Animal Husbandry

Farmers and livestock rearers in rural Jharkhand are increasingly turning to animal husbandry as a promising source of additional income, an official said on Wednesday. It is providing them a safeguard from crop loss due to erratic weather patterns for the past few years. Jharkhand suffered a drought-like situation in two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. The state government had to declare 226 blocks as drought hit in 2022 and 158 blocks in 2023. The state recorded normal rainfall this monsoon season after two years. The Hemant Soren-led government has been providing essential support to boost animal husbandry as a promising source of additional income. For this, the government has launched Mukhyamantri Pashudhan Vikas Yojana (MPVY), which is aimed at boosting the production of milk, meat, and eggs, thereby narrowing the gap between demand and supply. "Amid the change in climate, our farmers need to adopt diverse farming. The state has huge demand for milk and meat but they ar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched Rs 23,300 crore initiatives related to agriculture and animal husbandry sectors at Washim in Maharashtra. Modi, who is on a one-day visit to Maharashtra, arrived at the Nanded airport in the morning, from where he was flown to Washim in a helicopter. In Washim, he offered prayers at the Jagdamba Mata temple in Poharadevi. He later paid tributes to Sant Sevalal Maharaj and Sant Ramrao Maharaj at their 'samadhis' (memorials) in Poharadevi. The PM then inaugurated Banjara Virasat Museum, celebrating the rich heritage of Banjara community. During an event held later, Modi disbursed PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi's 18th instalment of Rs 20,000 crore to around 9.4 crore farmers. With the release of this instalment, around Rs 3.45 lakh crore have been released to farmers under this scheme, officials said. The PM also launched the 5th instalment of NaMo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana disbursing about Rs 2,000 crore. He inaugurated more than 7,5

The government on Sunday decided to constitute a high-level committee comprising senior officials to chalk out a roadmap for further development of the fisheries sector. A decision in this regard was taken in a meeting between Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Minister of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh here at Krishi Bhavan. Highlighting the research undertaken by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the field of fisheries, Chouhan stressed on the need to develop "model farms" to boost the income of small farmers, an official statement said. "In this regard, it has been decided to constitute a high-level committee in the field of fisheries composed of senior officials of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and ICAR," the agriculture ministry said in a statement. The committee will hold regular meetings and prepare a roadmap, it added. Chouhan said the state governments and other stakeholders need to be

Economic impact and biodiversity loss should be key criteria in prioritising animal infectious diseases, said Animal Husbandry Commissioner Abhijit Mitra while inaugurating a three-day workshop on Wednesday. The workshop on Animal Infectious Disease Prioritization, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, aims to address the significant challenges posed by these diseases, an official statement said. "The financial burden of infectious diseases affecting livestock, poultry, and wildlife has far-reaching consequences for both the agricultural sector and our national economy," Mitra emphasised. He further stressed the importance of considering biodiversity loss in the prioritisation process, citing its long-term implications for ecosystems and environmental sustainability. The event brought together experts from various government departments, research institutions, universities, and ...

Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Saturday said the state government will constitute the Chief Minister's Animal Husbandry Development Fund with an allocation of Rs 250 crore to benefit cattle farmers. Sharma was addressing a delegation of Dewasi community who had come from various assembly constituencies including Sirohi and Bali to express gratitude for the announcements made for their upliftment in the state's annual budget. According to an official statement, the chief minister said that the country is agriculture-based and cattle farmers have an important contribution in the state's economy. Keeping this in mind, many gifts have been given in the budget for the empowerment of cattle farmers. Chief Minister's Animal Husbandry Development Fund will be constituted with Rs 250 crore for animal husbandry promotion, conservation and development, he said. According to the chief minister, the grant amount will be increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent for breed developme

India has shortage of animal fodder and the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has been supplementing the efforts made by state governments to enhance fodder availability, union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh informed Parliament on Wednesday. To a query on whether the government was aware of the shortage of animal fodder faced by the farmers, Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, "Yes Sir. The country is deficit in fodder". "The ICAR- Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI) Jhansi has estimated that there is a deficit of 11.24-32 per cent and 23 per cent for green and dry fodder, respectively, in the country," he added. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has been supplementing the efforts made by the state governments by implementing the Centrally Sponsored Scheme National Livestock Mission with a Sub Mission on Feed and Fodder Development since 2014-15, he highlighted. The scheme was realigned in July 2021 with the ..

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the Karnataka Milk Federation -- known for its 'Nandini' brand of dairy products -- has achieved a milestone of procuring one crore litres of milk a day from farmers. The milk production in Karnataka was 90 lakh litres a day in May last year. Now, the KMF is getting one crore litres of milk a day. This is a milestone in the history of KMF, Siddaramaiah said. He recalled that when he was the Animal Husbandry Minister many years ago, he had handed over management of dairies to milk unions. The Chief Minister said the State now has 15 milk unions, 15 mother dairies and 16,000 societies of milk growers. He said the quantity of milk in half and one litre milk packets of 'Nandini" has been increased by 50 ML due to the rising milk procurement, and proportionately prices were increased by Rs two recently. Due to the increase in milk production, we have increased the milk quantity in the packets. This has been done because we cannot say to the m

The Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairying and the World Bank conducted a two-day simulation exercise this week in Madhya Pradesh to enhance the preparedness for potential avian influenza or Bird Flu, amid outbreak of such cases in parts of the country and globally. The exercise on June 19-20 in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, brought together 40 participants from various sectors to practice outbreak detection, rapid response strategies and inter-agency coordination for containing the spread of avian flu. "Such initiatives are vital in building resilient health systems as the world contends with an increasing number of zoonotic diseases," the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) said in a statement. The drill comes as India sees avian flu outbreaks in Kerala and a rise in global spillover cases to non-poultry species like cattle. Inaugurated by DAHD's Animal Husbandry Commissioner Abhijit Mitra, the programme involved interactive scenarios mimicking real outbrea

The African Swine Fever (ASF) continued to wreak havoc in piggeries in Mizoram, killing nearly 1,500 pigs and piglets since January, an official of the state Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said. The outbreak has currently affected 80 villages or localities across seven districts, she said. She said 64 pigs died, while 235 were culled on Thursday."At least 1,488 pigs have died due to ASF, and 3,002 culled to prevent the dreaded swine fever since January," the official said. The outbreak was first reported at Lungsen village in south Mizoram's Lunglei district near the Bangladesh border in March 2021. Officials believed the outbreak was caused by pigs illegally imported from the neighbouring country. Mizoram shares a 318-km-long international border with Bangladesh. The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department said that 33,417 pigs died due to ASF in 2021, 12,795 in 2022 and 1,039 in 2023. It said that 12,568 pigs have been culled in 2021 to prevent the spread of Afr

The import of such dog breeds is also recommended to be prohibited by the expert committee formed under the chairmanship of the commissioner of Animal Husbandry

The Union Cabinet on Thursday extended the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) till 2025-26. In June 2020, the government had approved setting up of AHIDF worth Rs 15,000 crore. According to an official statement on Thursday, the Cabinet approved the "continuation of Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) to be implemented under Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) with an outlay of Rs 29,610.25 crore for another three years up to 2025-26." The scheme will incentivize investments for dairy processing and product diversification, meat processing and product diversification, animal feed plant, breed multiplication farm, animal waste to wealth management (Agri-waste management) and veterinary vaccine and drug production facilities. "Government of India will provide 3 per cent interest subvention for 8 years including two years of moratorium for loan up to 90 per cent from the scheduled bank and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC)

Gujarat's focus on animal husbandry has contributed significantly to the prosperity of the state's people as 36 lakh milk producers collectively receive Rs 200 crore daily from the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), officials said. The dairy sector in the state has grown to Rs 1 lakh crore, they said. The upcoming 10th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, to be held in Gandhinagar between January 10 and 12, will provide a platform for the government to showcase the state's exponential growth in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has said. As per a statement issued by the government, the agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry sectors in the state are experiencing significant growth through a combination of natural farming and advanced technologies, contributing to the circular economy of Gujarat and advancing its global reputation in the dairy sector. "The upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2024 will showc

Milk production growth rate slowed down to 3.83 per cent last fiscal year due to diseases like Lumpy Skin Disease, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Parshottam Rupala said, "Annual growth rate of milk production in the country has come down to 3.83 per cent in the year 2022-23 from 5.77 per cent during the year 2021-22." Milk production stood at 230.6 million tonne in 2022-23, 222.1 million tonne in 2021-22 and 210 million tonne in 2020-21. However, he said, as per the latest statistics released by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAOSTAT) of the United Nations, India maintains the position of the largest producer of milk in the world. "Diseases like Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) was the main reason behind the slower growth of milk production in 2022-23," Rupala said.

Unsurprisingly, India now leads the world in milk production. In fact, it replaced the US as the world's largest milk producer way back in 1998

In an effort to boost the rural economy of the country, DAHD has set up credit guarantee fund trust of Rs 750 crores to give easier access to finance to eligible MSMEs and entrepreneurs

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday asked farm scientists to focus more on research in areas of animal husbandry and fisheries, to boost production and their contribution in the overall farm sector growth. Addressing virtually, the 95th foundation day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Tomar said India holds the position of number one or two in the world in terms of production of most of the crops. In achieving this feat, he said there has been immense contribution from agriculture scientists along with efforts from the farmers community and policy initiatives taken by the governments. He said the Modi government in the last nine years has taken a lot of initiatives to promote technology in the agriculture sector, as part of its objective to boost farm income. The efforts have also been made to better productivity and production in agriculture, he said, adding that the focus has also been on improving the quality. Tomar highlighted that the In

Efforts to increase the availability and accessibility of better veterinary health services have to be made to minimise economic losses due to animal diseases, Union Minister Parshottam Rupala said on Friday. The Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying chaired the inter-session meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here. Ministers of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and L Murugan, and members of the committee also attended the meeting. The committee deliberated on various aspects of "strengthening of veterinary services through mobile units and implementation of vaccination programme in the country". While chairing the meeting, Rupala said India has a vast resource of livestock and poultry, which play a vital role in improving the socio-economic conditions of rural masses. Therefore, the department has to make deliberate efforts to increase the availability and accessibility of better veterinary health ..

The Centre on Saturday rued that animal husbandry departments in state governments are not fully utilising central funds for development of this sector and urged them to spend money to implement projects. Addressing an event to mark the 'World Veterinary Day', Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala stressed on registration of birth and death of livestock for having a real time data. The 'World Veterinary Day' honours the veterinary profession every year on the last Saturday of April. Rupla said the government conducts 'Livestock Census' regularly, but there is no provision currently for registration of birth and death similar to human beings. "This is a shortcoming in the animal sector," he said, and stressed on addressing this gap. There should be some scientific way to count birth-death in livestock sector as real time data will benefit all stakeholder and help achieve higher growth, the minister said. Livestock Census covers all domesticat

Himachal Pradesh's economy is largely banking on agriculture and animal husbandry. With a livestock population of about 4.41 million, their care is an essential part of every rural household

Punjab's animal husbandry department is close to achieving 100 per cent vaccination of the 25 lakh cattle in the state against lumpy skin disease (LSD) and has inoculated more than 22 lakh of them. In an official statement issued on Saturday, Animal Husbandry Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said the vaccination drive is nearing completion ahead of the April 30 deadline. "The vaccination drive for early protection of cattle from LSD was initiated on a war footing on February 15, 2023 with 773 dedicated veterinary teams of the animal husbandry department," he said. "We have completed 90 per cent vaccination till date, with more than 22,58,300 cattle already vaccinated," the minister said, adding the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led government has set a target of vaccinating all the 25 lakh cattle in the state under this mega campaign. Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Vikas Pratap said the department had set a daily target of administering 40,000 vaccine doses and has achieved it