Import policy set to give added potency to stud farms - By Edwin D'Sa
Posted on - 22 Jul 2010
Import policy set to give added potency to stud farms
Edwin D’Sa | TNN
Pune: Quality of thoroughbred horses in India is set to improve after the opening up of imports of breeding stock with three prominent countries — UK, USA and France. The Indian Govt had put a ban on import of breeding stock from countries that had disclosed having Contagious Equine Metrites ‘CEM’ which remained in force for more than 30 years. But that has been lifted now.
“Efforts were made off and on for many years by the National Horse Breeding Society of India (NHBSI) to lift the ban,” said Dr Farokh Wadia, owner of the Yerawada Stud and Agricultural Farm, Pune.
However, recent efforts appeared a little intense that led to the desired effect. Zavaray Poonawalla, Chairman, Export Cell, NHBSI, said, “The Ministry of Agriculture understood our view point and accepted to lift the ban in the interest of the thoroughbred industry.”
Ameeta Mehra of Usha Stud Farm, Gurgaon, told TOI, “A group of us breeders met Arvind Kaushal (joint secretary of Animal Husbandry Department) and we discussed the issue with him and we succeeded in getting the ban lifted in six months.”
Poonawalla felt better will power from NHBSI played a part in this decision. The US, UK and France produce some of the finest breeds of race horses in the world. And India can now procure superior bloodline stock from there and start a new line of high-quality thoroughbreds.
During the ban period, import of breeding stock was permitted from countries which did not have ‘CEM’ or claimed not to have this disease (largely from Ireland). Horses that were imported from UK or USA earlier like Razeen, Placerville, Steinback, Diffident and Alnasr Alwasheek were either racing or just retired from racing but never mated there.
Dr Wadia said, “The Indian government had banned the import of mated stock. Hence we could not import pregnant horses or stallions that stood at stud farms. “But now with the government liberalising its policies to try and bring in line with international legislation which are mandated by the OIE, we can import pregnant mares of higher quality.” (OIE is the animal equivalent of the WHO) “Earlier after importing we had to wait for at least three years for the mare to breed. Now waiting period can be two years or less and that means a lot to a capital-intensive industry like ours.”
Now, stud farms in India get the opportunity to buy the best, of course depending on their buying power. “This also means a selection from a huge gene pool giving the Indian breeders an opportunity to buy good horses at a reasonable price and not be restricted to only Ireland or a few other small breeding countries,” said Poonawalla, a partner in Poonawalla Stud Farm.
With the market opening up, the Indian stud farms can also procure breeding stock at competitive rates. Earlier, there used to be competition among the Indian breeders for limited stock available from select countries only. Hence the prices were escalating.
Racehorses owner and chairman of RWITC, Vivek Jain, said: “The competition should bring down prices and quality of imports will improve. It’s a long overdue measure and will be a big boost to Indian breeding.”
Poonawalla said, “We will now be able to produce better Indian thoroughbreds and be able to compete in the international arena in a much bigger way than today. Export would be an opportunity.”Indian thoroughbreds like Mystical, Astonish, Adler, Saddle Up, Simply Noble have competed in the international arena and excelled there. Poonawalla opined, “The cost of production would increase as we shall now expend more money to bring better stock to raise the bar and thereby be able to export in a bigger way.”
Mehra agreed. “It can become a sort of a level-playing field,” she said. “We now can look to competing at least within Asia. Better variety of thoroughbreds in India will certainly have a positive long- term effect.”
