The Hindu Business Line : Kerala: Rs 34-cr animal care project to curb foot and mouth disease

UNDER its animal health care management programme, the NDDB will jointly launch a Rs 34.18-crore programme in association with the Government of Kerala, to control foot and mouth disease among the cattle in the State.

Of the total project cost, NDDB will provide Rs 25 crore in the form of technical and financial support to the project over the next five years. The project aims to control the disease by reducing the incidence of foot and mouth disease, reducing the number of animals affected and limiting the duration and severity of infection, in the affected animals.

Once the project is successfully implemented, it is expected to minimise the economic losses due to the current prevalence of the disease and thereby ensure greater benefit to the farmers of the State.

The existing feed resources are inadequate to fulfil the country's dairy animal population, a press release from NDDB has said. The problem is compounded by natural calamities, mainly droughts, which further reduce the availability of already scarce resources.

For judicious and efficient utilisation of the existing resources and to reduce the cost of milk production, NDDB has undertaken programmes on quality monitoring of feed and feed supplements, efficient utilisation of crop residues, use of bypass nutrients and area specific mineral supplementation.

The area specific mineral supplementation programme is meant to enhance production activities. With this objective in mind, NDDB has taken up mineral profile studies to assess the mineral status of different states.

Recently, under the programme, mineral-mapping work in different zones of Rajasthan have been completed. Based on the findings of this study, the Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation has decided to install mineral mixture plants.

Mineral mapping studies were also conducted in Gujarat and are now being undertaken in Kerala. So far, five plants have been set up in different parts of the country to produce mineral mixtures.

All these measures are expected to increase the production of milk and dairy products in the country.

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