Odisha inks MoU with NDDB for semen, quarantine stations

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Aug 7:

The Odisha government today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for the setting up of a state-of-the-art semen station at Kathapal and Quarantine Station at Pratappur in Mayurbhanj district.

The MoU was signed by Fisheries and ARD secretary Bishnupada Sethi and Managing Director, NDDB Dillip Rath in presence of Fisheries and ARD minister Pradeep Maharathy and T Nanda Kumar, Chairman, NDDB at the State Secretariat.

“The semen station will produce 35 lakhs quality semen doses annually to cater to the increasing requirement of semen not only of our state but also that of other states in the eastern region. Considering the importance of the project the state government have provided 127 acres of land at Kathapal and 7.8 acres of land at Pratappur to NDDB free of cost,” said the Minister.

According to NDDB sources, the semen station will produce high quality disease-free frozen semen doses from high genetic merit bulls for improving the productivity of milch animals.

The station will also procure high quality bulls of different breeds like Jersey, HF, Jersey crossbred, HF crossbred and indigenous breeds like Red Sindhi, Sehiwal, Gir, Tharparkar and Hariana.

The NDDB Diary Services will supply the required frozen semen doses to the government for its own use on priority basis.

T Nanda Kumar, Chairman, NDDB said, “Around 100 million semen doses will be required annually for the artificial insemination (AI) in the country and we are strengthening the semen stations.”

For this, about 2,500 indigenous bulls will be required and 200 jersey and Holstein Friesian bulls will be imported, he said.

Ranked 14th in India, the estimated milk production in Odisha stood at 1.86 million tonnes in 2013-l4, which is only 1.4 per cent of national milk production. The cooperative dairies together procured 3.9 lakh litre per day in 2013-14, which is 1.1 per cent of country’s cooperative milk procurement. Liquid milk marketing by Odisha’s cooperative unions is pegged at 4.3 lakh litre per day in 2013- 14, which is 1.6 per cent of the national total. The processing capacity of cooperatives in the state is 5.45 lakh litres per day, said a release of the state government.

At present, 20 per cent of inhabited villages are covered by cooperatives as against national coverage of 23 per cent.

In 2011-12, the per capita availability of milk in Odisha was 112 gms/day about one-third of the availability at all-India level of 290 gms/day. In terms of milk production, the State has registered a growth of 6.2 per cent per annum during last decade ending 2012-13, higher than the national growth of 4.6 per cent, the release informed.