PRINCIPLES OF INDIGENOUS ANIMAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE TROPICS - THE PROGRAMMES FOR INDIA

P.N. Bhat and V.K. Taneja 1/

1. INTRODUCTION

India is the seventh largest country in the world. It is well-marked off from the rest of Asia by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity. Bounded by the great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. It covers an area of 3 287 263 sq. km. The mainland lying entirely in the northern hemisphere extends, between latitudes 8°4' and 37° 6' north and longitudes 68°7' and 97°25' east, and can be categorized under four well-defined regions as, the great mountain zone, plains of Ganga and the Indus, the desert region and the Southern Peninsula. The climate broadly is tropical monsoon type with four distinct seasons which are winter, summer, rainy and post-monsoon. The rainfall is ill distributed and varies from place to place and year to year. The total cropped area is 175 million hectares while only 38 million hectares are under irrigation.

India is predominantly an agricultural country with about 70 percent of its population dependent on income from agriculture. Most of the land is used for cereal production and a negligible portion (around 4 percent) is under permanent pastures and grazing land. Indian agriculture depends mostly on cattle to meet its draught requirements. Bullocks supply the motile power for ploughing, lifting water from wells and transport needs in the rural areas for crushing sugarcane and oil-seeds and for a variety of other purposes. Cattle also provide milk and milk products for human consumption thus meeting part of the need for animal proteins of high biological value for the human diet.

2. CATTLE NUMBERS AND THEIR TRENDS

According to the 1982 livestock census, there are 182 million cattle and 79 million buffalo which produce around 31.8 million tonnes of milk annually against the requirement of 54 million tonnes to feed the human population of 712 million at the recommended level. The deficiency in milk production is not caused by lack of cattle numbers, but more so by their low level of production. Low productivity is mainly due to large incidence of disease, inadequate nutrition, hostile climate, unorganized breeding, social unawareness of economic benefits and non-commitment to social change in the society.

The livestock trends indicate that the cattle population has increased by 15 percent over the 1959 base. The corresponding increase in the human population during the same period was 79 percent. The population of working bullocks has also increased over the years in spite of the use of fossil energy for agricultural operations sugggesting increased usage of bullock power in agriculture. The total area under permanent pastures and grazing land as percent of the reporting area has, however, slightly gone down from 4.2 percent in 1970-71 to 4.0 percent in 1978-79. These trends suggest that more and more land is being used for cereal production for human use and that the feed resources for livestock are likely to be further reduced. There is thus an urgent need to reduce cattle numbers to match existing feed resources and improve the quality of our cattle both in respect of their milk production and draught capacity.

3. CATTLE RESOURCES

There are 26 well-defined breeds of cattle which constitute around 18 percent of the total cattle population in the country. The remaining cattle populations have not yet been defined into breeds and are generally named after the area and habitat they occupy. The performance potential of these cattle is related to the economic needs of the area. These local cattle have a poor growth rate (100 to 150 g per day), later maturity (age at first calving, 60 months) and low milk production (500 kg in a lactation). In any programme of improvement they form the core for action. The defined breeds can mainly be classified as milch, dual purpose and draught type. Some of the important ones are Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Gir - milch type; Tharparkar, Hariana, Deoni, Ongole, Rathi, Kankrej and Goalao - dual purpose; Kangayam, Hallikar and Khillari - draught type. The age at first calving in these breeds ranged from 40 to 50 months except in Hariana where it was slightly higher. The calving interval was between 15 and 20 months. The milk yield, barring a few breeds like Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar and Gir, where was more than 1500 litres, in all others was below 1000 litres in a lactation. The milk yield per day of calving interval ranged between 1 and 4 kg. There are no breed societies which register animals, maintain herdbooks and ensure purity of breed and its improvement.

Most of the cattle breeds that exist today have been evolved over centuries due to large variation in soil, climate, agricultural practices and through natural selection mostly for adaptation to agro-climatic conditions, survivability and to a very limited extent these have been selected for milk for draught quality. These breeds have considerable adaptability to harsh climate, poor nutrition and possess good resistance against certain animal diseases and are economically well suited to the areas where they exist. Experimental evidence shows that zebu cattle have lower metabolic heat production which suits them well in hot climates and makes them a comparatively better utilizer of low quality roughages. It is for these qualities that some Indian breeds have been used in crossbreeding in Latin Americn countries, Australia and southern parts of United States to evolve breeds for beef and dairy production. Improved zebu breeds, viz. Gir, Kankrej and Sahiwal, have been bred and raised in Brazil, West Indies, Australia and Kenya as purebreds for milk and meat.

4. HUSBANDRY AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

Animal husbandry is a normal adjunct to crop agriculture and cattle are kept for milk production and for motile power for various farm operations, village transport, irrigation and production of manure. The animals are generally maintained on agricultural byproducts and crop residues. Animal rearing is done mostly by small and marginal farmers and landless labourers with a holding size of 2-3 animals per farm household. Average land holding with these owners is very meagre, being 1/2 to 2 acres. This is the kind of input available in most of the areas.

Animal husbandry is a state subject; health and breeding aspects of cattle are looked after through a network of veterinary hospitals and artificial breeding centres. A veterinary surgeon is the focal point around whom most animal improvement programmes are centred. In most of the planned improvement programmes, this focal point has been given the main responsibility of artificial insemination and field recording of data. Supplementary staff in the form of animal husbandry specialists, livestock assistants and field supervisors are provided to implement the development programmes. An artificial insemination network is used for dissemination of superior sires of temperate dairy cattle through crossbreeding to increase milk production. In order to meet the semen requirement, sires of temperate dairy breeds are maintained at the main germplasm units which also have the facilities of deep freezing of semen. Improvement in cattle production is also directed at improvement through feeding, generation of marketing facilities, advisory services and veterinary aid including artificial insemination.

Institutional structures funded by the government also exist. These maintain herds of cattle which act as nucleus or multiplier herds for purposes of training and research in various colleges and universities. Some farms have been established with the purpose of producing quality bulls and undertaking progeny testing programmes for some important indigenous breeds. Large government herds like military dairy farms also exist for commercial milk production. These herds are used for spreading superior germplasm to rural populations for improvement of their native cattle. This is the kind of structure that exists today on which any breeding plan has to become operational.

5. PROGRAMMES OF IMPROVEMENT

The breeding policy to begin with was to improve the defined indigenous (both dairy and draught) breeds through selection and local cattle through grading up with superior indigenous breeds. This was done through a number of cattle development programmes such as the key village scheme, hill cattle development programme, Goshala development and Gosadan schemes etc. In 1961, the animal husbandry wing considered the need for an effective and rapid increase in milk production in cattle and set up a working group to review the cattle breeding policy in the country. The working group examined the cattle breeding policy followed in each state and recommended broadly a revised policy for achieving increased milk production. The policy envisaged a) crossbreeding of cattle with exotic breeds in areas having local cattle, b) selective breeding among improved indigenous purebreds and c) grading up of local with improved indigenous breeds. It was suggested that the bulk of exotic inheritance should come from Jersey; Brown Swiss and Holstein might be tried to a limited extent. Simultaneously, attempts were to be made to provide suitable inputs.

According to the revised breeding policy, extensive areas were to be covered by such recognized dual purpose and dairy breeds as Hariana, Tharparkar, Gir, Sindhi, Sahiwal etc. To achieve the ultimate objective of raising the quality of cattle, both in regard to milk production and draught, it was thought necessary to undertake production of a large number of superior bulls, preferably progeny tested or pedigreed, of these breeds of cattle for extensive use through natural and artificial breeding and for future replacement.

Scientific programmes, to improve the productivity of the native breeds, were initiated and a number of farms of these breeds were established for production of superior quality bulls. The bulls produced were far below the numbers required for the development programmes. Bulls at these farms were selected on the basis of breed characteristics, body conformation and milk yield of their dams wherever available. Examination of records of these farms, in general, does not show any significant improvement in production over the years. It was, therefore, decided that infrastructure should be developed to test the bulls on the basis of their daughters' performance before they are used in developmental programmes. Accordingly, progeny testing programmes for some of the improved indigenous breeds, like Tharparkar and Red Sindhi under centrally sponsored schemes and Sahiwal, Hariana and Gir, under the state sponsored schemes were initiated. Results of these schemes were not encouraging mainly because of the small herd size used. Non-existence of deep freezing facilities at these farms also contributed to the failure of these schemes because by the time bulls became available after test, they were too old to donate any semen.

A fundamental change has taken place in the cattle development programmes since the formulation of breeding policy. Crossbreeding, which was to be taken up in a restricted manner, and in areas of low producing cattle, has now spread indiscriminately all over the country including the tracts of well established improved indigenous breeds. The country since then has advanced in the area of deep freezing of semen and use of liquid semen is being replaced by frozen semen. Large-scale crossbreeding programmes are being undertaken through programmes such as intensive cattle development projects, Operation Flood and other bilateral projects. Due to the energy crisis, there is a belief that animal power should be developed on scientific lines. In view of these changes, it is essential that a fresh look at the cattle breeding policy of the country be made.

The major strategy for development of indigenous cattle for milk has been to crossbreed with improved European dairy breeds. Initial crossbreeding attempts were not encouraging because of diseases such as rinderpest and other such killer diseases. With the control of these diseases with prophylactic vaccines, planned crossbreeding experiments with various Euro-American breeds (Holstein, Ayrshire, Jersey, Guernsey, Red Dane, Brown Swiss) were taken up in different parts of the country. Crossbred grades with different levels of exotic inheritance from one or two exotic breeds have been produced and their performance tested under different agro-climatic conditions. The following conclusions emerge from these experiments:

1. Exotic inheritance of around 50 percent is the most ideal for growth, reproduction and milk production, and the yield in higher crosses falls short of theroretical expectations. The grading up, therefore, to a total replacement of genes will not lead to higher production in cattle (Taneja and Bhat, 1972; Bhat et al., 1978a, b; Taneja et al., 1979; Rao and Taneja, 1982).
2. The crosses of temperate with improved indigenous breeds (Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Gir, Tharparkar) attained the same level of performance under uniform feeding and are superior to crosses from other native cattle.
3. Holstein crosses were superior to other temperate breed crosses for growth and production while Jersey crosses have better reproductive efficiency (Bhat, 1974, 1983).
4. Decline in milk yield from F₁ to F₂ generations on account of inter se mating among F₁ crossbreds is small (Taneja and Bhat, 1978). The Targe decline in some experiments is due to poor quality of crossbred bulls used.

These results indicate that in areas with good feed resources, specially irrigated cultivated fodder, crossbreeding of indigenous low producing cattle with Holstein and stabilization of exotic inheritance at 50 percent through inter-breeding and further improvement through selection may be adopted. Such crossbreds would produce around 3000 litres of milk per lactation and would have improved reproductive performance.

A number of breeds like Taylor, Jersind, Karan Swiss, Karan Fries and Sunandni have been evolved using crossbred populations as the base foundation. In addition, five crossbred genotypes (two and three breed crosses) with Hariana, Gir and Ongole as the indigenous breeds are under performance testing at five locations in the country under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Cattle. The three breed crosses with 75 percent exotic inheritance from two breeds have shown high potential for growth, reproduction and production under optimum input conditions and are under further testing. The work on their nutritional requirement and adaptation is in progress. These genotypes are also proposed to be used as a base for developing new strains of crossbred dairy cattle.

Most of these breeds have existed at the Institutional farms except Karan Swiss and Sunandni which have been developed using crossbreds available in the field. Field recording is not in practice in most parts of the country and, therefore, progeny testing is restricted only to Governmental/Institutional farms. This is a serious limitation in accurately assessing the sire values, and achieving the desired selection intensity because of the use of few sires. There is, thus, a need to produce crossbreds in larger numbers under field conditions. These animals should be identified, registered and breed societies formed which should take up performance recording and develop programmes for synthesis of the breed and its improvement.

6. CURRENT ACTION PROGRAMMES

India is a vast country with a large variation in climate, agriculture and economic conditions. A large part of the area in the country is with low inputs and would, therefore, need well adapted indigenous breeds both for milk and draught animal power. Crossbreds have shown high performance where plenty of green fodder and other essential inputs like health care are available. The breeding programmes, therefore, for improvement of both indigenous breeds and crossbreds need to be drawn up. A system needs to be set up which would allow selection within the population to be effective. While developing strategies for genetic improvement, location specific parameters especially inputs have to be given first preference.

The indigenous breeds to be improved through selective breeding need to be identified. The magnitude to which these are to be used in grading up of local cattle and their numbers required should be worked out in detail so that appropriate programmes for their multiplication, improvement and production of quality bulls are drawn up. The existing set up of small independent farms of these indigenous breeds has not given desired results.

In order to overcome the problem of small herd size and make the within population selection more effective, the programme of associated herd testing has been introduced. This has so far been attempted for Sahiwal which is one of the high yielding dairy breeds of the Indian sub-continent. The breeding tract of this breed has now been left in Pakistan and only a few herds are available in India. The herd strength on most of these farms varies between 50 and 300. These farms were established with the purpose of producing quality bulls for use in the developmental programmes. Most of these herds did not register any improvement in milk over their period of existence. This was because of small herd size; use of sires selected on the basis of their dam's record and conformation resulted invariably in a negative genetic trend. It was observed, that only in a few herds was there an improvement in the milk yield over the years, which was due to use of sons of outstanding sires.

Initially nine farms covering a total population of around 900 Sahiwal animals were included in the associated herd testing programme. Most of these herds had varying levels of inbreeding ranging from 0 to 12 percent. The average milk yield in 305 days was around 1600 kg, body weight at first calving around 320 kg, mature weight of 360 kg, and the calving interval 450 days with herd life being around nine years. Semen of the first set of Sahiwal bulls was used in these farms during 1980-81. In the second cycle of mating, 8 Sahiwal bulls were used. A number of daughters of these bulls have now become available at these farms. The programme is in its third cycle of mating. The progeny test information on the first set of bulls is likely to become available this year. It is hoped that 1 to 2 bulls from each set with 10-20 percent superiority over the herd average would become available. These bulls then could be used on existing farms and also in the Sahiwal herds in the country or outside for herd improvement and in designed matings for production of young bulls for use in progeny testing.

Recognizing the importance of indigenous breeds for draught power and the need for developing animal power on scientific lines, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has initiated a much larger programme for Hariana and Ongole breeds. The major objective is to conserve and improve these breeds for milk and draught qualities. Hariana is a dual purpose breed and is widely used in the Indus-Ganges plains. Initially six breeding farms with a total population of more than 1200 Hariana breedable females were included in the programme. The semen freezing facilities are being developed at the Germplasm Unit at Hariana Agricultural University, Hissar. A total of 20 bulls coming from high yielding dams and selected on the basis of body conformation will be used in each cycle. The bulls will be brought to the Germplasm Unit and semen frozen for use in six herds. Each bull will be allotted 60 cows for breeding. The female progeny born will be raised at the respective farms for performance recording while 5 male calves each for breeding and draught (work) per bull will be brought to the Germplasm Unit. Draught studies on these selected bull calves will be made. Bulls will be finally ranked on the basis of their daughter's milk production and draught qualities of their sons and the top 2 to 3 bulls identified for use in production of future bull calves and improvement in the herds. Correlation between milk yield and draught power will also be studied. As soon as the programme commences, around 10 000 females registered with the Central Herd Registation scheme, operational in Rohtak, Ajmer, Mahendragarh and Bhiwani districts, will be involved in the programme. In addition, around 15-20 percent of total animals available with small and landless farmers could also be associated in the programme by developing the field recording system for progeny testing. The bulls, thus selected after the progeny test, will be used in the Hariana breeding tract and other adjoining areas where the Hariana breed has been used for upgrading the local cows.

A similar programme for Ongole has been proposed during the 7th plan. Ongole is a dual-purpose breed. Its breeding tract extends over parts of Krishna, Kistna, Guntur, Nellore and Vizagapatam in Andhra Pradesh. The centre of the Ongole area is embedded with rivers. The banks of these rivers form excellent grazing land, as due to the fear of floods they are less cultivated. Very few farms of this breed are available. However, a large number of animals of this breed are registered with the Ongole Breeders Association. The existing Ongole farms are being strengthened by adding more animals so as to have at least 800 breedable cows at the farms. The Ongole animals on the farms, and those registered with the breeder's association, are proposed to be involved in an improvement programme on the pattern suggested for the Hariana breed.

Some of the other well-defined breeds like Gir, Kankrej, Nagore and Rathi are being improved through the use of semen of selected bulls under various state developmental programmes. No crossbreeding is permitted in breeding tracts of these herds.

A number of breeds/genotypes, on account of crossbreeding, have been produced in the country. These have shown high performance under optimum inputs and are well adapted to local conditions. For the survival of these breeds, it is essential that these are multiplied and produced in large numbers under field conditions so that an effective progeny testing programme for continuous improvement could be undertaken. For this, the development of a field recording system is very important. In order to explore the factors affecting field recording, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has initiated a project on "Standardization of field recording of performance data and its use in progeny testing". This project is operating at four locations in the country where they have a well-developed field recording system. A large number of crossbred genotypes with 50 percent exotic inheritance around these four locations are available. Emphasis is to stablize around this level through inter se mating among crossbreds, followed by intensive selection.

Military dairy farms are a government organization having a very large population of Holstein x Local (Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Gir, Tharparkar) crosses with 3/8 to 5/8 Holstein inheritance. These crosses have been produced as a result of continuous forward crossing to Holstein and backcrossing to indigenous breed bulls. These farms maintain more than 10 000 breedable crossbred females of the Holstein spread over different regions in the country. These facilities of men and material available at the military dairy farms are being used for developing a new dairy breed, 'Frieswal', by using Holstein x Sahiwal crossbreds as the base. Initially, 4000 Holstein x Sahiwal crossbred females at four large farms in northern India have been included in the programme. The objective is to stabilize the breed at 50 percent Holstein level. For this the elite Sahiwal cows available at the military dairy farm, Meerut, with a herd average of more than 3000 litres of milk are being used for production of crossbred bulls using semen of top progeny tested Holstein bulls. A total of 40 halfbred bulls (50 percent Holstein inheritance) are proposed to be used each cycle for progeny testing. Bull rearing and semen freezing facilities are being developed at the military dairy farm, Meerut. These facilities of military dairy farms will permit progeny test evaluation of large numbers of crossbred bulls. The semen of the tested bulls will also be made available to the developmental agencies. A series of crossbred strains/genotypes with high performance through these crossbreeding programmes will become available in the next few years.

The future emphasis on crossbreeding research in cattle would be to study the genetic aspects of production of crossbreds, effects of inter-breeding among crossbreds and to develop a suitable criterion for selection of these cattle for making further improvements in production and reproduction traits. This would require production of pedigreed progenies of large numbers of crossbred bulls, their performance recording and analysis of such records to obtain estimates of genetic and phenotypic parameters and their utilization for development of a selection criterion. This will also provide data for determining genetic merit of crossbred sires based on their progeny performance.

The programmes suggested for improvement of these indigenous breeds and synthesis of crossbred strains, if implemented with suitable financial inputs and technical manpower, are expected to improve substantially both the quality of draught animal power and milk yield.

REFERENCES

^1/ Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar - 243 122, India.