India’s NAIP at a Crossroads: Strong Expansion, Uneven Outcomes

Pashu Sandesh, 05 September 2026

The nationwide breeding programme has expanded access and farmer coverage, but parliamentary scrutiny highlights weaknesses in semen supply, technician capacity and state-wise execution.

India’s Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme (NAIP) has become a central instrument in livestock genetic improvement, but its progress now needs to be judged not just by the number of inseminations, but by conversion efficiency, semen quality, state capacity and on-ground service delivery. The programme, launched under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, aims to deliver free artificial insemination at farmers’ doorsteps, especially in low-AI districts.

On scale, the programme has expanded significantly. The government says more than 17.27 crore artificial inseminations have been carried out in the last five years, with nearly 5.98 crore farmers benefitted. It has also trained 47,687 MAITRIs, sanctioned 48 semen stations, approved 24 IVF laboratories and 28 heifer rearing centres, showing that NAIP is backed by a wider breeding ecosystem rather than a single intervention. Yet the core policy question is whether this expansion is translating into better conception and milk productivity at the farm level.

The answer, so far, is mixed. Official data shared in Parliament says the success rate of artificial insemination in India is only 32% to 35%. A parliamentary panel has gone further, warning that the programme is moving too slowly because of low semen production, inadequate sex-sorted semen supply and shortage of trained personnel. The panel also noted that despite full fund utilisation under related schemes, the target of improving bovine productivity from 5.34 kg/day in 2021-22 to 8 kg/day by 2025-26 appears out of reach. This suggests the challenge is not only implementation, but also the assumptions behind the current breeding model.

The committee’s recommendations are significant. It has asked for sex-sorted semen production and distribution facilities at all semen stations, exclusive semen stations for the Northeast and far-flung regions such as Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and a rise in annual semen production from 119 million doses to 200 million doses to push AI coverage from about 30% of breedable bovine females to 70%. These recommendations imply that the current infrastructure is insufficient for both scale and equity.

State-wise comparison shows sharp disparities. In broad terms, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are among the strongest performers, with very high AI coverage and service penetration. Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka also sit in the higher coverage bracket. West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Kerala have reported near-universal AI coverage in some datasets, while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh fall in the middle or lower bands depending on whether the metric is coverage or actual AI done. The Northeast remains a clear weak spot, with several states recording very low coverage, reinforcing the parliamentary panel’s call for dedicated semen stations in the region.

What stands out analytically is that high coverage does not automatically mean high efficiency. The sector still faces a conception-rate gap, uneven technician quality, and regional infrastructure imbalance. Even in states with strong AI adoption, outcomes depend on timing, heat detection, semen handling and follow-up pregnancy diagnosis. The programme’s success therefore cannot be measured only by total inseminations, but by conception rates, calving rates, breed improvement and farmer economics.

NAIP has clearly created a national delivery platform. But its next phase must be less about counting inputs and more about improving outcomes. That means better semen production, stronger training, region-specific infrastructure and sharper state accountability. Without those reforms, the programme risks remaining large in scale but uneven in impact.

Dr Akash Waghmare- 9981739223