NEW MINISTRY FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND FISHERIES- BETTER HOPES
For centuries the livestock has been an integral part of the Indian farmers’ livelihood. Animals have been called “bank on hooves” as they provide ready cash to animal owners at any need. Over and above the agriculture (especially dairying) contribute significantly in India’s Gross Domestic Products.
Greetings from M/s Dairy Consultancy to the present Union Government, headed by Shri Narendra Modi, who could realize that time has come to give special attention to Agriculture, farmer welfare, Dairy & Animal Husbandry and food processing, in India. All these ministries if work in hand and glove, we have high hopes for improvement in farmer’s current status in India.
Shri Narendra Modi has formed a new ministry as “Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries” to give more attention to this sector, which has been appended with Agriculture Ministry till all these years. Shri Giriraj Singh, a fire brand MP from Begusarai (Bihar) is the Union Cabinet minister. Shri Giriraj Singh is supported by two Ministers of state (1) Shri Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, MP (a Veterinarian) from Muzaffar Nagar (UP) and (2) Pratap Chandra Sarangi, MP from Odisha (also called Modi of Odisha), as Ministers of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi has been also given charge of Minister of state for Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Madam Harsimarat Kaur Badal is given the charge as Cabinet minister in Ministry of Food Processing Industries in Modi’s Govt. and Shri Rameswar Teli is supporting her as Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
Further, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar (from Morena, MP) has been given the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers welfare (cabinet rank) with additional charge of Ministry of Rural Development. Shri Tomar is supported by Shri Kailash Choudhary and Shri Purshottam Rupala both Ministers of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Shri Tomar is also supported by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, as Minister of state for Rural Development ministry in Union Govt.
All these Ministries are to support farmers of India in uplifting their livelihood & thereby status. Shri Modi has given enough ministerial support on Farmers’ welfare and livelihood, for that we are thankful to him and his thought. The larger question still remains to answer as whether these ministries, which are inter-linked in supporting farmers of India, would be working in tandem with each other and certainly avoid any air-tight compartment type working to support farmers’ of India to raise their income and provide them the status of “Annadata”.
If we talk only one part of these ministries “The Dairy & Animal Husbandry”, alone provides livelihood to 20.5 million people of India and contributes 16% of income of small farms households. It provides livelihood to 2/3rd of rural community and employment to the 8.8% of the population. Giving special focus to this sector was long due, as the sector worked as append with Agriculture ministry, despite the “milk” being the largest single crop putting rice & wheat together (on value basis).
Data will show as how much of fund allocation has been used for DADH /DPIDF/ AHIDF/PM Kisan Sampada Yojana/ programs during 2018-19. The process of getting financial support from Govt. schemes runs into a tortuous route, with which a poor farmer can’t cope-up and generally loses interest. Several states in India, extends financial support for cooperative farmers (direct Rs support to farmers), which seems more as tool to allure voters. It is easy to announce a few rupee extra milk price from State Govt., using funds from above ministries, however, its effect on efficiency of Institutions proves negative. The institutions, which are responsible for development of Dairy, Animal Husbandry and fisheries get an assurance of procuring raw materials, even if they are not able to market the procured quantity.
Refer the extra milk rate (about Rs 5/= per liter of milk poured) being given only to the milk producers of Karnataka milk Federation (KMF), being paid from Govt. of Karnataka (GOK). This support is not available to the milk producers’ who pour milk to the private dairy houses. As a result the KMF procurement is jumping every year, leaving several lakhs of liter milk surplus, which are converted it into conserve commodities (SMP and Butter oil). It makes the Dairy Business further vulnerable if the foreign manufactured conserve commodities are dumped into Indian Market, with lower price tag. This extra milk price support from GOK runs into millions (80 lakhs liter peak per day of KMF procurement during 2017-18 x Rs 5/= about 40 million per day). This support also makes officials of Federation to rest and relax as milk procurement is assured on account of this extra milk price given by GOK. Whether Modi’s Govt. would look into these aspects as how the Govt. money support could be channelized to the producers and simultaneously strong institutions are built-up.
We further hope that the Govt. fund allocations towards Dairy, Animal Husbandry and fisheries would be re-looked by the Union Ministry and a strong strategy be carved out to implement the various developmental programs declared by Modi Govt. If the various ministries are not able to function in correlation with each other, there are likely that we may not be able to improve the situations at Farmer’s level. It would defeat the main objective of Modi Govt.
We suggest as follows;
(1) The following ministries to work in co-ordination;
a. Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries
b. Ministry of Food Processing Industries
c. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers welfare
(2) Use the available local experienced “subject matter experts” and the established institutions in India for planning various “Yojana”
(3) Devote more time & energy on deciding a measureable “road map” for proper implementation of “Yojana”
(4) Ease the process of availing financial support for Dairy, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries projects
(5) Do not announce free bees for farmers, rather strengthen their production process
(6) Develop “Sense of pride in farmers” by way of using social media
(7) Strengthen and atomize “Krishi Vigyan Kendra” and link the financial supports for projects through bank and KVK
(8) Atomize the processes of “Mandi Samiti” and weed out the possibility of corruption
(9) Recognize good quality manufacturers of machines & plants to promote quality dairy machines & plants manufacturing in India
The writer of this article is Dr PK Shrivastava, MVSc, PGDMRM, PGDMM, retired officer from National Dairy Development Board and currently a freelance advisor for Dairy Business in India