Seeking to impress the importance of animal husbandry upon farmers, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh on Saturday advised them to rear milk-giving animals to double their income.
"To double their income, farmers need to adopt poultry farming and rear milk-giving animals like buffalos and goats, while pursuing the farming," said Singh, speaking at a training camp organised for farmers at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goat at Makhadoom village in Mathura district here.
He advised the 350-odd farmers, including 140 women, attending the day-long camp on Scientific way of goat keeping. The camp was specially organised for farmers belonging to scheduled castes.
Singh also advised farmers to feed 'moringa' to their domestic animals, saying scientific researches have confirmed it as an ideal feed for milk as well as meat-yielding animals.
Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree, found in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia. It is also known as drumstick tree.
Observing that farmers' well-being is a prerequisite to the country's affluence, Singh called upon the scientists to ensure speedy reach of their researches to farmers.
More From This Section
The minister also distributed goat-keeping kits to the farmers attending the camp.
The Union government is making all out efforts to increase farmers' income, said local MLA Puran Prakash.
On the occasion, ICAR-CIRG Director Man Mohan Singh detailed various research works carried out by the institute.
The minister also released a mobile app made in English, Hindi, Tamil and Kannad languages on scientific ways of goat rearing.