Ranchi, April 24: The animal husbandry department will resume artificial insemination to improve the cattle breed in the state. The programme, beginning on Monday, will continue for three days.

For the first time after the fodder scam was unearthed in 1996, the department has launched a big scheme.

Veterinary doctors and their assistants will be provided motorcycles fitted with a container carrying frozen semen. They will visit villages to inseminate cattle. The general category of villagers will have to pay Rs 30 per injection. Those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will have to pay Rs 20 an injection.

The veterinarians will also have to keep a record of the health of the cattle and their offspring.

Ajit Kumar, a lab technician at a Hotwar farm, said, ?In most places, the private practitioners charge Rs 150 per injection. At times, the villagers have to cough up extra money for calling the veterinary doctors home. If the scheme gets a good response, the entire cattle breed in the state will change within five years.?

A cow or buffalo that yields 3 to 7 litres of milk every day will produce 25 to 35 litres of milk a day after insemination. Their offspring will start producing milk within 12 to 15 months. Now, the cattle take at least three years to conceive.

The department has procured semen from Union agriculture ministry?s Hesarghatta laboratory near Bangalore.

In 1980, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) provided equipment to set up a frozen semen bank at a Hotwar farm.

There were about 100 bulls for the artificial insemination programme. But, the scheme failed because of corrupt officials. The fodder scam led to malnutrition of the animals and many bulls died. Now there is not a single bull at the farm.

But, the officials claimed that the equipment are in a working condition.

Initially, 215 centres will be benefited by the scheme. The aim is to have over 450 such mobile units.

With chief minister Arjun Munda himself looking after animal husbandry department, the officials are on their toes to make a good start.