Government Livestock Farm, Hisar, Asia's largest livestock breeding, research and training institute,I. E. N. Chauhan, 1979
District Census Handbook: Hisar
Director of Census Operations, Government of Haryana. is a public funded institute located at

Hisar Hissar () means fort or castle in Arabic, with variants adopted into Persian (hesar, hessar) and Turkish (hisar). Hissar, Hisar and Hesar may refer to: Places Asia (South and Central) India *Hisar (city), a city in Haryana **Hisar Airport in Hi ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

state in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

.Pashudhan Haryana - Livestock farm at Hisar
/ref>Indian Council for Agriculture Research - Hisar Livestock farm
/ref>

History

After Hisar was depopulated in

Chalisa famine The Chalisa famine of 1783–1784 in the Indian subcontinent followed unusual El Niño events that began in 1780 and caused droughts throughout the region. ''Chalisa'' (literally, "of the fortieth" in Hindustani language, Hindustani) refers to ...

(1783–84 CE), the farm was set up in 1809 by Major James Lumsdaine during

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

as a private camel stud to supply camels to army, taken over by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

(EIC) in 1901. Its original name ''The Camel Stud'' under Commissariat Department was changed to ''Ordnance Cattle Farm'' under Studd Department in 1854, ''Government Cattle Farm'' in 1912 and to ''The Government Livestock Farm'' in 1945 while other animals were included such as buffaloes, cattle, horses, sheep, goat and swine. Originally farm had 40,000 acre land including ''"Bir Hisar"'' area, of which 80% had been transferred to other departments, leaving only 7842 acres with the farm in 2010, of which 5443 acres is in cultivation. Further, more than 3000 acres have been transferred to Hisar Airport, leaving about 4,000 acres with the farm. Hisar farm was used to breed and cross-breed camels, bovine (ox) and studs (horses) to improve the breed and supply to the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

to reduce reliance on the

Banjara The Banjara are nomadic tribes found in India. Etymology The Gor usually refer to themselves as ''Banjaras'' and outsiders as ''Kor'', but this usage does not extend outside their own community. A related usage is ''Gor Mati'' or ''Gormati'', ...

suppliers who supplied bovine to both British and their adversaries. The farm regularly and exclusively supplied animals to

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

, as well as to the

Northern Circars The Northern Circars (also spelt Sarkars) was a division of British India's Madras Presidency. It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude, in the pre ...

, Nagpur and Burma (during

First Anglo-Burmese War The First Anglo-Burmese War (; ; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War in English language accounts and First English Invasion War () in Burmese language accounts, was the first of three wars fought between the ...

) on occasional needs basis. Since 1801, EIC started to attach camels to the Native Cavalry units. By 1808, there were fixed establishments of camels at Agra, Kanpur, Mathura, Saharanpur and Meerut, operated by Major James Lumsdaine who was the officially appointed supplier agent for the camels and

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

(main feed for horses) since 1807 and he simultaneously held a high position of Deputy Commissary General of Camel and Cattle branch of Commissariat Department from 1810 onward. James maintained both roles until his death in September 1816. Commissariat Department was already breeding camels at Hisar since 1809 and the breeding of

Bovine Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including Bos, cattle, bison, African buffalo, Bubalus, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The members of this gro ...

at Hisar commenced in 1814 for direct induction into military. After Major James Lumsdaine's death, his younger brother Lt. William Lumsdaine was appointed in the dual roles in his place around 1815–16. An 1822 plan to breed

Merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

sheep and rams was shelved. William was replaced by Capt. H.E. Peach in 1824–25 who expanded the farm by purchasing land from the nearby villages. He was replaced by Capt. From 1824, the farm started to distribute a fixed number of bovine to

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

s within 10

kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

of farm to improve the breed. J.D. Parsons in 1926 who remained in office until 1837. An 1830 suggestion of

Governors General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

Lord William Bentinck Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (14 September 177417 June 1839), known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British military commander and politician who served as the governor of the Be ...

to close down the farm was not implemented and in 1833 the attempts to cross-breed Mysore breed with native cattle were abandoned due to disappointing results. In 1933 disused

Western Yamuna Canal Western Yamuna Canal is canal in river Yamuna that was dug out and renovated in 1335 CE by Firoz Shah Tughlaq. In 1750 CE, excessive silting caused it to stop flowing. The British raj undertook a three-year renovation in 1817 by Captain GR Bla ...

was repaired, a water channel from its Hansi branch was dug to a pond in the farm, which resulted in area and crop cultivation to be used for the farm animals. This also resulted in the increase in the population of people in the nearby villages due to increased cropping. During the early years, since the farm was dependent on the rain only the cattle were moved to other areas to north and northeast (as far as 260 km to

Doon Valley The Doon Valley is an unusually wide, long valley within the Sivalik Hills and the Lesser Himalayas, in the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. Within the valley lies the city of Dehradun, the winter capital of Uttar ...

) during fodder famine in 1833–34, 1837–38, 1841–42 and 1844. Captain Hailes from 1837 to 1841 and Captain Dickey from 1841 to 1854 were in charge. In 1843, Hisar city had a population 7,000 people and farm had 2000 camels and 9000 cattle.Biran P Caton, 2013
"Detailed history of Livestock farm"
In 2015, the

Government of Haryana Government of Haryana, also known as the State Government of Haryana, or locally as the Haryana Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Haryana and its 22 districts. It consists of an executive, ceremonially led ...

signed an MoU with Israel to set up the Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence for Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Hisar at Government Livestock Farm, Hisar.Haaryana and Israel sign MOU
/ref> Among others, the farm breeds Hariana breed and imported breeds for adoption to the local conditions.

References

External links

*
"Detailed history of Livestock farm"
, by Biran P Caton, 17-pages long pdf. {{authority control Research institutes in Hisar (city) Agricultural universities and colleges in Haryana Universities and colleges in Hisar (city) Agriculture in Haryana 1809 establishments in India Research institutes established in 1809

History

See also

References

External links