New insemination technology to help boost income of dairy farmers in Andhra Pradesh

APLDA promotes sex-sorted semen technology for increased female calf production, milk yield, and dairy farmer income in Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh Livestock Development Agency (APLDA) has planned to promote artificial insemination of cattle using sex-sorted semen technology extensively to ensure more female calves, thereby increasing milk production and income of dairy farmers.

The APLDA has achieved the initial success in building confidence among dairy farmers on the production of female calves (more than 90%) using this technology.

The Animal Husbandry Department has performed 1,23,677 inseminations so far and the results are encouraging, with a ratio of the female and male calves of around 91:9, Dr. M. Srinivasa Rao, Chief Executive Officer (in the cadre of Director of Animal Husbandry), APLDA, Guntur told The Hindu on Friday. 

Sex-sorted semen is processed to separate sperm cells carrying either the X chromosome (causing female offspring) or the Y chromosome (causing male offspring), increasing chance of producing calves of a desired sex. 

The APLDA aims to promote this technology in the State, under the Accelerated Breed Improvement Programme (ABIP)- sex-sorted semen project.

“It has been planned to perform 4,00,000 inseminations using sex-sorted semen technology this year, covering at least 10% of the breedable cattle population in the State,” Dr. Srinivasa Rao said.

If everything goes well, the use of conventional semen will be replaced by the sex-sorted semen in five years. With indigenous sex-sorting technology, the cost of production of sex-sorted semen will go down further, he said.