ICAR-NOFRI Organized Annual Review Meeting of AICRP on Poultry Breeding and Poultry Seed Project
ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute, Tadong, Gangtok organised two- day ‘Annual Review Meeting of All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Poultry Breeding and Poultry Seed Project’. This meet was organized with the aim to review the progress made in poultry breeding and poultry seed project operating at 24 Centres across the country. A total of 35 scientists from various ICAR institutes and State veterinary colleges participated and presented their yearly progress report.
The programme was inaugurated by Dr. P. Senthil Kumar, IFS, Special Secretary, RMDD, Govt. of Sikkim in the presence of Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR-NOFRI; Dr. R. S. Gandhi, ADG (AP&B), ICAR, New Delhi; Dr. R. N. Chatterjee, Director, Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad; and Dr. Vineet Bhasin, Principal Scientist, ICAR HQ, New Delhi. During the inaugural program, besides poultry scientists, officials from State Government, other line departments and farmers of Sikkim also participated in this important event. The two-day meet comprised of inaugural session and five technical sessions on various aspects viz., poultry breeding, nutrition, health, management and production and distribution of Vanaraja DOC in various States of India.
At the beginning, Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR, Sikkim Centre welcomed the participants and gave brief overview of the role of ICAR Sikkim Centre in developing organic farming in Sikkim. He said that NOFRI is the second institute in the world dedicated to organic farming research and the first in Asia and assured the house that Institute will contribute to State’s mission for animal sector conversion into fully organic in due course of time.
In his inaugural address, Dr. P. Senthil Kumar, IFS, Special Secretary, RMDD, Govt. of Sikkim, appreciated the organisers for choosing the tiny and beautiful state, Sikkim as the venue for organising this meet. He expressed his willingness to have good association with various ICAR institutes for developing the organic veterinary sector in Sikkim. He also said that Sikkim is self sufficient in poultry meat and asked the scientists to develop suitable technologies for strengthening the poultry egg production sector in Sikkim. He said that rural backyard poultry will be the solution in future to meet the increasing demand for egg and poultry meat and requested the scientists to work more on backyard poultry sector for improving the nutritional and livelihood security in rural areas.
Dr. R. S. Gandhi, ADG (AP&B), ICAR, New Delhi in his address congratulated Joint Director and his team for the upgradation of the ICAR Sikkim Centre to National Organic Farming Research Institute. He said that 94% poultry is being reared by medium and small farmers which gives nutritional and livelihood security to the rural farmers. He emphasised the need for proper hygiene and overall management for higher return from poultry sector.
Dr. R. N. Chatterjee, Director, DPR, Hyderabad appreciated the efforts taken by ICAR Sikkim Centre to increase the production of Vanaraja from 3000 to 53,000 DOC per annum in 2015-16, which was the highest among all Centres. He also briefed the house that aim of the project is to develop location specific varieties to meet the egg and poultry meat requirement of different regions in India. He said that DPR, Hyderabad has developed different varieties in poultry; however, Vanaraja is the most popular and has huge demand across the country. He said that the mandate of PDP is to increase the egg and meat availability by two and four folds, respectively from the present level.
At the end, Dr. U. Raj Kumar, Principal Scientist, DPR, Hyderabad proposed the vote of thanks and Shri S. M. Kandwal, Technical Officer moderated the inaugural session.
Inaugural address by Dr. P. Senthil Kumar, IFS, Special Secretary, RMDD, Govt. of Sikkim Dr. R. S. Gandhi, ADG, AP&B, ICAR, New Delhi, addressing the participants Address by Dr. R. N. Chatterjee, Director, DPR, Hyderabad Dr. R. K. Avasthe, Joint Director, ICAR, Sikkim Centre welcoming the participants
Chief Guest along with participants of Annual Review Meeting of AICRP on Poultry Breeding and Poultry Seed Project’
