To meet the shortage of milk, Punjab government would promote the animal of indigenous breeds of cows, buffalos, goats and chicken.
Disclosing this on Wednesday, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries, Balbir Singh Sidhu said under this initiative, indigenous breeds of cows, Sahiwal and Gir cows, Murrah and Nili Ravi buffalos, Beetal goats and Kadaknath chicken would be promoted.
The minister said that the global warming has rendered catastrophic effects on agriculture as the cultivable land under green fodder has been decreasing at alarming pace and there is acute shortage of quality milk.
He said that in this scenario the demand for meat is rising fast. He said due to the increase in demand of meat, the Punjab government has decided to promote the indigenous breeds of animals instead of foreign breeds.
Divulging the details he said that besides providing subsidy to set up dairy farms of indigenous breeds of cows and buffalos, poultry units of indigenous breeds of chicken like Kadaknath would be set up at the backyards of the farms.
Likewise units to domesticate Beetal breed of goats would also be set up for landless farmers. He said that the high quality semen of Sahiwal and Gir cows would be used to improve the breed of indigenous cows.
At the same time the government would establish coordination with the successive farmers of countries like Brazil and Australia with the motive to improve the breed of indigenous milch animals.
The minister said landless farmers could fulfill their daily household requirements by domesticating goats, cows and chickens of indigenous breeds as their marketing is much easier than the foreign breeds.