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Niti Aayog comes out with a road map to promote gaushala economy | India News



NEW DELHI: Seeking to address the issue of uneconomic stray cattle by using them for promotion of natural and sustainable farming, the government think-tank Niti Aayog on Friday released a report detailing a roadmap for ‘gaushala’ (cow shelter) economy in the country. It recommended 22 measures including involvement of private and public sector institutions for marketing biofertilizers produced by over 5,000 gaushalas across the country.
The report, prepared by a 17-member task force constituted in 2021, also suggested a need for some parity in support for chemical fertilizers vis-a-vis organic, and cow dung and cow urine based compost manures ‘jivamrit’, ‘ghanjivamrit’ and other organic fertiliser formulations.
“This will help gaushalas to earn sizable income from cow dung and cow urine,” said the 60-page report while referring to how heavy subsidy on inorganic fertilisers especially on urea discourages use of organic sources of nutrients, which do not get any subsidy.
It also suggested exploring the possibility of integrating the chemical fertilisers with cow dung based organic fertilisers, similar to the concept of ethanol blending in petrol.
The report broadly examined and suggested the possibilities for effective utilization, production, processing, quality standards, infrastructure and marketing of products developed from cattle waste especially in gaushalas and scope for income generation by such cow shelters.
Referring to the problem of air pollution linked to stubble (parali) burning, the report noted that a trend has started to use agri biomass, which is generally wasted, for producing compressed biogas (CBG) using the method of anaerobic digestion. “This process produces much better output when animal dung is mixed with plant biomass. Adding 20% ‘gobar’ (cow dung) to the biomass gives the best result,” said the report.
“It is our hope that the report will be useful in guiding interventions for improving financial and economic viability of gaushalas and channelizing potential of stray, abandoned and uneconomic cattle wealth for promoting natural and sustainable farming,” said Ramesh Chand, Niti Aayog member and chairperson of the task force, in the preface.
According to the 20th livestock census, the total cattle population in India is around 19 crores, of which around 25% (4.7 crores) are male. These male cattle, when not used or usable for draught power, and old and unproductive indigenous cows are the potential candidates for admission in gaushalas.
Since the country does not have an adequate number of gaushalas, farmers often abandon such unproductive cattle. The Aayog took note of the increasing number of stray cattle both in urban as well as rural areas, which have become a menace in many ways such as destroying standing crops and causing road accidents.
Recommending measures to promote the gaushala economy, the report said, “The cow dung based organic fertilisers (in the farm fertiliser mix) would have a huge impact in fulfilling the constitutional mandate under Article 48 (that the State shall …,in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle) by turning our indigenous cattle into productive assets.”


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