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Befriend mouse for
livestock’s sake
In order to increase the milk yield, various state governments have been employing different means to improve the genetic stock of animals. At the central level also, the National Project for Cattle and Buffalo Breeding (NPCBB) specially aims to achieve this target. Besides other sectoral innovations and researches, IT has been considered an enabler for decision-making and that is why special focus has been given to the development of management information system (MIS) under the NPCBB. At the state-level, there has been growing emphasis on the adoption of IT as a helpful tool to facilitate various processes involved in the increase of milk yield. For instance, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have started IT projects covering the registration of the animals and further recording the performance of the animals in terms of parameters like lactation yield, peak milk yield, wet average, herd average, wet dry ratio etc. The northern states have also started capitalising on the benefits of IT and the Haryana Government has conceived an IT-based project named ‘Pashudhan’ to improve the genetic stock of animals in the state. Apart from the production and performance parameters, reproduction parameters like post pubertal maternity, RFM etc along with pedigree record have also been captured. Mating check to avoiding inbreeding is being facilitated. Animals have to undergo various types of vaccinations at different age intervals and these can also be recorded and monitored through computers. Thereafter, health related issues like diagnosis of disease, treatment, medicines used can also be maintained on computers for future reference. That way a comprehensive database of animals, right from the birth/registration to health care, production, reproduction shall be maintained for analysis on animals types, animals breeds, age wise, diseases, geographical region etc. Needless to mention that
for creation of such a database, unique identification of animals is a
must. Presently, the computer algorithms (including numbering) are used
for generation of animal IDs, but it has been gathered that animals like
buffalo, cow, horse etc can be uniquely identified using biometrics,
i.e. Since the Centre is about
to prepare the National Livestock Policy, it would be worthwhile to give
due importance to application of IT in the policy so that a
comprehensive national database of the animals on various parameters can
be created and maintained for policy formulations. |
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THE
Central Government is poised to unveil its National Livestock Policy to
make animal husbandry more lucrative. Even though the government has not
given due impetus to this sector yet its contribution to GDP has been
showing 6.8 per cent growth rate as against 2 per cent in crop
production.