NDDB DAIRY SERVICES puts India on the World Map: develops an indigenous sex sorting technology to ensure birth of female calves

NDDB DAIRY SERVICES, a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), today announced its indigenously developed path breaking technology for sex sorting bovine sperms that will ensure the birth of only female calves. This technology is another step that will propel India to become “Atmanirbhar”.

The results of the field trials conducted by NDDB DAIRY SERVICES to ascertain the performance of the product under actual field conditions are encouraging and the first female calf from sex sorted semen dose produced at Alamadhi Semen Station was born in a farm near Chennai in October, 2020.

The current technologies for the sex sorting of bovine sperms are proprietary to a few multi-national companies which makes the cost prohibitive for the dairy farmers. The ability to assure the birth of only female calves provides huge financial advantage to dairy farmers as the economic utility of a male calf is negligible.

Shri Dilip Rath, Chairman of NDDB, informed that NDDB DAIRY SERVICES had taken up the project to develop an indigenous technology for sex sorting bovine sperms a few years back with an objective to significantly bring down the cost of the sex sorted semen doses so that it becomes affordable for the dairy farmers in the country. This development would lead to large scale adoption of the technology.

The sex sorted semen doses produced using the indigenous technology is reported to be meeting the industry quality and production benchmarks.

A not for profit Company registered under the Companies Act, NDDB DAIRY SERVICES functions as a delivery arm of NDDB for field operations relating to promoting Producer Companies and Productivity Enhancement Services. Thus far, 15 Milk Producer Companies have been set up.

NDDB Dairy Services also manages four large semen stations in the country- Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala near Ahmedabad, Animal Breeding Centre near Lucknow, Alamadhi Semen Station near Chennai and Rahuri Semen Station near- Pune. These semen stations together produce about 35% of the total semen produced in the country.

NDDB DAIRY SERVICES has partnered with Jiva Sciences, a Bangalore-based R&D organization, for developing the indigenous sex sorting technology. Some of the key components used in the technology are developed by premier institutes of the country like National Centre for Biological Sciences- Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science- Bangalore and Indian Institute of Technology- Madras.

Shri Rath was confident that the new technology would help in achieving the Honorable Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Make in India’ programme and the current quest for an Atmanirbhar Bharat where products made in India could be used across the world- ‘Local for Global’.

Shri Saugata Mitra, Managing Director, NDDB DAIRY SERVICES, said, “The technology will help bring down the cost of artificial insemination using sex sorted semen significantly from the existing Rs 1,000/-. This will also be a turning point in overcoming the problem of stray cattle in the country”. Shri Mitra further mentioned that the sex sorted doses are expected be commercially available in January 2021 and would go a long way in doubling the farmer’s income.