India - World's largest bull semen centre inaugurated
Published:November 1, 2004
By:Only Punjab
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Monday inaugurated the world's largest bull semen production centre in Gujarat.
The centre has been opened in the Sabarmati dairy, set up by Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 at Bidaj, near here, and managed by state-run National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) since 1973.
The Rs.12.2-million semen station would meet the requirement of quality bulls.
"NDDB should prepare proposals for setting up four such stations in different parts of the country," said Pawar.
"The station is the largest in the world producing 3.6 million semen doses that are supplied to dairy cooperatives and government agencies," the minister said.
The minister mooted setting up a similar project in Haryana to help in the reproduction of high yield Murrah buffaloes in their native tract.
The semen centre in Bidaj is one of three in the country producing progeny-tested bulls. The breeds included Sahiwal, Kankrej, Gir, Red Sindhi, Holstein, Friesian and Jersey crossbreeds and buffalo breeds of Murrah and Jafrabadi.
The largest milk producer, India has stepped up effort to raise better and high yielding cattle and buffaloes to further increase production from 88 million tonnes at present.
