e-pashuhaat

• e-pashuhaat portal is ecently launched by government to connect farmers and breeders of bovine animals. The portal was launched on the occasion of birth anniversary of the father of India’s White Revolution Verghese Kurien and National Milk Day.

Aims and Objectives:

• Will connect farmers with breeders - Central, State, Co-operative, Milk Federations, and private agencies.
• Real time authentic certified information on availability of germplasm.

Targeted Outcomes for Farmers:

• One stop portal for bovine breeders, sellers and buyers.
• Creating and Comparative Farm Network
• Making Farmers exchange local knowledge and resources
• Availability of disease free germplasm with known genetic merit.
• Minimizes the involvement of middlemen.
• Increase in farmers’ incomes.

Targeted Outcomes For Government

• Programme oversight in real-time with greater transparency
• Zero cost for States for Transportal creation
• Demand and supply position of various items
• Monitoring and evaluation reports generation
• Sire Directory /Annual Report generation
• Repository and aggregator of both public and private sector services
• Evidence based Policy support information for decisions.
• Global recognition for using data mining and analytics
• Capacity building at all levels.

Analysis:

• India has the largest bovine population in the world. At 199m cattle it has 14% of the world cattle population and with 105m buffaloes it has 53% of the world buffalo population of which 79% of the cattle are Indigenous and 21% are Exotic and Crossbred varieties.
• 80% of the Indigenous cattle are Non-descript and 20% belong to 37 breeds recognised by National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources(NBAGR) with 13 breeds of Water buffaloes.
• The Indigenous bovine breeds are sturdy, endowed with the quality of heat tolerance, resistance to diseases and ticks with the ability to thrive under extreme climatic conditions and survive with low inputs. However, most of the indigenous have low genetic potential for milk production and are suited for draught animal power. But, some breeds have potential to be highly productive under optimal nutrition and farm management conditions alongwith selective genetic breeding.
• There are some shortcoming in the animal trade market in India like: a) no authentic organized market Difficult to get quality- disease free high genetic merit germplasm; b) Misleading valuation due to lack of traceability and tracking; and c) Other malpractices include Horns removed & Teeth filed to mislead for their age
   

By: Vishal