The Hindu Business Line : Central Ministry's farm spend — Poultry, fisheries to get top priority

THE poultry and fisheries sectors will find greater share in this year's annual budgeted spending from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

The department has also drawn up a blueprint for ushering in information technology to help spread awareness on agri market/ farm technology among farmers and for the implementation of the IT connectivity till the village level within the next two years, said Mr S. Reghunathan, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the Union Ministry.

Talking to press persons at the sidelines of the national seminar on oilmeal usage in compounded animal feeds held here, Mr Reghunathan said that at least 12 specific schemes were to be focussed on these sectors — four for the fisheries and 8 for poultry — as part of the annual spending fixed for his department.

The Centre has hiked the annual allocation for the animal husbandry and dairying to Rs 500 crore for the year 2004-05 as against previous year's budget of Rs 285 crore. Mr Reghunathan said the industries in this sector should improve their performance so as to absorb the entire allocations.

According to him and Ms Nirja Rajkumar, Joint Secretary in the Department, who also chaired at the inaugural meet of the seminar said that genetic upgradation aimed at improving the indigenous breeds in livestocks, feed and fodder to enhance the nutrient value and `clean' milk would be the focal areas of the Ministry's planning.

The one day national seminar on `popularisation of oilmeal usage in compounded cattle, poultry and aqua feed' was jointly hosted by the Solvent Extractors Association of India, Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturer Association of India and the American Soybean Association.

Earlier speakers at the seminar including Dr R. Kadirvel, Vice-Chancellor of the Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, expressed the view that the demand for higher protein nutrients in the animal feeds would surge with the domestic livestock sector, especially the poultry sector. He anticipated the sector to hit a high growth path from now and 2020 as the latent demand for quality meat in India is expected to grow stronger in the coming years,pepping up demand for feed ingredients like oil-cakes/oilmeals.

This would call for standardising and quality certification of the animal feeds including legislating the enforcement of quality controls of animal feeds to check drug residues/toxins.

Mr Reghunathan said that as part of the national oilseeds development programme (under the technology mission programme), the Government would promote oilseed programme in 408 select districts spread over 28 States.

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