The Indian government plans to spend Rs 50 crore to assign four crore milk-producing cows a unique identity number, the Hindustan Times reported on Sunday.
The programme, called Pashu Sanjivini, was launched in 2016 under the National Mission on Bovine Productivity. It aims to help farmers improve their cattle’s milk productivity and make dairy farming more remunerative.
The Pashu Sanjivni programme under the national mission will work on identifying milch cattle using the unique ID, issuing them health cards and uploading the data online.
The Agriculture Ministry has acquired a unique ID technology that is cheap and tamper-proof, a Dairy Department official told the Hindustan Times. The government’s expenditure on the first phase of this scheme is part of its plan to increase farmers’ incomes by 2022, the report said.
In the Union Budget for 2018-’19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced many farm-related funds to develop infrastructure for animal husbandry, fisheries and aquaculture, apart from an artificial insemination drive to improve cattle breeds, to “upgrade” the nation’s cattle population.
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