Mountain. Bihadi Rural Municipality is going to distribute subsidy to encourage the farmers who rear endangered local breeds of cows and ploughs.

The rural municipality has decided to provide Rs 20,000 per cow to farmers rearing improved breeds of cows for commercial milk production. Chief Administrative Officer Thaman Bahadur Reshmi said rs 2,500 would be distributed among the farmers under the local cow protection campaign.

Similarly, Rs 10,000 will be provided as incentive grant per plough, said Reshmi. The villagers have started a conservation campaign after the local breed of cows worshiped as per Vedic traditions have been disappearing lately. Bihadi rural municipality has been encouraging farmers of local breeds of cows in all the six wards of the municipality for the last three years.

Issuing a notice, the municipality has invited applications from local breed farmers for cow’s maternity allowance. Bihadi Chair Parveen Gurung said that the campaign has been launched to encourage the local cow farmers and to increase the attraction towards cow rearing.

In the absence of cows, even in various worships, the cow is kept in the dakshina. In such a situation, the Hindu religion is in danger and the new generation of Hindus will not be able to identify the local breed of cows, said Gurung.

Chief Administrative Officer of the rural municipality, Hari Prasad Bhusal, said that the cow and the calf that was conceived should be local to participate in the program. According to Bhusal, cows and cows should be locals. Application for receiving grant, recommendation of the concerned ward office, copy of citizenship certificate and photo of cow calf should also be attached.

Lately, there has been an increasing attraction towards the rearing of advanced breeds of cows in the mountains. The farmers have stopped rearing the local kathe cows, saying that they will not be able to bear the cost of rearing cows.

The municipality is preparing to provide a grant of Rs 2,500 to the local cows who have given birth since mid-July of the current fiscal year. Bihadi has started a campaign for the protection of local cows for the first time among the seven local levels of the district. Earlier, the municipality had provided Rs 5,000 each to farmers rearing local breeds of cows.

Earlier, Jaljala rural municipality of the district had been providing Rs 1,500 to the farmers and has also started processing urine and dung of local breeds of cows. The Rural Municipality has been distributing an annual grant of Rs 20,000 to the farmers.

Municipalities are increasing investment in animal husbandry and agriculture sectors with the aim of attracting farmers towards commercial farming. The Veterinary Hospital and Animal Services Expert Centre has also allocated Rs 1 million for the maternity expenses of cows and buffaloes this year.