GUWAHATI, Nov 20 - The pig and goat breeding policies approved by the State government yesterday focus on conservation of the indigenous breed and breed improvement, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Director PC Das today said while insisting that the move would make the sector vibrant and bring rich dividends for the farmers engaged in livestock rearing activities.
While the Assam Pig Breeding Policy 2019 focuses on the core issues of pig breeding for conservation and germplasm improvement and other associated issues to be addressed for sustainable growth of the piggery sectors in the State, the Assam Goat Breeding Policy, 2019 centres around improvement of genetic potential of the goat population of the State through selective breeding of the Assam Hill Goat.
Under the pig policy, the Veterinary department proposes to propagate breeding of different breeds of pig in six identified geographic areas of Assam.
The goat breeding policy focuses on the central aspect of indigenous breed of the State, Assam Hill Goat, and breed improvement through establishment of ONBS (Open Nucleus Breeding System) using technology such as MOET (Multiple Ovarian Embryo Transfer).
�Goat as the poor man�s cow would meet the economic needs of the rearers and the objective of the policy will be on achieving maximum genetic gain by way of selection of breeding bucks and their extensive use through AI or natural service in female goats. The policy further envisages protecting the environment, preserving animal biodiversity, ensuring bio-security and farmers livelihood,� the Director said.
The cabinet had also approved the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Operational Efficiency Financial Standard Operating Procedure (OEFSOP) for operational management of departmental demonstration farms (cattle and buffalo farms/poultry farms/pig farms/goat farms/fodder farms) and milk supply schemes.
The OEFSOP intends to improve the operational efficiency of the departmental farms and the milk supply schemes under the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department by provisioning for a localised revolving fund arrangement and a decentralised management structure for financial sanctions at the local institution level with proper accounting safeguards and audit mandates.
Presently, several farms are nonoperational due to issues relating to non-availability of financial provisions in budget and inability to channel in a proper and established manner the revenues accrued to the State exchequer for limited operational and maintenance purposes. Secondly, each farm has its own management approaches and there is no uniformity in this aspect. Uniformity for the management protocols for farms have been specified to standardise the departmental asset management and upkeep in line with the best practices in animal husbandry, while also allowing local level flexibility for operational reasons.
The financial SoP will allow optimal managerial efficiency for departmental assets and utilisation of these assets for the purpose of extensive extension training and credit linkage to promote animal husbandry and veterinary in Assam, Das added.
