From Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : The Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma today held a meeting with Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department at his conference hall at Janata Bhawan and reviewed implementation of various schemes. He asked the department to propose three new schemes by July 7 to augment milk production and achieve self-reliance in pork and poultry production in order to stop imports. He directed to prepare a roadmap to attract youths to take up dairy and livestock farming through incentives and facilitation of bank loans and funds. He said major intervention needs to be made by the department to boost livestock sector in the shortest possible time to generate employment and amplify economic progress. Piggery sector holds immense potential for employment generation and Veterinary Dept. must explore ways to bring piglets of high yielding varieties from outside and distribute among pig farmers in the unorganised sector, he said.
The Chief Minister also directed to increase milch cow population in the state through cross breeding of local cattle with other high yielding varieties and said that youths must be facilitated with funds and technical support to take up dairy farming in cooperative model. He also asked the department to increase the number of artificial insemination (AI) of cattle through AI Workers (Gopal Mitras) in all corners of the state. Emphasising on the need to bring transformational change in livestock and dairy sector in the state, Chief Minister Dr. Sarma said that the sector holds immense potential to generate employment and boost economy of the state. He stressed on the importance of reducing import of pork, poultry and eggs to the state while working strategically to ramp up production at the earliest. Minister of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Dept Atul Bora, Chairman of Assam Live Stock and Poultry Corporation Manoj Saikia, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Samir Kumar Sinha and other top officials of Veterinary Department were present in the meeting.
