Minister for Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Abdul Gani Kohli along with Minister of State for Animal & Sheep Husbandry, Mir Zahoor Ahmad today inaugurated state-of-art high pedigree sire shelter facility at Ranbirbagh in Ganderbal district.The Ministers also laid foundation stone of Rs 1.13 crore Livestock Development Board (LDB) training facility at Shalteng in presence of MLA Batamaloo, Noor Muhammad Sheikh.At Ranbirbagh, Kohli took a detailed review of Frozen Semen Project set up for livestock development in Kashmir Division. He said that the sire shelter facility would go a long way in making the semen station one of the best in the country and shall help in achieving the goal of providing disease-free high quality semen to the farmers.Pertinently, Frozen Semen Project was started under INDO-DANISH project in the year 1980. Initially the project started processing of semen from 1982 and the insemination programme through frozen semen was started at 30 centers only.It was said that currently, the semen station is producing more than 8 to 10 lakh doses per year to cater the demands of around 850 Government A.I centers and around two hundred private A.I workers of Kashmir Valley besides supplying semen to neighboring states.
The Minister said that the project has the potential of transforming the scenario of dairying sector in the State. He lauded the Department for making concerted efforts in this regard and said with this project as its backbone we have been able to transform over 65 percent of the indigenous low-producing cattle to high yielding crossbreds.
Later, Kohli accompanied by Minister of State for Animal & Sheep Husbandry and MLA Batamaloo visited Shalteng to lay foundation of LDB training centre building under National Programme for Bovine Breeding meant for providing training to the unemployed youth to enable them earn their livelihood.The Training center shall have the capacity to train 150 to 300 candidates.On the occasion, Kohli said that the training centre being centrally located shall be accessible to candidates from all the districts and has been designed keeping in view the current and future needs. He said that training centre would enable unemployed youth to earn their livelihood by opening their poultry and dairy farms.He directed the officers to formulate DPR for construction of veterinary and Animal Husbandry University in Kashmir Division.Minister of State for Animal & Sheep Husbandry, Mir Zahoor also spoke on the occasion and said that that livestock is the backbone of rural people and the sector has the potential to give a fillip to rural economy. He said several initiatives have been taken by the Government for augmentation and improvement of existing basic infrastructure of animal and sheep husbandry Departments.Meanwhile, various public deputations called on the Ministers and apprised them of their issues and grievances. They assured them that all of their genuine issues and demands would be looked into for immediate redressal.Commissioner Secretary, Animal/Sheep Husbandry Department, R K Bhagat, Director Animal Husbandry, M. Y. Chaproo, Directed Fisheries, R. N. Pandita and other concerned also accompanied the Ministers.