The Fact News Service
Chandigarh, April 25
The President of India,Droupadi Murmu chaired the 19th Convocation of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal and conferred degrees to 544 students today. On the occasion, Haryana Governor, Bandaru Dattatraya, Chief Minister, Manohar Lal and other dignitaries were present.
While addressing at the convocation ceremony, Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar said that animal husbandry is crucial in the area of agriculture, just as agricultural scientists are; and in the development of dairy, our nation has become the largest milk producer in the world. NDRI is a very important institute of the country. This institute has completed its journey of 100 years, during which many ups and downs have also been witnessed by the institution, he added.
Sh. Tomar said that India is an agrarian country and it is not possible to imagine agriculture without animal husbandry and fisheries. When it comes to agriculture, animal husbandry is naturally associated with it and especially the small farmers, landless farmers of the country, their livelihood solely depends on animal husbandry. He said that the contribution of animal husbandry is significant in the GDP of agriculture.
As a result of efforts of NDRI, availability of 444 grams of milk per person in country in 2021
The Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister said that when all the universities working in the field of agriculture across the country and ICR universities competed, NDRI always remained ahead by bagging first position for five consecutive years.
He said that as a result of the strenuous efforts of NDRI, availability of 444 grams of milk per person was ensured in our country by 2021. While the world average is 394 grams per person. If we look at the maximum increase from the year 2013-14 till date, then it is an increase of 44 percent. Sh. Tomar congratulated students who received the degree at the convocation ceremony today and also extended best wishes for their bright future.
Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Sh. Parshottam Rupala while congratulating the gold medallists and other achievers said that this is a historic achievement of 100 years of the institution. He said that the World Dairy Federation was organized for the first time in 1974 for the dairy sector in India; however, in September 2022, in front of the representatives of various countries, India made them well informed about its direction.
Apart from this, to strengthen the economy under the leadership of Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi, an autonomous cooperative department has been constituted in the country, under which the work of providing loans to farmers and KCC to dairy farmers is also being done. He said that an announcement to apply for this loan and KCC up to 20 lakh crores has been made.
Due to this, instead of producing on a large scale, small farmers have also been linked to the public’s production, which is providing employment to more than eight crores today. He said that more than two lakh cooperative societies with more than two crore farmers in the country are collecting milk twice a day. Women are leading this entire dairy sector, which has increased to more than Rs 9 lakh crore, more than the combined value of wheat and rice production.
