Rajahmundry: Nearly 60 lakh milch animals, including cows and buffaloes, are going to have their right ears fixed with plastic tags to keep track of their health, growth, milk production and other details under the Central scheme ‘Pasu Sanjeevini’ in the state.
The National Dairy Development Board has developed a software application called Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health (INAPH) where details about the cattle like breed, age, gender, colour, number of calvings, history of disease, vaccination, fertility, deworming, treatment, location, ownership and other details either for an individual animal or for a herd of animals will be recorded.
A plastic tag containing information like Government of India, state serial number and animal registration number will be fixed to the right ear of the animal. Under ideal circumstances, the tag is tamper proof. The tagging is done similar to animals covered under the insurance scheme.
After the state government has launched the Pasu Sanjeevini programme recently, the animal husbandry authorities are getting ready to collect data of cattle to upload on the software application. This exercise is to be completed in a span of five years. Animal husbandry authorities are carrying out an awareness drive and also conducting a training programme for the officials and to Gopalamitras before starting to knock at the doors of dairy farmers to register details about the cattle on INAPH. The data collected will go online and the information will be ready for use or for verification to the concerned authorities. The animals will be given health cards too.
Animal husbandry authorities say that such data will be of immense use to keep regular track of any development related to health, growth, milk production and other details of animals in real time and to intervene if necessary. In case of illegal shifting of animals to slaughter houses, the data will pinpoint the status of the animals.
As per norm, if an animal is found to be unproductive and unfit for rearing and certified accordingly by a qualified veterinary doctor, then only, it can be allowed to be slaughtered. Otherwise, those who are shifting the animals illegally, could invite penal action.
On the other hand, the animal husbandry authorities appeal to state government to provide them more data entry operators, staff and requisite paraphernalia to take up the gigantic task of collecting data about lakhs of milch animals and uploading it in the software application and keep on updating it as and when there is some development.
East Godavari animal husbandry joint director Dr V. Venkateswara Rao said, “We are going to collect data of the milch animals, fix plastic tags to them and keep track of their growth and other details on a regular basis as it has multiple benefits, including keeping tabs on quantum of milk production.”
