Livestock Development and Market Infrastructure Schemes

India’s livestock and agricultural market infrastructure are supported by a set of central schemes, research institutes and digital trading platforms. These programmes aim to improve animal productivity, conserve indigenous breeds, strengthen disease control, and reduce post-harvest losses through better market linkages.

Flagship Livestock Development Schemes

• Rashtriya Gokul Mission: Launched in December 2014 under the National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development, it focuses on the development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds.
• Genetic improvement tools: The mission supports cattle and buffalo upgradation through sex-sorted semen, embryo transfer technology and automated artificial insemination.
• Gokul Grams: It funds integrated indigenous cattle centres in native breeding tracts to conserve and develop local breeds.
• National Gopal Ratna Awards: The scheme annually recognises outstanding dairy farmers, artificial insemination technicians and dairy cooperatives.
• National Livestock Mission: Launched in 2014-15 by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, it works through three sub-missions: Breed Development of Livestock and Poultry; Feed and Fodder Development; and Innovation and Extension.
• Entrepreneurship support: It provides a 50% capital subsidy, up to statutory ceilings, to individuals, Farmer Producer Organizations and self-help groups for rural poultry, sheep, goat and pig breeding units.
• Feed and fodder support: The mission supports fodder seed production, silage-making units and mechanised fodder harvesting equipment.

Animal Health and Disease Control

• Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme: It provides national funding to prevent, control and eradicate infectious animal diseases.
• National Animal Disease Control Programme: A core component of the programme, it aims to vaccinate 100% of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat populations against Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis.
• Mobile Veterinary Units: The programme finances mobile units for doorstep treatment in remote areas at the rate of one unit per one lakh livestock population.
• Pashu Aadhaar: Animals are registered under a 12-digit unique identification tag to improve traceability and livestock management.

Exam fact: The National Animal Disease Control Programme targets 100% vaccination of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats against Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis.

Livestock Infrastructure and Credit Support

• Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF): Set up under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the fund has a corpus of Rs. 15,000 crore.
• Coverage: It incentivises private investment in dairy processing, meat processing, animal feed plants and breed multiplication farms.
• Interest subvention: Eligible borrowers get 3% per annum interest subvention on term loans from scheduled commercial banks.
• Credit guarantee: The Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Animal Husbandry and Dairying provides credit guarantee cover up to 25% of the loan facility for MSME units.
• Financial objective: The fund is meant to expand modern livestock infrastructure and improve value addition in animal-based industries.

Agricultural Market Infrastructure and e-Trading

• e-NAM: The electronic National Agriculture Market was launched in April 2016 as a pan-India trading portal.
• Market integration: It connects existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee mandis across states into a unified national digital market.
• Operational agency: The Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium serves as the lead operational agency for implementation.
• Trading features: The platform offers electronic auctioning, online assaying reports, digital payments and warehouse-receipt-based trading.
• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund: This medium-to-long term debt financing facility has a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore and runs from 2020 to 2032-33.
• Infrastructure covered: It finances cold rooms, assaying units, sorting and grading sheds, and primary processing centres.
• Concessional finance: Loans up to Rs. 2 crore receive 3% annual interest subvention for a maximum term of 7 years.
• Eligible beneficiaries: Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, Farmer Producer Organizations, startups and rural entrepreneurs can avail support.
• Gramin Agricultural Markets: This scheme upgrades rural periodic markets (haats) into aggregation platforms linked with e-NAM to help small farmers trade near the farm gate.

Institutional Framework and Research Centres

• ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal: A premier institute for dairy production, milk processing technology and livestock genetics.
• ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly: Specialises in veterinary medicine, immunology, diagnostic kits and livestock vaccines.
• National Dairy Development Board, Anand: A statutory body promoting and financing producer-owned dairy cooperative networks.
• National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal: Works on characterisation, evaluation and formal registration of indigenous livestock and poultry breeds.
• Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar: Focuses on buffalo breeding, reproductive cloning and semen cryopreservation.
• Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Mathura: Works on breed development, health management and value-added goat products.
• Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar: Specialises in genetic improvement of indigenous sheep and wool grading technologies.
• National Research Centre on Mithun, Medziphema: Handles rearing, preservation and nutritional research for mithun (Bos frontalis).
• National Research Centre on Yak, Dirang: Focuses on research and high-altitude conservation of yaks (Bos grunniens).
• National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar: Deals with health monitoring, disease surveillance and breeding of horses, mules and donkeys.

Comparative Snapshot of Core Schemes

Key Prelims Takeaways

• Rashtriya Gokul Mission was launched in December 2014 for indigenous bovine breed development and conservation.
• National Livestock Mission has three sub-missions: breed development, feed and fodder development, and innovation and extension.
• AHIDF has a corpus of Rs. 15,000 crore and supports private investment in livestock processing infrastructure.
• e-NAM is the pan-India electronic trading platform linking APMC mandis through digital market integration.
• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund provides medium-to-long term debt financing for post-harvest infrastructure and farm-gate assets.
• National Animal Disease Control Programme targets vaccination against Foot and Mouth Disease and Brucellosis.
• ICAR institutes and NRCs play a major role in breeding, genetics, disease research and species-specific conservation.