Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today ceremonially launched the first phase of vaccination drive of livestock for prevention of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis under National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) at a programme held at Officers Training Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department at Khanapra in the city.
The National Animal Disease Control Programme is a visionary step, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019, for ensuring hundred percent vaccination of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population against fatal diseases like FMD and Brucellosis. The programme aims to control the livestock diseases by 2025 and eradicate these by 2030 and seeks to vaccinate over 500 million livestock against the FMD and 36 million against Brucellosis.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department has a big responsibility to encourage and guide state’s farmers and livestock growers to achieve their full potential and contribute to the state’s rural economy in a massive way. He called on the veterinary doctors and other officials of the department to not take their jobs as ordinary government jobs and engage with the farmers on a regular basis to know their challenges and help them overcome those problems. Citing the example of Vietnam, the Chief Minister informed that the small country was doing business worth millions of dollars by adding value to their agriculture and livestock products and exporting to other countries. He urged the veterinary department officials of the state to work with dedication and sincerity to make Assam self-reliant in livestock and poultry items like pork, mutton, chicken etc while urging them to handhold livestock growers to enable the state to export livestock produce to other states and countries.
Referring to example of state’s farmers exporting products to countries such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong etc, Sonowal said that the state’s youths must be encouraged to take up farming and agriculture as a means of livelihood and stressed on the need to use science and technology for increasing output in short time. He also highlighted state government’s steps for doubling farmers’ income by 2022 in synch with Prime Minister Modi’s vision and cited the example of CMSGUY as a visionary step of the state government for farm mechanization by providing tractors to all 26 thousand villages of the state.
Asserting that this was the age of competition where knowledge and technology must be acquired to compete with the best, Sonowal urged the veterinary department to strive for excellence so that youth can be attracted towards farming and livestock production through innovation and technology. Assam has a huge potential to become a top exporting state of livestock items and conducting market survey to know demands is must, he added. Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, in his speech, underlined the need to make veterinary department vibrant through hard work and dedication and urged the officials to fully commit themselves to the cause. He also underlined the need for the state’s farmers to work harder to achieve increased production.
Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta, Chairman of the Assam Livestock and Poultry Corporation Ltd. (ALPCL) Manoj Saikia, Commissioner and Secretary of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department S. Jagannathan also spoke on the occasion.
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