In India, dairy is a source of sustenance for millions of small-scale and marginal farmers and consumers. Any decision on it should be scientific
Photo: iStock Increasing temperatures could decrease milk production and reproductive success in cattle
In March 2022, a study published in Lancet estimated that increasing temperatures could reduce milk production in India’s arid and semi-arid regions by 25 per cent by end century in 2085. This estimation for arid and semi-areas is the second highest in India, after Pakistan (at 28.7 per cent). In humid and sub-humid areas, this reduction was estimated at 10 per cent.
Lactating dairy cows have an increased sensitivity to heat stress compared with nonlactating (dry) cows, according to a review paper, published in the November 2017 issue of Journal of Dairy Science. Moreover, because of the positive relationship between milk yield and heat production, higher yielding cows are more challenged by heat stress than lower yielding animals.
Heat stress also decreases reproductive success, says the review. Elevated temperatures affect the cow’s ability to display natural mating behaviour, as it reduces both the duration and intensity of oestrus expression. The decrease in conception rates during summer seasons can range between 20 and 30 per cent, it states.
Farmers are already seeing high failures in conception rates of the animals. Goyla has 120 animals at his farm in Delhi, and has a milk production of 700 to 750 kg daily.
But he says, he has to buy new cattle every month to maintain this milk production because of increasing conception failures and according to him it’s the reason is heat stress.
“Usually animals conceive every year but in the last few years, it’s not happening. At least 50 per cent of my buffaloes are not conceiving every year. And milk is our primary business so we have to sell those buffaloes to carry on our livelihood,” he says.
Dairy farmers say the sector is no longer lucrative and that they are incurring huge losses
Between May and July of 2023, DTE met and spoke to scores of dairy farmers in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan, who said that they have run into huge losses and that the dairy industry is in a bad shape. Many have been reducing their herd size and some are even winding up businesses.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, dairy farmer Kapil Sharma was preparing to close down his 10-year-old dairy in May 2023. He had sold off several of his cows or gave them to people for free.
From over 200 cattle in 2022, he was left with just 13 animals and was planning to sell them soon. He also plans to sell the land where his dairy exists to cover the losses.
Manish Bharti is another dairy farmer in Meerut, who owned 85 cows till March 2023. He reduced his stock to 43 by July and plans to wind up the business soon. From the 85 animals, only 20 were productive. “I have lost at least Rs 1.5 crore in last eight years,” says Bharti, who diversified into dairy farming in 2014 to escape nilgai attacks on his crops.
Farmers allege that the government, instead of addressing the core issues, has introduced policies that further threaten to bring down milk productivity of the country by dissuading dairy farmers to continue with the profession.
One such policy is sex-sorted semen production, which the government calls a “game-changer”.
The policy aims to produce semen of only female calves up to “90 per cent accuracy”. This has been done to enhance milk production and limit stray cattle population.
Over the next five years, 5.1 million pregnancies will be established under the programme that offers a subsidy of Rs 750 or 50 per cent of the cost of sex-sorted semen on assured pregnancy.
But by bringing this policy, the government has overlooked how this will eliminate male cattle slowly. “It’s a dangerous decision,” says Bharti.
“In artificial insemination and natural service, 50 per cent of the calves are male and 50 per cent are female calf. Under this policy, female cattle is going to grow. The government has ignored that male cattle can be used in farming as an energy source. Moreover, there is a question of what one can do with the female animals after they become unproductive, because it has become difficult to sell cows due to the anti-slaughter rules.”
Several states, including Uttar Pradesh, has seen aggressive endorsement of cow protection in the past few years. This has led to losses for farmers because they have to shell out maintenance cost on unproductive cows.
Many poor farmers, then abandon the cows on streets, adding to the stray cattle menace, or at highly underfunded gaushalas.
Such is the terror of cow vigilantes, that farmers are not able to dispose of their cows which died of natural causes, through the municipal authorities.
“We had an established process that when an animal dies. We used to call a contractor from the municipal authority, who used to come and take the animal. This practice has discontinued in the past five years, and we now have to bury the dead animals ourselves,” says Bharti.
In India, dairy is a source of sustenance for millions of small-scale and marginal farmers and consumers. Any decision related to the sector has to be therefore should not just be politically motivated, but also scientific.
This was first published as part of the cover story in the 16-31 August, 2023 print edtion of Down To Earth
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