Gaddi Buffalo: An Indigenous Breed of Far-Western Nepal

Abstract

A study on indigenous Gaddi buffalo of far-western region of Nepal was conducted to understand the production parameters and husbandry practices intending to make future strategy for improvement. The breed is well known in the far-western districts of Nepal and adapted in hills and mountains of the region with diverse climatic conditions. Among 3 identified buffalo breeds (Gaddi, Lime and Parkote) and one under study (Terai), Gaddi was found morphologically larger (p<0.01) and docile in temperament. Major population of Gaddi was found to be black in color and some brown and light brown. Morphologically, it looks like Indian Murrah, however white round patch on the middle of forehead and tuft of the tail, and semi-curved horn shape are the distinguished characters. The average ages at puberty, first calving and calving interval was 3.8, 5.7 and 2.0 years respectively. Lactation length varied from 14 to 22 months and milk yield from 2.5 to 5.5 liters/day. Major problems recorded were lack of pure breeding bulls, negative selection, feed scarcity, poor technical know-how and health management. The paper discusses on the overall buffalo management system in the far-western region of Nepal and suggests improvement plan with maximum utilization of locally available farm resources

A Review: Lactation Efficiency of Gaddi Buffalo of Nepal

“…On this regard, peak milk yield can be calculated as 5.3 liters. Moreover, the peak milk yield of Gaddi buffalo is reported to be 3.1 liters (Kumar and Raj, 2007;Yogi and Sharma, 2018). However, more research is needed to be conducted in order to analyze the average and peak milk yield of Gaddi breed of buffalo.…”

“…Due to their versatile nature and multiple prospects, they are appropriately called Black-gold of Nepal. About 48.5% of the households keep buffaloes for regular farm activities (Kumar and Raj, 2007). About two-thirds population of the buffalo are indigenous and the remaining are found to be exotic; either pure or crossbreeds (Sherchand, 2001;Neupane et al, 2007;Paudel, 2017).…”

“…Gaddi buffaloes are distributed in far-western hilly regions of Nepal. They are found in an area of 5482 Km 2 ranging from an elevation of 1500 to 4500 masl (Kumar and Raj, 2007).…”