I have written about this earlier, so I will keep the anecdote brief. In 1926, there was a Royal Commission on Agriculture. The report was submitted in 1928. The chairman of this commission was Lord Linlithgow. Among other things, the commission recommended that cattle should be improved by careful breeding, including by importing bulls. Like most government reports, the recommendations gathered dust, until it was announced in 1936 that Linlithgow would become governor general and viceroy.
The mandarins of Madras presidency woke up. Surely, the governor general would ask about implementation of the recommendations. Abolishing government jobs is impossible. But creating government jobs is also difficult. The Madras presidency solved the problem by invoking the governor general’s name in the job title. LBKs (Linlithgow’s bull keepers) and LBAs (Linlithgow’s bull assistants) were created.
LBKs imported and maintained foreign bulls. These would impregnate inferior Indian cows and improve the species. But since a government subsidy was involved, fraud needed to be prevented. LBAs performed this supervisory role. They ensured the impregnation occurred on time. Eventually, LBKs and LBAs became pensioners and the posts were abolished in the early 1980s.
The commission wrote, “Many fine cattle belonging to a number of well-recognised breeds are to be found. Amongst the known ones are perhaps the Hariana and Sahiwal of the Punjab, the Tharparkar and Sindhi of Sindh, the Kankrej of Gujarat, the Gir of Kathiawar, and the Ongole of Madras.” This is an incomplete list.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) tells us there are 50 “well-defined” Indian breeds of cattle. They are used for different purposes—transport, milk, draught and manure. For example, the Thutho of Nagaland is used for meat and the Pulikulam of Tamil Nadu for game (Jallikattu).
NDDB states the obvious. “These breeds have evolved over generations, surviving due to their adaptability to harsh climatic conditions, ability to perform on poor quality feed and fodder, resistance to diseases etc. Adult males of some native breeds are also known for their draft qualities. Thus these indigenous breeds are well adapted to our existing agro-climatic conditions and are resistant to many tropical diseases. They can survive and produce on marginal and poor feed and fodder resources. Some of these breeds are well known for their high milk and fat production.
“However, the production potential of these animals has deteriorated over a period of time due to lack of selection. The population of some breeds have declined over the years and the primary reason is reduced productivity—an uneconomical proposition for farmers. The solution therefore lies in the genetic improvement of these breeds for milk production.”
The 20th livestock census was held in 2019. (The 21st is due in 2024.) This tells us the total cattle population is 192.49 million, marginally higher than in 2012, the year of the last census. The female cattle population has increased, while that of males has decreased. With mechanisation and an emphasis on dairy, one should expect an overall decline in population and a marked preference for the female. Most cattle are in West Bengal, UP and MP, in that order.
The census classifies cattle into exotic or crossbred and indigenous or non-descript. Exotic or crossbred mean things like Jersey and Holstein Friesian, pure or crossbred. Just over one-fourth of cattle are exotic/crossbred, but the share has been increasing, understandable as these are high-yielding.
On an average, an exotic cow yields 11.36 kg of milk per day. It is 8.32 kg for crossbred, 4.07 for indigenous and 2.83 for non-descript. Were the switch to be feasible, everyone would shift to exotic/crossbred. In the indigenous, the major ones are Gir, Lakhimi and Sahiwal.
Since December 2014, the department of animal husbandry and dairying has a Gokul Mission. It is meant to develop and conserve indigenous breeds of cattle and buffaloes. Without denigrating other breeds, the star of the Gokul Mission seems to be Gir.
Let me quote from a paper from the Food and Agriculture Organization. “The Gir is a famous milk cattle breed of India. The native tract of the breed is Gir hills and forests of Kathiawar, including Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Amreli districts of Gujarat. This breed is also known as Bhodali, Desan, Gujarati, Kathiawari, Sorthi and Surti in different parts of the breeding tract. The Gir are famous for their tolerance to stress conditions and resistance to various tropical diseases. Bullocks of this breed are used to drag heavy loads on all kinds of soil. Brazil, Mexico, US and Venezuela have imported these animals, where they are being bred successfully.”
As this quote states, Gir cattle were exported to Brazil. (Anecdotally, the Maharaja of Bhavanagar first gifted them to Brazil in the 18th century.) Not just Brazil, but other South American countries too towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. It was also exported to the US.
Selective breeding led to new breeds being created, with Brazil experimenting not only with Gir, but also Red Sindhi, Ongole, Nellore and Kankrej. It is difficult to estimate numbers of a breed like Gir. When is it a pure Gir and when does it become mixed? With that caveat, the number of Gir cows in Brazil is roughly double the number in India, a fact most Indians may find surprising. To state it starkly, we went the Jersey and Holstein Friesian route, Brazil went the Gir route.
Our Gir breed needs improvement. Back in 1926 or 1936, we would have imported Gir bulls from Brazil. But technology and techniques have changed. So the NDDB has imported 40,000 doses of bull semen to be used for artificial insemination. There may be more imports, even of embryos. There are mind-boggling figures on milk yields for Brazilian cows. Even if the spectacular doesn’t happen, with better breeds, Indian milk yields can become three times what they are.
However, there is some irony (there was a lot of controversy too) in Gir semen, if not Gir bulls, being imported from Brazil. There is a metaphor for globalisation as well. Make in India requires imports also. There is a phrase about cows coming home, indicating a slow, long and indefinite period of time. Hopefully, this experiment of bull semen coming home will do better.
(Views are personal)
Bibek Debroy | Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister