Department of Dairy Economics and Business Management, College of Dairy Science and Technology (CODST), Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana organized a workshop on budgetary requirements of livestock sector in Punjab. Budget session of Punjab government is going to commence in near future. Such a workshop at this moment will provide useful policy inputs for the livestock sector in the state government budget.
Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, GADVASU was chief guest of the event. Dr. Singh highlighted the importance of livestock sector in agricultural diversification and enhancing the income of farmers . He applauded the initiative taken by the department in organizing this workshop. Dr. Ramneek, Dean, CODST told that the department is dedicated to generate data related to various aspects of livestock and providing policy inputs.
Dr. Inderpreet Kaur, Associate Professor, Livestock Economics pointed out that that livestock sector contribute more than 40 per cent to the total agricultural Gross Domestic Product, but the allocation of budget to this sector out of total agricultural and allied budget is just 5.2 percent. For accelerating the agricultural growth, the budgetary allocations to livestock sector should be at par with its contribution to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product. Among the lead speakers, Dr. Kamal Vatta, Head, Department of Economics and Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana stressed upon strengthening market research for dairy sector in Punjab. There is need of investment for generation of good quality reliable data.
Dr. K.K. Kundu, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ch. Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, discussed budgetary interventions for enhancing farmers’ income through allied agriculture. He stressed to develop Punjab as livestock seed state and to adopt fish based integrated farming system approach to utilize saline and waste lands.
Dr. P.S. Birthal, National Professor-cum-Director, ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi, opined that considering the huge contribution of livestock sector, this sector should not be treated as allied agricultural sector while allocating the budgets. Higher budgets are required for this sector for its further development which will help in overall development of the agricultural sector. He also stressed upon considering the cost of milk production while fixing milk procurement prices. Officers of the university, incharge of KVKs, other experts from the field and progressive farmers were also present at the venue to grace the occasion and provided useful inputs.
