Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has announced an incentive of Rs 500 to each livestock farmers for every single Artificial Insemination (AI) and Rs 2 crores has been earmarked by the government for this to achieve goals of improving local cattle breed and upgrade the cattle population and milk and meat yields.
The announcement was made during the inauguration of the livestock projects at Upper Shillong today. He said AI is a new technology which is still to be accepted by a majority of livestock farmers in the State.
AI is the process of collecting sperm cells from a male animal and manually depositing them into the reproductive tract of a female.
The Central Semen bank at the Intensive Cattle Development Project, Upper Shillong has been set up with the objectives to collect and store semen of improved breeds of bulls for upgradation of local cattle population through Artificial insemination.
A statement from the bank informed that during 2020-21, about 20,000 frozen semen straws (FSS) have been produced and distributed for AI. So far, Artificial insemination has been done in 65,000 local cows.
The semen bank has a bull farm where elite bulls of popular exotic breeds such as HF, Jersey and indigenous breed such as Red Sindhi, Ongole, Tharparkar, Gir and Sahiwal are maintained for semen collection. Five pure HF bulls are recently imported from Germany to improve local cattle population, it added.
Meanwhile at the function, the chief minister also announced the establishment of a ‘Non-Descript Breed Improvement Farm’ at Saitsama, West Jaiñtia Hills to transform the rural cattle landscape of the State and help in realizing the goal of self-reliance in beef production in the State.
He also launched the Sex Sorted Semen AI Programme and also launched the project for the upgradation of local non-descript cattle by cross breeding with Ongole breed of Andhra Pradesh.
With the launch of the project the department has set a target of producing one lakh improved progeny by inseminating the Ongole semen with the non-descript local cows in the next three years to improve milk and meat production in the State.
The chief minister also distributed F1 Male Calf produced in the IDP project and distributed them to farmers from twelve model villages from all the districts of the State. He also handed over the ISO Certificate to the local milk brand Na Ri of Shillong Milk Union.
