Livestock has emerged as one of the fastest growing sub-sectors of agriculture in the last few decades, but its benefits have largely by-passed the poor, both as producers and consumers, Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.
"Both Central and state governments have shown the will to reshape livestock sector policies and programmes, to tap its poverty reduction potential and promote more inclusive form of growth," the agriculture minister said.
Addressing the first annual convocation of Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences here, Singh said though animals serve a number of purposes, their utility has been undergoing a steady transformation due to change in agriculture and food consumption patterns.
"Livestock as a source of draught power has declined considerably due to mechanisation of agricultural operations and reducing farm size," he said.
"Their importance as quality food source has increased due to a number of reasons including sustained income and economic growth, fast growing urban population, burgeoning middle class, changing lifestyles, increasing proportion of women in workforce," Singh said.
The minister noted that milk production in Haryana in 2014-15 touched 79.01 lakh million tonnes making per capita availability at 805 gm, the second highest in the country.
"But the livestock sector faces many challenges like low productivity, inadequate feed and fodder availability, climate change, degradation of natural resources, diseases, knowledge gap, inadequate infrastructure for marketing and processing of value added products, issues relating to bio-security and sustainability," he said.
The Union Minister emphasised on the need for value-based education and said it is not merely about getting good grades or awards.
"Institutions must ensure overall development of students for them to face global challenges. For that, we have to get out of our comfort zone," he said.
Haryana and Punjab Governor, Kaptan Singh Solanki, presided over the function where 316 students were awarded degrees including 21 students who received gold medals for excellence in academic and research activities during 2011-15.
