Morung Express News
DIMAPUR | AUGUST 7
Minister for Animal Husbandry TR Zeliang today called upon scientists and stakeholders to set their sights on making Northeast region self-sufficient in food as envisaged in the Vision 2020 document.
He was addressing a meeting of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra and department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DADF) in NE Region at ICAR complex in Jharnapani. Although animal husbandry and fishery form an inseparable part of the economy of people in NE, the minister said, the region still depend on other states for meat and dairy requirement.
“The region consumes about 80,000 MT of pork per year but produces only 70,000 MT and in poultry sector, this region has to bring about 200 million eggs and around 11lakh broiler chicks from outside,” Zeliang said. He said that Nagaland state has to bring 40 percent of its meat requirement from outside.
Apart from infrastructure and technological constraints, the minister said issues like inaccessibility and remoteness of the region were also responsible for slow growth of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sectors in NE.
“Though framers in this region are willing to rear superior bred of animals, the availability of exotic and cross bred germplasm is very limited. In case of pigs, the region is not self-sufficient in fulfilling the demand for piglets due to very less number of breeder farms and breeding units,” Zeliang said.
To strengthen this sector, the minister suggested identification of integrated breeder farmers in each and every village and establishment of multiplication/breeding units with superior fast growing breed of animals at least one in each village.
Zeliang also stressed on need for proper diagnosis of diseases, surveillance and monitoring and control of diseases to prevent the exotic diseases like bird flu in this region. He said availability of livestock feed resources needs to be strengthened by producing quality protein hybrid maize.
On poultry and dairy sectors in Nagaland, he said that lack of raw materials and feeds have hampered growth in these sectors. Citing an example, the minister said the DIMUL factory in Dimapur has the capacity to produce 10,000 liters milk per day but due to lack of “raw materials”, it produces only 4,000 liters.
Zeliang said that “the handshake” between KVK and DADF is a new beginning and an important move at the grass-root level.
“I hope that the state-wise working groups constituted for the purpose will formulate suitable work plan for fruitful convergence between KVKs and DADF personnel. The joint venture is certainly going to benefit the farmers and development of livestock and fisheries sectors,” the minister said.
On the occasion, the minister also took the opportunity to request the central officials for setting ups of KVKs in three new districts of the state.
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