Lucknow, Oct 12 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Animal Husbandry Minister Dharmpal Singh has announced a special campaign from November 1 to December 31 to move all stray cattle in the state into cow shelters.

He said that a state-of-the-art laboratory is coming up in Lucknow to help with artificial insemination of cattle to improve breeds and ensure higher numbers of females are birthed to increase milk production.

For breed improvement under the National Gokul Mission, a breed multiplication farm for 200 cows is being set up at a cost of Rs 4 crore and permission has been received for four such farms, the minister said.

He added that to increase milk production, the Nandbaba Milk Mission has been launched with 35 dairies of 25 indigenous cows each being set up in ten districts and four dairies each in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Lucknow and Jhansi, three each in Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Agra and Kanpur.

Subsidies are also being provided to farmers for purchase of indigenous varieties of cow from other states, their insurance and transportation to UP. "There are 12.11 lakh cattle housed in 6,940 cow shelters. Farmers are being paid Rs 50 per animal for keeping a destitute cow. A campaign was carried out under which 8,103 hectares of grazing land was freed from encroachment," the minister said, adding that under dairy sector, the department had signed 1,063 MoUs worth Rs 31,465 crore, of which 288 worth Rs 13,509 crore were shortlisted for ground breaking ceremony out of 3,076 MoUs signed worth Rs 9,101 crore.

For the first time, artificial insemination for goats is being carried out.

Meanwhile, the government is in the process of acquiring 250 Rembule breed of sheep from Uttarakhand, which will be distributed to farmers in Prayagraj, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Sonbhadra, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot, Banda, Badaun and Pilibhit for production of better-quality wool. Under Nandbaba Mission, 569 villages were identified to set up milk committees, of which 284 committees had been set up.