Ramanthapuram: Distribution of free milch animals to poor women in villages in the district has helped them own ‘an asset’ though it has not resulted in substantial increase in milk production owing to shortage of dry and green fodder.
Interaction with a cross section of beneficiaries at Medhalodai village during a press tour, led by Collector S. Natarajan on Wednesday, revealed that they could not sufficiently feed the cross-bred jersey cows and achieve high milk yield.
The 50 women beneficiaries collected two and a half litres of milk a day from a cow each, and supplied it to the society at Rs. 28 per litre. But they used bulk of the amount for purchase of feed.
They were, however, happy that they had got an asset each and hoped to expand the population in the coming years. “It will definitely give us an additional income,” said Murugeswarai, a widow, who was taking up farm work and 100 days of assured employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The animal was helpful at a time when there was no farm work due to the failure of north-east monsoon, she said.
In the absence of dry and green fodder, she, like other beneficiaries, purchased concentrate fodder at Rs. 30 per kg and offset the expenditure by selling milk.
Radha, a spinster, was also confident that the milch animal would be an assured source of income. She wove palm leaf mat and earned an additional income by selling milk.
T. Mohan, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry, said jersey cow required 20 kg of green fodder, 15 kg of dry fodder and four kg of concentrate fodder every day to give the maximum milk yield, but the beneficiaries fed the animals only with concentrate fodder.
The department had encouraged farmers to grow green fodder on about 700 acres of rain-fed areas and distributed free seeds to cultivate hybrid sorghum, protein-rich cowpea and Co4. This year, the department proposed to distribute 450 milch animals and so far distributed 200 animals, he said.
The department had distributed 4,000 animals in the last five years. The distribution of milch animals was expected to increase milk production in the district by 20 per cent, but it had resulted in an increase of only 12 per cent due to non- availability of green fodder. The district produced about 30 lakh litres of milk a day, he said.
