The first meeting of NEDAC Committee on “Livestock Cooperatives”

June 24, 2022July 5, 2022 nedacadmin 0 Comments committee, cooperatives, livestock, meeting, nedac, zoom

Challenges and way forward of the livestock industry were discussed in order to plan the future events that will benefit smallholder farmers and cooperatives.

The first meeting of the NEDAC committee Livestock Cooperatives was held on 29 June 2022 at 3 PM (India Time) via Zoom Conference Platform and live-streamed in the NEDAC YouTube Channel. The meeting was aimed to discuss the future events to be planned under the committee. Several NEDAC members attended the meeting, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand.

Dr. K.R. Salin, Honorary Director of NEDAC, welcomed the participants and invited Dr. Purushottam Basava, Secretary of Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives, Government of Uttarakhand, India, to chair the meeting. “The livestock sector contributes almost 25% of India’s agricultural GDP and is the main income generator for farmers and as the major protein diet.” said Dr. Purushottam during his opening presentation. In terms of challenges and way forward, he noted that climate change, particularly fluctuations in temperature, is one of the significant challenges in livestock production. Organizing and promoting the market is also challenging for supporting livestock industry products.

Dr. Avinash Anand, Managing Director of the Uttarakhand Sheep Goat Rabbit Farmers’ Cooperative Federation (USGCF), India, delivered the thematic presentation. He presented the mission and activities of the USGCF in the goat and sheep farming industry, including breeding development, processing, marketing, and socioeconomic impacts. Supporting the unorganized market issues raised by Dr. Purushottam, Dr. Avinash stated that USGCF has initiated multiple provisions to organize the market, including a ‘buy-back contract’ to ensure a ready market for the farmers, ‘product quality’ to monitor hygienic and healthy meat, ‘creating linkages’ to consumers, and ‘branding’ (example: BAKRAW to sell the Himalayan goat meat) through an e-commerce platform and a unique model of ‘Meat on wheels’ (MOW).

Mr. Qazi Monis, Chief Promoter, Goat and Sheep Cooperative Federation, who has been working in the goat farming sector since 2013 and is actively involved in developing a profitable and sustainable goat rearing model, also shared his insights into the livestock industry. He has identified issues such as pricing, market unavailability, product procurement issues that affect the supply chain, and the inefficacy of implementing the cooperative model due to a lack of animal husbandry-trained human resources.

There was a lively brainstorming session on the technologies adopted to increase productivity while maintaining product quality and safety. The discussion was led by Dr. P.S. Gahlaut, Honorary Secretary General of NEDAC and Managing Director of Indian Potash Limited. Participating NEDAC members included Md. Mustafizur Rahman, Milkvita-Bangladesh; Dr. Nethi Muralidhar, TSCAB-India; Mr. Ray CDA-Philippines; and Mrs. R. Vanitha, NCDC-India.