The Dairy Development Project remains a key focus area of IsFon
under its rural initiatives. It aims at extending support to
agricultural labourers and marginal farmer’s wives by providing
them with a cow and holistic support in dairy management to
generate a regular secondary source of income.
Dairy Development objectives:
-
To provide cows to the beneficiaries to help generate an
additional source of income through sale of milk and its
by-products.
-
To provide animal health care assistance by training them in
hygienic ways of housekeeping of cattle sheds and providing
primary health treatment.
-
To provide training in livestock rearing including feeding and
milking the cows.
-
To provide free vaccinations for the cows and new born calves.
-
Training in development of fodder plots and cultivation of para,
napier and azolla fodder.
-
To help improve soil fertility and crop yield using cow dung
which is a rich source of organic matter and to gainfully
utilise the surplus fodder to feed the animals
-
To provide doorstep services of Artificial Insemination followed
by pregnancy diagnosis, vaccinations and primary treatment.
Since agriculture is mostly seasonal, the dairy project
helps in generating a continuous alternative source of
income of Rs. 8,000 - Rs. 12,000 per month through sale of
dairy and by-products for the beneficiaries.
Due to a gradual increase in the population density in and
around these areas there is a reassuring steady increase in
the demand and thereby sale of milk.
Selection Criteria
Participants are selected based on 3 criteria from among the
rural population, in 41 villages:
-
small and marginal farmer family or a land-less family
-
families that own land less than or equal to 2.0 acres
-
families where the Cow is given in the name of women only
Dairy Development includes
- Selection of aspirants
- Capacity building
- Cow purchase
- Breeding
- Animal health care
- Vaccination
- Deworming
- First aid
- Infertility treatment
- Nutritional feed supplement
- Fodder cultivation
Crossbreed cow with aspirant Mr. & Mrs. Supriya
Sunil Khane & family from Mhalungi Village
Calf growth measurement external visitor
External visitor
Project Highlights
- Distributions of crossbreed cows
-
Income raised by Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 12,000 per month,
through sale of milk
- Dairy Management training for all beneficiaries
- Vaccination of cows and calves
- Development of fodder plots
- Doorstep Artificial Insemination made available
Fodder plot of Ms. Vaishali Deepak Patil, Karavale
Village, District Raigad
Calf Rally, Pale Khurd
