhand state. The following breeding strategies can be adopted for conservation and bringing genetic improvement in the state
Grading up of local non descript cattle

Large number of low producing non-descript cows (80% of cattle population) is one of the major constraints to launch any effective breed improvement programme in Jharkhand. Animals of this area have also poor breeding efficiency leading to longer inter-calving periods coupled with shorter lactation length. As there is a declining trend in the number of indigenous cows over the years, it is desired to curtail the number of unproductive / low productive non-descript animals. The local non-descript cattle are reared mainly under low input production system, where quality feed and fodder resources are not available in sufficient quantity in this area. The farmers in this area are not resource rich and infrastructure facilities seem to be inadequate. The non-descript cattle can be genetically improved by grading up using elite bull of well known indigenous breeds like Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Gir breed for milk production. The bulls to be used for this purpose should be produced from superior dams which have more than 2100 kg lactation yield for Sahiwal and Red Sindhi both. This will improve the milk yield by 500-800 kg in first generation. By use of Sahiwal Red Sindhi and Gir bulls of high transmitting ability for grading up subsequently in initial generations, milk yield can be improved to the extent of 5-10% per year. Through continuous grading up non-descript stock will be transformed in to well defined breed after 5-7 generations. Improvement of Indigenous Cattle by Selective Breeding Superior bulls of Sahiwal and Red Sindhi are required for multiplication of their high quality germplasm for enhancing the productivity of vast indigenous cattle in the state. It is necessary to take large scale genetic improvement programme for Sahiwal and Red Sindhi in the Jharkhand through selective breeding. The existing herd of Sahiwal and Red Sindhi needs to be strengthening further. By selective breeding, it is expected the genetic improvement will be achieved ranging from 1-1.5% per annum in herds at organized farms

and 8-10% per annum in farmer herds. Such breed improvement programme must be evaluated from coordinating bodies for selection of young bulls and testing their genetic merits at organized herds and as well as under field conditions. Identification and Evaluation of Indigenous Breeding Bulls Traditionally through pedigree selection and progeny testing are practiced for identification and evaluation of breeding bulls, newer techniques like Harveys least square, Regressed least squares, Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and REML techniques are now being used for estimating breeding values of sire. A project on associate herd progeny testing of Sahiwal bull was initiated way back in 1978 at NDRI, Karnal, with cooperating farms which are government livestock farms NABHA (Punjab), Durg (Chattisgarh), Lucknow (UP), Hissar (Haryana), CSAUAT (Kanpur, UP), GBPUAT Pantnagar (Uttaranchal), Military Dairy Farm Meerut (UP) participating voluntary for testing the Sahiwal bull in test population of about 700 breedable females. However majority of small herds belonging to different organization discontinued in between due to physical and local administrative constraints. Eight set of Sahiwal bulls has been put to progeny testing and first four sets of bulls have been evaluated under the project. Seven (7) top ranking Sahiwal bulls out of 33 test bulls from first four sets with breeding value of genetic superiority over herd average ranging from 35 to 21.6% have been identified and being used for Elite mating for production of young bulls for future breeding. Such an associate herd progeny testing is need of the day and is strongly recommended for development of cattle genetic resource of the Jharkhand state.

IMPROVEMENT OF CATTLE AND BUFFALOES IN JHARKHAND The major goal for livestock breeding and development activities should be for increasing the productivity of cattle and buffaloes, protecting the food security, enhancing the rural economy and alleviating the poverty in Jharkhand zone. These can be achieved through scientific breeding, feeding and health management of livestock and strengthening the marketing of milk and milk products in Jharkhand areas. The development of breeding policy should be suitable to geo-climatic condition of Jharkhand areas and the need of the local farmers. The proposed cattle and buffalo improvement programme in Jharkhand areas will have the following dimensions:

BREEDING AIM FOR JHARKHAND 1. Genetic improvement of indigenous and crossbred cattle and buffaloes for milk production and draft purpose in Jharkhand. 2. To conserve productive based genetic diversity of cattle and buffaloes in Jharkhand. OBJECTIVES FOR CATTLE AND BUFFALO DEVELOPMENT IN JHARKHAND 1. To identify the factors/gaps affecting the productivity and diminish the gaps for enhancing and sustaining the productivity and herd life of indigenous and crossbred cattle and buffaloes in Jharkhand.

2. To study the impact of various interventions vis--vis the level of productivity in Jharkhand. PROPOSED BREEDING POLICY FOR JHARKHAND A. Indigenous Cattle Breeding Policy 1. Grading up of non-descript cattle with recognized indigenous milch breed in areas where cattle do not conform to any specific breeds. 2. Grading up of non-descript cattle with recognized indigenous dual purpose breed in the areas where the demand is needed and cattle do not conform to any specific breeds.

B. Crossbreeding Policy Crossbreeding for genetic up-gradation of non-descript cattle is to be followed in that part of Jharkhand areas where support management resources are available and the marketing facilities of milk and milk products are available.

C. Buffalo Breeding policy 1. Improving buffaloes by selective breeding in organized/ institute herds or in areas where the specific breed population are dominant. 2. Grading up of mixed type of buffaloes with recognized breeds in other areas of the State.