Indian agriculture improving

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32902, 28 April 1972, Page 10

Indian agriculture improving

India was making rapid strides towards self-sufficiency in agriculture, as much through the enthusiasm and dedication of the Indians themselves as through outside assistance, but there was still a long way to go, particularly in the field of milk production, Mr J. Porteous, a Pukekohe farmer, said in Christchurch yesterday.

For the last three years Mr Porteous has leased his own farm and been working in Maharashtra, India, developing a 13-acre wilderness into a dairy farm as part of a Moral Re-Armament scheme near Poona. The average yield from cows in India was only two to three pints of milk a day and more than 80 per cent of the 250 m cattle in India were unprofitable, Mr Porteous said. The great numbers of cattle did, however, have one advantage; and that was that there was sufficient basic stock from which to breed, particularly by artificial insemination, and to improve the dairy herds more end the Indian Government was importing deepfrozen semen from Britain, the United States and Australia, and state governments were setting up their own artificial insemination centres using bulls from model farms and proven herds, such as that at the M.R.A. farm. The farm’s herd had been built up from an initial shipment of seven cows and one bull from Australia and the farm had already supplied the nearest artificial insemination centre with eight bulls. This centre gave free servicing to any farmer within range and the crossbred cattle were already giving two to three times more milk a day than the average cow in India.

Milking machines were really not warranted in India, said Mr Porteous, because of the great labour force available. Mechanisation on farms would aggravate the high unemployment there without giving any great benefit in return. Mr Porteous’s work was voluntary and while in India he had to support himself and his family as well as build up the farm. Now he has returned to New Zealand his ’ 22-year-old son, Mr A. Porteous, has taken over as : manager of the farm.