Strategic interventions for enhancing livestock productivity in Bundelkhand region of India

Abstract

The paper identifies various issues and problems related to livestock development, and strategies to address them. For Bundelkhand region of India a project was developed under NATP, financed by World Bank. Based on farmer’s participation and their preferences, interventions were identified and implemented. The mineral mixture supplementation @ 40-50 g/day to the lactating dairy animals resulted in significant improvement in milk yield. There was 67 % increase in cow and 25 % increase in buffaloes milk yield after 15 weeks. To control the anoestrus problem in dairy animals mineral mixture supplementation @ 40-50 g/day for one month with estrus inducing capsules in single dose resulted in conception rate of 93 % in buffaloes. The deworming treatment of calf and adult animals twice a year was found almost 100 % effective. To control ectoparasite, spray of ectoparasiticidals twice in a year killed all visible ecto parasites. These low cost strategic interventions related to nutrition and health have been found to be very helpful in improving the productivity. As these interventions are easy to follow, there is great potential of their adoption by farmers because farmers ranked them medium to high in terms of level of confidence of using the technologies independently.