Chandigarh, November 19
After departments and land records, it is the turn of buffaloes to get the IT bug in Haryana. A chip with a code "planted" in the stomach of a buffalo and a computer back-up of the animal's entire history are among some pioneering steps initiated by the Haryana Dairy Development Cooperation Federation (HDDCF).
Developed by Delhi-based Everset Enterprises, this technology has been "administered" to nine head of cattle owned by Mr Gurnam Singh of Sankhra village in Karnal district as a pilot project.
It involves implanting an electronic chip, a two-inch bio-ceramic capsule weighing 70 grams, into the animal through a piston syringe from the mouth. This chip, with a 16-digit unique code, finally rests in the reticulum section, the second stomach, and is designed to fully protect it from gastric juices and enzymes for a minimum of 18 years.
The code will have a corresponding data bank about the animal with the HDDFC pertaining to birth, age, vaccination, diseases, yield, fat content, sale and purchase deals, among others. All that is required is a sensor to read the chip code for accessing any information of the buffalo implanted with the chip at the click of a button.
The chip was essentially adopted by the HDDFC to check the tendency of mis-utilisation of loans under various schemes wherein a beneficiary took multiple loans on the same animal. It is likely to benefit not only banks giving out these loans but also insurance companies, the HDDFC and the farmer himself.
While the HDDFC would benefit by way of greater milk production on account of increased head of cattle bought with loans, the banks will be able to recover their loans in the eventuality of non-payment by taking the cattle in their possession.
The insertion of the chip will make it difficult to hoodwink insurance companies into paying hefty sums with a verification system in place. The farmer, on the other hand, would be able to realise the actual worth of his animal during a sale since regular recording of yield and fat content in the milk and a whole health chart would be maintained by the department.
"Initially, we used to hot-brand animals to identify them but it was decried by animal rights activists. Then came the system of tagging cattle head in the ears which too
didn't work. Farmers would cut off these tags and present the animals as new for more loans.
"With this chip, we are hopeful of solving this problem since each buffalo will have a unique code which can't be manipulated or fiddled with," says the Managing Director of the HDDFC, Mr Devender Singh, also responsible for adopting the technology.
Costing Rs 900, the federation will organise camps all over the state to highlight the benefits of the chip in cattle-centric districts of the state.
The HDDFC is hopeful of farmers coming forward to embrace the technology. "The Haryana farmer is very progressive. Once he realises what a chip can do for him, he will get it implanted in the animals,"
Mr Devender Singh adds.
