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CATTLE
IN INDIAN ECONOMY
- Babubbai J. Patel (
Ex. Chief Minister of Gujarat )
The total number of cows and
their progeny of all ages is about 180 million and that
of buffaloes and their progeny of all ages is about 60 million
in the country. Each of them yields about 10 kilograms of dung
per day on an average. If this dung is passed through a gobar
gas plant it would yield about 13 cubic feet of cooking gas
per animal per day. It would be quite adequate for cooking of
one person's food per day. That means these 240 million
animals could supply cooking heat for 240 millions of people.
This great source of energy is very valuable in a country in
which there is a dearth of firewood which is increasing with
the reduction in the forest area due to utilisation of that
land for agricultural and other purposes and submergence under
irrigation projects as also other wanton destruction of trees.
If human excreta and decayed vegetable waste are added to this
the gas generated would be considerably more, and that would
be a great socio-economic contribution to our existence. After
extracting the gas the dung when dried
up would provide rich nitrogenous fertiliser which is
estimated at about 2 per cent in the dung. Each animal would
produce about 3650 kilograms of dung per year on an average.
It might contain about 2 percent nitrogen. Each animal would
produce about 73 kilograms of nitrogenous fertilizer per year besides
the cooking gas released through the gober gas plant.
The 240 million animals would thus provide about 17.5 million
tons of nitrogen through this rich organic manure. Currently
we are utilising chemical fertilisers to the extent of about 7
million tons per year, 3 million tons out of this is imported
stuff. The cost of imports i s about 10000 million rupees per
year. The cost of our local production is about 6000 million
rupees. The. capital cost involved in the production of
chemical fertilizers is about 4000 rupees per ton. If we have
to replace 17.5 million tons which these animals could
produce, we may need about 70 million rupees as capital
investment. Besides this the cost of production of chemical
fertilizers would be much higher than the cost of production
of cow dung which in many areas will be negligible. Dung would
be provided by all the 240 million animals though only 70
million will be useful for haulage and 37 million would be
yielding milk at a time. The remaining 133 million animals
would be providing dung with rich gas and manure content at
a very low cost of feeding. So all these animals contribute
substantially throughout their life and after their death
leave their skin, bones, horns, hoofs, intestines, flesh,
blood, etc. that can be utiliied for diverse purposes.
The massacre that is going on
at an ever increasing pace will result in a heavy economic
damage to the country. These animals contribute about 66
billion rupees worth of milk and 50 billion rupees worth of
energy, and if properly utili sed can contribute through gobar
gas plant about 24, billion rupees worth of cooking gas and
manure worth about 26 billion rupees, making a total
contribution of 166 billion rupees in the shape of goods and
services every year to the country's economy.
Assuming that we eliminate
these animals to earn foreign exchange or produce more beef
for human consumption, we will be required to replace the 40
million ploughs by about 4 million tractors requiring an
investment of 600 billion rupees at the rate of about 1,50,000
rupees per tractor and
trailer and about 8,00,000 additional trucks for haulage
costing about 160 billion rupees additional investment at the
rate of about 2,00,000 rupees per truck, to replace all the
1,50,000 bullock carts. Beside this we will need energy worth
about 50 billion rupees to be replaced for working these
tractors and trucks the capitalised ,'alue of which would be
above 300 billion rupees. Thus besides losing an yearly income
of 160 billion rupees. We will have to incur a capital
expenditure of about 1060 billion rupees to replace the
alternatives to these animals. The milk, manure I and gas will
be irreplaceable. Equivalent amount of chemical fertilizers
would require an investment of about 70 billion rupees at the
rate of 4 billion rupees investment for million, ton production capacity. In all we will have to lose an yearly
income of 160 billion rupees, invest additional 1130 billion
rupees and find alternatives for gas and milk, at additional
cost and investment This presumes that we will be able to
produce or secure enough steel and productive capacity to
produce 4 million tractors against the prrsent capacity of 34
thousand tractors per year and 8,00,000 trucks against the
capacity of about 1,00,000 trucks per year, and also that we
will be able to spend about 50 billion rupees per year
additionally for import of fuel to run these vehicles. These
are all staggering figures. Our current five year plan would
cost 97,500 crores of rupees. Against that this single item
replacement of useful milch and draught animals would demand
an investment of about 113000 crores of rupees equivalent to
an amount much higher than the total outlay of the Sixth Five
Year plan which itself is larger than the investment in all
the plans put together. Moreover the country is faced with an
adverse balance of trade of about Rs. 6000 crores per year.
This will lead to additional adverse balance of another 600u
crores or more for additional petroleum products, fertilizers, steel etc. imports.
All this can completely wreck
our economy. It is not too early in the dli1r if we apply our
mind to this grave risk which we are running by accelerating
the pace of slaughter of useful animals. Devnar is a living
example of the rising pace of slaughter. Intitially it waS
permitted to slaughter 1755 useless bullocks and buffaloes per
week that is about 90,000 per year. In 1973-74 it slaughtered
66789 bullocks alone. In 1980-81 it slaughtered 121656
bullocks. Currently
about 1,25,000 bullocks,
20,000 buffaloes and 25,00,000 goats and sheep per year. As
the Chief Minister of Kerala conveyed to Vinobaji by his
letter dated 10'th May, 1979 that KeraJa alone slaughters
14,00,000 cows and bullocks per year >>>
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