Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi attends Livestock & Poultry Show

GUWAHATI: The curtain of the National Livestock and Poultry show-2019 was put down as Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi attended the closing function at Veterinary Field, Khanapara in the city on Sunday. He called upon the stakeholders to create more entrepreneur-friendly environment for livestock industry to contribute to the growth of the State and country.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Mukhi said that India’s livestock sector is one of the largest in the world with a holding of 16 per cent of the world’s livestock population. The contribution of livestock sector to the national economy in terms of GDP is 4.11 per cent and it shares 25.6 per cent of the total contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP. India has 56 per cent of global buffalo population and is ranked No.1 in the world in milk production. India is 3rd in egg and 5th in world’s poultry production which is why the sector is an important source of foreign exchange earnings. The share of Assam in the country’s animal population is 3.25 per cent for livestock and 8.36 per cent for poultry.

The Governor also said that considering the high potential of the region, North East is considered as the New Engine of Growth. India’s foreign policy to deal with country’s South East and East Asian Nations, Assam and other North Eastern states have a great role to play. In the Act East Policy which has been enunciated by the Centre, Guwahati has been tipped to be the Gateway to South East Asian countries. He also observed that these opportunities have opened a huge market and a vast consumer base for the livestock and poultry industry. The Governor also stressed that North East region has a huge livestock population, however the production and productivity has been low. So, it is a crying need to develop the livestock scenario in the state. The Governor said that the show has given a commercial and scientific platform for all the stakeholders like farmers, entrepreneurs, industrialists, knowledge organizations, NGOs and others to share their knowledge and address the shortcomings coming on the way of livestock industry.

Governor awarded Dipankar Sharma from Barpeta as the best farmer and Juna Tamuly Barman from Barpeta as the Best female farmer. Also awards were handed over to Sailesh Chaudhary for dairy farming, Ratan Gogoi for Piggery, Dilip Chetia for poultry farming and Bhupen Deka for goatery farming.

Minister of Agriculture Atul Bora, MLAs Sanjay Kisan, Pradip Hazarika, former Vice Chancellor of AAU Prof. K.M Buzzarbarauh, Chairman of Assam Livestock Development Corporation Manoj Saikia and others were present in the closing function, a press release said.

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