Animal Husbandry, dairying and livestock rearing activities play an important role in shaping the national economy and the socio-economic development of the country. They contribute to the food basket, nutrition security and household income of the farmers and generate gainful employment in rural areas, particularly among landless, small and marginal farmers and women, besides providing cheap and nutritious food.

Rashtriya Gokul Mission

The Rashtriya Gokul Mission is a flagship program of the Government of India aimed at the conservation and development of indigenous cattle breeds. It was launched in December 2014 under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India.

The main objectives of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission are as follows:

• Conservation of indigenous cattle breeds: The mission focuses on conserving and developing indigenous cattle breeds, such as Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, and others. These breeds possess unique traits like disease resistance, heat tolerance, and adaptability to local conditions.
• Breed improvement and development: The mission aims to undertake breed improvement programs through selective breeding, genetic upgradation, and the use of modern technologies. This helps in enhancing the productivity and genetic potential of indigenous cattle breeds.
• Enhancing milk production and productivity: The mission aims to increase milk production by promoting best management practices, scientific breeding, and improved animal nutrition. This helps in augmenting the income of farmers engaged in dairy farming.
• Establishment of Gokul Grams: Gokul Grams are breeding centers or bull sanctuaries established to house high-quality bulls of indigenous breeds. These centers play a crucial role in preserving and improving the genetic stock of indigenous cattle breeds.
• Setting up of Integrated Indigenous Cattle Centres: The mission focuses on establishing Integrated Indigenous Cattle Centres (IICC) for breed improvement and development. These centers provide advanced reproductive technologies like artificial insemination and embryo transfer, along with other veterinary services.
• Strengthening infrastructure: The mission aims to strengthen the existing infrastructure for cattle breeding, including the provision of veterinary healthcare facilities, establishment of semen stations, bull mother farms, bull performance testing units, etc.
• Capacity building and training: The mission promotes capacity building and training programs for farmers, dairy entrepreneurs, and field-level extension workers. This helps in enhancing their knowledge and skills in scientific cattle management practices.
• Promotion of organic manure: The mission encourages the utilization of cow dung and cow urine for the production of organic manure, which helps in reducing the dependency on chemical fertilizers.

National Livestock Mission

The National Livestock Mission (NLM) is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Government of India in 2014. It operates under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, with the aim of promoting sustainable development of the livestock sector in the country. The NLM focuses on improving livestock productivity, enhancing the income of livestock farmers, and ensuring the overall growth and development of the livestock sector.

Here are the key features and objectives of the National Livestock Mission:

Livestock Development: The mission aims to promote the development of the livestock sector by improving breed quality, enhancing animal productivity, and strengthening animal health and veterinary services.

Breed Improvement: The NLM emphasizes breed improvement through selective breeding, artificial insemination, and the use of advanced reproductive technologies. It focuses on developing superior genetic stock for higher milk production, meat quality, and other desirable traits.

Livestock Health and Disease Control: The mission seeks to control and prevent livestock diseases through effective veterinary healthcare services. It aims to provide vaccination facilities, disease surveillance, diagnosis, and treatment to ensure the well-being of animals.

Fodder Development: The NLM promotes the development of high-yielding fodder varieties and the adoption of improved feeding practices to enhance livestock nutrition and productivity. It aims to increase fodder production and availability through the establishment of pasture development programs, silage production units, and feed storage facilities.

Animal Nutrition: The mission focuses on improving animal nutrition through the formulation and distribution of balanced feed and mineral supplements. It aims to educate livestock farmers about proper feeding practices and encourages the use of alternative feed resources to reduce dependency on conventional feed ingredients.

Dairy Infrastructure Development: The NLM supports the establishment and upgradation of dairy infrastructure, including milk processing plants, chilling centers, and milk testing laboratories. It aims to strengthen the dairy value chain by improving milk collection, storage, and processing facilities.

Skill Development and Training: The mission promotes capacity building and training programs for livestock farmers, dairy entrepreneurs, and field-level extension workers. It aims to enhance their knowledge and skills in livestock management, breed improvement, healthcare, and other related areas.

Market Linkages and Value Addition: The NLM focuses on creating market linkages and promoting value addition in the livestock sector. It aims to facilitate the integration of livestock farmers with the market through the establishment of cooperatives, producer groups, and marketing infrastructure.

National Programme for Dairy Development

The NPDD scheme aims to enhance the quality of milk and milk products and increase the share of organized milk procurement. The scheme has two components:

• Component ‘A’ focuses towards creating/strengthening of infrastructure for quality milk testing equipment as well as primary chilling facilities for State Cooperative Dairy Federations/ District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union/SHG run private dairy/Milk Producer Companies/Farmer Producer Organisations. The scheme will be implemented across the country for the period of five year from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
• Component ‘B’ (Dairying Through Cooperatives) provides financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It is to be implemented during the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 on pilot basis with the objective of creation of necessary dairy infrastructure for the purpose of providing market linkages for the produce in villages and for strengthening of capacity building of stake-holding institutions from village to State level.

The Animal Husbandry Statistics (AHS)

The Animal Husbandry Statistics (AHS) Division of Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) is entrusted with the generation of Animal Husbandry Statistics through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Livestock Census and Integrated Sample Survey”under the development programmes category with two components,

• (i) Livestock Census (LC)&
• (ii) Integrated Sample Survey (ISS).The scheme is being implemented by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying through State Animal Husbandry Departments.

National Animal Disease Control Programme

• National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) is a flagship scheme launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister in September, 2019 for control of Foot & Mouth Disease and Brucellosis by vaccinating 100% cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population for FMD and 100% bovine female calves of 4-8 months of age for brucellosis with the total outlay of Rs.13, 343.00 crore for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24).

Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development

• Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund has been set up with a corpus of Rs. 8,004 crore with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
• Its objective is to to modernize the milk processing plants and machinery and to create additional infrastructure for processing more milk.
• The Scheme envisages providing loan assistance to State Dairy Federations, District Milk Unions, Milk Producers Companies, Multi-State Cooperatives and NDDB subsidiaries.
• New Components added in June 2021
  • Cattle feed/ feed supplement plants
  • Milk transportation system (Refrigerated van/insulated tankers etc)
  • Marketing infrastructure (including e-market system, bulk vending system, Parlour, deep freezer, cold storage etc.
  • Commodity and Cattle feed godowns
  • ICT infrastructure (e.g. blockchain technology, servers, IT solutions, Near Real Time devices etc)
  • R&D (lab & equipment, new technology, innovations, product development etc)
  • Renewable energy infrastructure/ plants, trigen/ energy efficiency infrastructure
  • Pet bottle/packaging material manufacturing units for dairy purposes
  • Training centre (complete with civil and other necessary infrastructure

Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF)

Objectives

• To help to increase of milk and meat processing capacity and product diversification thereby providing greater access for unorganized rural milk and meat producers to organized milk and meat market.
• To make available increased price realization for the producer.
• To make available quality milk and meat products for the domestic consumer.
• To fulfil the objective of protein-enriched quality food requirement of the growing population of the country and prevent malnutrition in one of the highest malnourished children populations in the world.
•  Develop entrepreneurship and generate employment.
• To promote exports and increase the export contribution in the milk and meat sector.
• To make available quality concentrated animals feed to the cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and poultry to provide balanced ration at affordable prices.