Surinder Sud: Healthy projections

FARM VIEW

Research on the little-known mithun reveals that rearing the animal means profitability.

Mithun, a relatively uncommon domesticated animal, can play an important role in poverty reduction in the north-eastern hilly regions. It has the potential to produce good quality meat, milk and leather, which can be further processed into value-added products to generate employment and income. At present, mithun is reared by people, mostly tribals, for its meat that is greatly relished and is, therefore, served on social occasions.

Called Bos frontalis in scientific parlance, mithun is akin somewhat to bovines such as buffalo and cow. Though its genetic make-up if different, it is amenable for cross-breeding with other bovines that can improve its productivity. Its natural habitat is confined chiefly to Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram in India, and the bordering region of Myanmar, though some scattered populations are found in the near-by hilly areas of Bhutan and Bangladesh as also in the Yunan province of China. The total mithun population in India is estimated at 2,50,000 (2003 animal census) but it is growing annually at a healthy rate of over 7 per cent.

Unfortunately, at present the true potential of mithun is woefully under-exploited. But the Dimapur (Nagaland)-based National Research Centre on Mithun (NRCM), an organ of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), is endeavouring to change this scenario by developing technology for scientific rearing of this animal and processing of its products. It has assessed the economics of organised mithun farming and found it quite lucrative. Going beyond, it has prepared bankable projects for mithun rearing, too.

Mithun meat is deemed superior than that of other similar animals. Besides, it is a relatively fast-growing animal, gaining 300 to 600 grams a day in body weight with good feeding. The dressing ratio (the proportion of edible meat to total body weight), too, is not bad, varying from 48 to 54 per cent, depending on the age of the animal at culling. All this makes it a valuable broiler animal, especially for the production of organic meat that can fetch premium price in the market.

Though the average milk yield of mithun is meagre "" around one to 1.5 kg a day "" it is of superior quality with high fat content (8 to 13 per cent), protein and other nutrients. As such, it can be processed into various high-value milk products such as paneer, ghee, cream, curd and sweets such as barfi and rasgulla. Significantly, NRCM scientists are confident that mithun's milk yield can be raised through breeding.

Moreover, the hide of mithun is of a better quality than that of cow. The NRCM has already developed a technology for processing mithun hide into a variety of leathers. For this it has collaborated with other institutions, notably West Bengal's Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology. Its leather has been used for making shoe uppers, leather bags and leather garments. Besides, mithun hide with hair has been used gainfully for making sofa covers.

NRCM Director C Rajkhowa feels that the traditional mithun production system needs to be suitably altered by introducing scientific feeding, breeding, management and health care to tap its true value. The NRCM has already come out with some publications on the modern mithun farming practices.

The economics of the bankable mithun farms, worked out by the NRCM, reveals that a unit beginning with five animals can yield a net profit of nearly Rs 52,650 at the end of the third year. This is based on the assumption of a body weight growth of 300 gram a day for one animal and a 9 per cent compound interest on the borrowed capital (around Rs 30,000) to meet the initial fixed costs of the project. The estimated income takes into account only the meat value (at Rs 50 a kg live weight) of the animals and of its products. Similarly, a six-year mithun farming project with 10 animals can deliver a commutative net income of Rs 2,97,770 at the end of the sixth year.

Obviously, if the income from other products such as milk, hide and their products is also taken into account, the profitability of mithun farming will look up further. Thus, there seems a good case for investment on modern mithun farming by the local communities as also other entrepreneurs who can take up value-addition of mithun-based products through processing and marketing.