Military Farms Service (India)

Military Farms in India were set up to ensure a clean and continuous supply of cows milk to troops located in various garrisons across undivided British India. After Indian independence, the Indian Army continued and expanded the service. The farms spread over 20,000 acres of land and had over 25,000 cattle. But recently, after recommendations by the Shekatkar Committee , all military farms were shut in 2017.

History
The first Military Farm was set up on 1 February 1889 with the establishment of Military Farm Allahabad. Thereafter a large number of Military Farms were set up which at the time of partition numbered over 100 units mostly in the present Central, Southern and Western Command. With the formation of Eastern Command and Northern Command additional Military Farm Units were established initially on adhoc basis and then regularised by the Indian government in 1993 as permanent Military Farm units.

Achievements

 * Military Farms are pioneers in introduction of Artificial Insemination (AI) in cattle India.
 * The dairy development in the organized sector in India is attributed to Military Farms.
 * ‘Project Frieswal’, a project to develop a cross-bred cattle has become the world’s largest cross-bred cattle breeding programme.

Decision to shut Military Farms
The Army decided to close down its military farms which house around 23,600 cattle with an annual production of over 33 million kg of milk, in two phases with the last farm shutting down by 2017. One of the reasons the decision was taken because it was seen that military farms were no longer needed due to the growing availability of quality milk and milk products in the civilian market. The personnel of the military farms will be progressively transferred to other wings and departments. All the farms are on defence land and these will be used for other defence purposes.