Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Aug 28: Minister for Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Abdul Ghani Kohli today said that cross breeding of live-stocks can improve productivity and curb shortages besides encouraging rural populace to adopt poultry, fish farming and dairy as an alternative source of income.
The Minister said this while conducting a day long tour of Samba and Kathua districts.
In Kathua, the Minister visited Animal and Sheep Husbandry office, National Fish Seed Farm, Veterinary Hospital, Hiranagar, Goat Farm, Rajbagh, besides inspecting a number of cow sheds.
During his visit, the Minister enquired about the general profile of district including livestock population, total number of bovines, total poultry population, number of hatcheries, cattle and poultry vaccinations, milk production besides status of local as well as migratory livestock in the district.
The Minister directed the Assistant Director of Goat Farm, Rajbagh to ensure adequate fodder for the livestock in addition to adopting cross breeding to improve productivity. He further directed adoption of practices of flock shifting to address the problem of parasite infestation among goats.
While visiting Fish Seed Farm, the Minister was apprised that against the target of rearing 24.50 lakhs fish seeds, 18.50 lakh seeds were so far reared. 3.40 lakh seeds were distributed for personal rearing where as 11.50 lakh seeds were introduced in ponds and natural water bodies under department’s supervision.
Later, the Minister also distributed fish seeds among 13 progressive farmers of Kathua district who were earlier trained under different schemes of the department.
Earlier, the Minister conducted an extensive tour of Samba district and reviewed performance of the departments. He was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Sheetal Nanda, ADDC Vivek Sharma, Director Fisheries, R.N Pandita, Director Animal Husbandry, Dr Parveen Gupta, Director Sheep Husbandry, Dr Kanti Kumar Sharma, Joint Director Fisheries, S S Sharma, Joint Director Sheep Husbandry, Sanjeev Kumar, CAHOs, ADs, DSHOs, LDOs and other officials of the departments.
Enroute several deputations called on the Minister and apprised him of various problems being faced by them. The Minster gave them a patient hearing and assured them of resolving their issues on priority.
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