A Three-Decade Struggle For Native Breeds

Sosamma, a veterinary officer and conservationist, shares her three-decade-long battle to conserve native cattle breeds in Kerala, against government policies promoting crossbreeding with high-yield exotic breeds.

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and a few cows were charred to death. I don't know whether it was a deliberate act or accidental.

Sosamma, who was in Kochi to inaugurate the Winter School organised by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, shares her long battle for conserving native breeds. At the time when she set out, the government was promoting crossbreeding in cattle to improve milk production, using high-yield exotic breeds like Holstein Friesian and Jersey. However, Sosamma argued for the conservation of native breeds. Despite being warned that this stance went against government policy, she responded that research work contributes to evolving policy.

"I needed a computer to record the research data. But the communist government was against computers," she recalls. "So I requested Keltron to provide a computer and record it as a 'data storage cabinet'."