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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

The unsuitable boy of India's cattle economy -Abhishek Rajan
-VillageSquare.in

The problem of male cattle in India, the world’s largest milk-producing country, remains in limbo even as farmers grapple with latest government regulations that severely restrict cattle trade and culling

Alpesh Patel, a small farmer in Mogari village of Anand district in Gujarat, owns three crossbreed female cattle and earns supplemental income by selling milk to the nearest dairy co-operative. He strives to keep his herd efficient for milk production by keeping only female cattle.

On being asked about this selective rearing, he said, “The survival rate of newborn male calves is very low and two out every four newborn male calves naturally die within six months. If they survive, they are sold to the local vaghri community for Rs 500-600 each, as these male calves have no economic utility when they grow up as adults.”

However, he says that female cattle have high survival rate vis-a-vis the males and almost all of them achieve adulthood. It is highly possible that what Alpesh claims as natural death could be selective weeding out of young male stock in order to keep his herd efficient for milk production. Is he the only farmer with such rationale? Livestock data from two decades unveil some interesting insights on this female bias of bovine-keepers in India.

Redundant males

Till the advent of Green Revolution in India, bullocks were an indispensable component of the nation’s agrarian society. They were revered by farmers and commanded higher priority over female cattle because of draught power. Things, however, changed after the Green Revolution, when the male started getting replaced by mechanized power — tractors, power tillers and diesel and electric pumps — in the agricultural fields.

The opportunity cost of rearing a male cattle became low as they have to be fed entire year for 60 days of traction services. They offered no additional benefits compared with the efficient and timesaving tractors, which led farmers to think of their disposal. Also, milk production gained importance over the years, which made farmers get rid of male cattle so that large share of feed and fodder resources remained concentrated on the milch cows.

Bovine-keepers dispose male cattle in several ways — through neglect, abandoning them so that they become strays and selling them off in the cattle market because there is demand for their meat, hide, bones and other by-products.

Looking at the quinquennial Livestock Censuses data, cattle population of the country grew by 10% between 1956 and 1961. Interestingly, it took another 30 years (1961-1992) for cattle to clock 15% population growth. However, the cattle population started to decline after 1992 and recorded 7% negative growth in between 1992-2012, which was entirely attributed to male cattle population. Between 1992-2012, male cattle population recorded a net loss of 33 million heads, which is unlikely due to only natural reasons or starvation.

One-third of this net loss — about 10 million male heads —has occurred alone in the Hindu heartland of Uttar Pradesh. The composition of crossbred cattle population, where males comprise only 10% of total 40 million, clearly shows the selective and differential treatment of bovine-keepers towards bullocks. Economic rationality guides the decisions of dairy farmers in determining the size and sexes of their cattle herds.

Sacred cow

However, in the recent years, the issue of sacred cow has gained currency nationally, which has started to interfere with the established system of disposal of unproductive cattle. Incidents of violence and murder in the name of cattle vigilantism are on an all-time high. State machineries have also caught up to this rising frenzy. The Gujarat government recently passed a law that made cattle slaughter an offence punishable with a life term. The central government has recently made an amendment to the rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCAA) Act, 1960, which bans the trading of cattle for slaughter in animal markets across the country.

For Vipulbhai Patel, a commercial dairy farmer based in Bhetashi village of Anand district in Gujarat, disposal of male cattle has become extremely difficult in current circumstances. “Forty four out of 80 female cattle in the herd are expected to give calves this year,” he told VillageSquare.in. “If 50% of the forthcoming newborns are male, how would I get rid of these as there are no buyers in the market?”

If we take a close look at the Vipulbhai’s situation, the addition of around 10 male cattle in his herd — assuming that half of the male calves die within six months due to neglect — would have fetched him Rs 6,000-7,000 by selling it to the vaghri community. At present, the established disposal facilities of unwanted cattle has been disrupted in his village, as people from the vaghri community aren’t doing the cattle trade anymore because of the high risks involved, which leaves him with no other choice but to abandon these unproductive male cattle on streets to save the recurring maintenance cost, which could be around Rs 7,500 every month at the rate of Rs 25 per cattle on a daily basis.

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