Guwahati (The Stellar News): With an aim to support the rural farmers of Assam, CM Sarbananda Sonowal ceremonially launched the first phase of vaccination drive of livestock for prevention of foot & mouth disease (FMD) and brucellosis under National Animal Disease Control Program at a function held on Monday in the city. It may be mentioned that the national animal disease control Program is a visionary step, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019, for ensuring hundred percent vaccination of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population against fatal diseases like FMD and brucellosis.
The program aims to control the livestock diseases by 2025 and eradicate these by 2030 and seeks to vaccinate over 500 million livestock against the FMD and 36 million against brucellosis. Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal commented that the animal husbandry and veterinary department has a big responsibility to encourage and guide Assam based farmers and livestock growers to achieve their full potential and contribute to the rural economy. He called on the veterinary doctors and other concerned officials to not take their jobs as ordinary government jobs and engage with the farmers on a regular basis to know their challenges and help them overcome those problems.
Citing the example of Vietnam, Sonowal informed that the small country was doing business worth millions of dollars by adding value to their agriculture and livestock products and exporting to other countries. He urged the veterinary department officials to work with dedication and sincerity to make Assam self-reliant in livestock and poultry items like pork, mutton, chicken etc. Referring to example of local farmers exporting products to countries such as Dubai, AbuDhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong etc, Sonowal said that the youths must be encouraged to take up farming and agriculture as a means of livelihood and stressed on the need to use science & technology for increasing outputs in short time.
In presence of Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora, State water resource minister Keshab Mahanta, State livestock & poultry corporation chairman Manoj Saikia, etc Sonowal asserted that Assam has a huge potential to become a top exporting State of livestock items. He also highlighted the government’s steps for doubling farmers’ income by 2022 in synch with PM Modi’s vision. Asserting that this was the age of competition where knowledge and technology must be acquired to compete with the best, he urged the veterinary department to strive for excellence so that youth can be attracted towards farming and livestock production through innovation and technology.
Earlier, Sonowal distributed the sanction letters to beneficiary students under Abhinandan subsidy scheme for education loans at a function in Amingaon locality. The government under the scheme endeavoured to provide Rs 50,000 to all permanent resident students of Assam who have taken education loans. A total of 6052 students have benefitted from the scheme where an amount of Rs 22 crore was credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries.
