Guwahati: Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Wednesday emphasized on the need for using the livestock and poultry sector in the state, which constitutes around 12 percent of the total livestock population of the country, indoubling farmers income.
He also pitched for a foolproof convergence modelcovering policy makers, resource allocators, technologygenerators, product handlers, and strategists for achieving thetarget of doubling the farmers' income by 2022. Mukhi was addressing an international conference on "Animal Agriculture for Doubling Farmers' Income" here.The governor observed that the livestock sector in India shows a rather dismal scenario despite its holding of 16
percent of the world's livestock population.
Most of these animals are unproductive and have becomea bane rather than a boon to the farmers, he lamented.This has resulted in the migration of farmers from animalagriculture to other professions in urban areas.He, therefore, advocated devising mechanisms to makelivestock farming more lucrative, particularly in Assam and the North East region, to halt this migration.
The governor said he had raised the issue with the Vice-Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University for preparing a road map and identify partners from related departments, including banks and other financing agencies, for it to empower the farming community.
(With inputs from PTI)
