Rajan Gandhi
With our PM Modiji’s aim to attain a considerable growth rate in agriculture sector, the importance of animal husbandry sector in generating wealth and employment has to be equally emphasized. India ranks 1st in respect of cattle and buffalo, 2nd in goats, 3rd in sheep and 7th in poultry population in the world. India has 57% of the world’s buffalo population. The contribution of income generated through milk alone is higher than paddy, wheat and sugarcane. Therefore, this sector can be designated as the most potential of the few growth sectors of the agricultural economy of the country and the future of India’s agricultural export trade rests heavily on livestock products. Maintenance of ISO 9002 standards in many of the organizations/institutions associated with import/export certification related to livestock products is a must. In India, 70% of the rural households own livestock and animal husbandry sector not only plays an important role in the national economy and in the socio-economic development of the country, it also contributes significantly in supplementing family incomes and generating gainful employment in the rural sectors, particularly among the landless, small and marginal farmers and women, besides providing cheap nutritional food to millions of people. Livestock provides raw material byproducts such as hides, skins, blood, bone, fat etc. The proportionate contribution of livestock sector to national GDP has substantially increased while the contribution of agriculture sector to GDP has recorded a fall, on an average; livestock contribute some 40 percent of agricultural GDP!!!
The first report of the National Knowledge Commission 2006 recognized the importance of veterinary education. With the existing Veterinary Colleges, veterinary doctors are not only insufficient to meet the demand of the state departments, educational/research establishments and private sector but also far short is the number of veterinarians available to cater to the need of vast livestock population as per the recommendations of the National Commission on Agriculture . As the agricultural universities are mainly stressing crop agriculture and the veterinary and livestock husbandry were getting sidelined , the dreams of tapping livestock sector to realize full potential of white revolution and other allied revolutions are not getting on track. The budget of different agricultural universities meant for veterinary sector during six decades puts a dismal picture. Subsequently, various veterinary colleges, faculties, institutions and animal farms etc. in different agricultural universities in the country were disaffiliated from those universities and reorganized into independent veterinary universities. The first veterinary university was established in Tamil Nadu in 1989, after the disaffiliation of veterinary, animal and fisheries science components from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. Growth and development of the then Tamil Nadu Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Science University has been breathtaking and even its fisheries component bloomed into an independent Fisheries Science University which is also the first of its kind in India. Now most of the states have their own veterinary universities which are established by the same method as adopted while creating veterinary university in Tamil Nadu.
But the state of Jammu and Kashmir as usual has been delaying the process of creating separate veterinary university on one pretext or another which are far from facts. Official apathy, insensitivity towards animals and vested elements have made it sure that no veterinary university comes into existence in our state. Seriousness on this issue can be gauged from the fact that though VCI (Veterinary Council of India) came into existence in 1984 and all states except Jammu and Kashmir are part of it though our state went ahead with its own State Veterinary Council in the year 2000 which is yet to be passed by legislature with the cascading result of total chaos in admissions and some other outside state universities even not recognizing degrees of our students as such students facing hardships for PG courses outside state as well as problems in getting jobs due to non affiliation with VCI . Planning Commission of India Advisory Committee on Animal Husbandry and Dairying had already recommended the creation of state veterinary university in Jammu and Kashmir. According to PCI panel the setting up of the veterinary university would help to “channelize the various scattered efforts being made to promote the livestock production, marketing, economic returns while taking care of environment through need- based long term strategic activities.” Besides this PCI Advisory Committee is also of the opinion that establishment of the university would be very helpful in advancing research and development in veterinary field in context of deficit poultry, mutton, dairy products and value addition. The fact is that creation of veterinary university in Jammu has no financial implications for land or construction of buildings etc because the “The Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry”, Veterinary College at Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu, has sufficient land and buildings for this purpose. The demand of veterinary and animal science university is not for a particular region but for our state. The already existing veterinary and animal science teaching institutions and livestock farms at SKUAST Jammu can be disaffiliated from them and organized into one state veterinary university.
Other aspect is that the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir was a net exporter of live sheep/goat, desi poultry and desi ghee to neighboring state of Punjab at the time of independence, but now there is huge gap of demand and supply in live sheep/goat, milk, egg, feed and fodder. As per the 19th livestock census conducted in the year 2012 there is steady increase of livestock population in Jammu and Kashmir except in Ladakh region. The total livestock and poultry population of our state as in public domain is 1,74,74,551, total bovines being 3591865(3445154-rural +146711-urban).Our state is in the 5th position with regard to sheep population, 1st place in Yak population, 2nd place with regard to horses/ponies and mules, 6th place with regard to donkeys and 17th place with regard to poultry in the country . However, despite such resources the veterinary science sector is being compromised in our state by agriculture universities. Shortage of regular staff at veterinary college of SKUAST Jammu along with insufficient grants for research work, even emergency medicines have to be purchased from open market by owners of the animals. No blood analysis lab is functional with the result difficulty in proper diagnosis. This is despite the fact that not a single seat of B.V.Sc. & AH goes vacant in this college, yes not even a single paid seat goes vacant but even this fee collected is diverted to agricultural university. Pet care is a major industry right now but the financial constraints have put this college into precarious position with senior faculty working hard and trying their best to motivate students and junior faculty members to remain focused despite all odds.
With a pool of more than 1200 unemployed veterinarians and 400 plus posts lying vacant in Animal and Sheep Husbandry Departments, moreover with a crumbling tourism industry due to unrest in valley it’s high time State Government focus its attention to this highly productive growth sector immediately . With more than 50% livestock at Jammu region and being the gateway to the import of all livestock from neighboring states Veterinary University is the need of hour at Jammu and as such State Government should immediately initiate steps to grant the SKUAST Jammu’s veterinary college university status. Government of India is already persuading the case with the state government to disaffiliate veterinary colleges from agricultural universities to upgrade them as university and the sooner it is granted the better it will be for the farmers, nomads and unemployed youth of our state. With the guns blazing at border and war like situation persisting for quite some time now, like human beings of state who are devoid of specialized medical assistance in the absence of AIIMS like institute, our livestock are also suffering due to absence of specialized animal hospital or research centre in the entire state and a Veterinary University at Jammu will be much required soothing balm for hapless animals and border residents. It’s time to be part of this vast growth in rural sector without any further hiccups.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ? Mahatma Gandhi.
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