Dr Don Kupar Roy suggests measures to rejuvenate livestock farming

Staff Correspondent

Shillong: The Speaker of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Dr Don Kupar Roy rued at the decline in live stock farming in the state caused by multiple factors, even as he suggested a number of measures to rejuvenate the culture that has long been part of the system for centuries. The call was made by the Speaker and Former Chief Minister of the state during One day Block Level “Livestock Mela” cum Workshop on the theme “Improving Livelihood through Livestock and Poultry Farming” was organized by the Office of the Sub-Divisional A.H. & Veterinary Officer, Sohra Sub-Division under the National Livestock Mission 2017-18 on Friday.

Reminiscing his old experience as one those who was involved in Live stock farming, Roy said, “One of the difficulties in Livestock Farming is the high cost of Livestock feed. The situation is further aggravated as the farmers would have to sell their products at a very low cost due to the large control of the market by suppliers from outside the state.”

“This is one of the problems which we in the present government need to address”, he stated, Adding, “ we need to discourage the large scale import of livestock from outside and instead put in more efforts to raise the standards and productivity of the local farmers.”.

He added that personally he was in favour of increasing the tax on imported goods as one of the solutions to address this problem. He reiterated that only through reduction in imports of livestock will the local farmers have a market for their products as presently it is very difficult to compete with imported goods. The Speaker also suggested the idea of having a farm attached to every Veterinary dispensary.

In this way the Department will have a better insight into the various issues and problems plaguing the different livestock farmers and through their interactions they will have a better understanding of how to plan and focus their technical training sessions and workshops so as to address the problems faced by the livestock farmers. He concluded that it is only through this collective sharing of issues and problems experienced by both Veterinary Officers and Farmers alike, that a comprehensive and long lasting solution to the problems can be arrived at. He urged the farmers present to make full use of the knowledge imparted during the workshop so as to help them increase livestock and poultry production. Later, he handed out awards to different outstanding Livestock farmers under the Shella Bholaganj C & RD Block.

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