Animal Husbandry

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY DEPARTMENT, KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT

INTRODUCTION:

Livestock and livelihood are closely interconnected in rural households. with more than 50% of the population in villages, the contribution of the livestock sector in generating rural employment and thereby augmenting the income of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers and improving food security and nutrition is very significant.

The following special schemes are being implemented in the livestock sector:-

1. SCHEME FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION OF MILCH COWS AND GOATS/ SHEEP
2. SCHEME FOR POULTRY DEVELOPMENT (SPD)
3. DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAMME
4. STATE FODDER DEVELOPMEN SCHEME (SFDS)
5. BACKYARD POULTRY
6. KALNADAI PADHUKAPPU THITTAM (KPT)

SCHEME FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION OF MILCH COWS AND GOATS/ SHEEP

1. Scheme for Free Distribution of Milch Cows: This Scheme is not implemented in Kanniyakumari District.
2. Scheme for Free Distribution of Goats/ Sheep

The Hon’ble Chief Minister announced the implementation of a “Scheme for Free Distribution of Goats/ Sheep” to the poorest of the poor in the State in order to improve their standard of living. Under this Schemes, 4 Goats/ Sheep are to be given free of cost to 7 lakh rural landless families over a period of 5 years.

Salient Features:

• The Scheme is implemented in all the Districts of the State except Chennai.
• Only landless women beneficiaries are selected under this scheme.
• The beneficiaries purchase the Goats/ Sheep by themselves from shandies within the state.
• Only goats of the age group of 6-8 months are purchased.
• The beneficiaries are given 1 male goat and 3 female goats at a total cost of Rs.10,000 per unit
• The beneficiaries are also given Rs.2,000 as seed money for construction of sheds and purchase of feed.
• Rs.1,000 is earmarked for conveyance, photographic documentation, insurance, training and other contingency expenses.
• As a post-purchase follow up measure, regular health camps are conducted on a monthly basis in which treatment for medical. surgical and gynaecological problems are given to the animals to ensure their health.
• Periodical asset verification is done by cross checking the tag numbers with the data base maintained at the Veterinary Institutions.
• A detailed data base has been created with online access facility wherein all the details with reference to the assets created along with the photographs of the individual beneficiaries, have been uploaded.

SCHEME FOR POULTRY DEVELOPMENT

With a view to replicate the success of the poultry Sector in Namakkal, the Hon’ble Chief Minister has ordered to implement the ‘Scheme for Poultry Development’ in our state. Native Chicken rearing Scheme is implemented in our district.
The Government of Tamil Nadu is providing 25% front ended subsidy for establishing Native Chicken farm up to a maximum of 500 birds for Native chicken units for 2016-2017 & 2017-2018 100 units have been targets for Kanyakumari district and the target was achieved.

DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAMME

Animal Health is the backbone of livestock industry. In Kanyakumari district preventive measures against animal diseases are taken up based on surveillance and endemicity of diseases. Preventive Vaccination is under taken against important infectious and contagious diseases such as Anthrax, Peste des Petits Ruminants and Foot and Mouth Disease.

Foot and Mouth Disease causes infertility and abortion among the cattle and mortality in calves and is responsible for reduction of milk yield. Cattle with exotic blood level of more than 50%, are more susceptible to disease due to reduced resistance.

Measures initiated to Control the Outbreak

As soon as occurrences of the disease were noticed, control measures to curb the outbreak were initiated on a war footing. These measures include:-

• Forming special treatment teams consisting of Veterinarians and Para-Veterinarians
• Carrying out Bio Security measures with 4% Sodium Hydroxide, 4% Sodium Carbonate and Bleaching powder through Local Bodies so as to control the spread of infection
• The Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University conducted field investigation in the affected areas.
• Regional Joint Directors were permitted to procure essential medicines locally with the approval of District Collectors concerned.
• As a measure of boosting general health, Vitamin B complex injections and mineral mixture were also supplied to the affected animals by the Government, sourced through Aavin for maintaining the better health status of cattle.
• The District Administration conducted Special Grama Sabhas in our district to educate the farmers about the disease and the steps to be taken to control the disease.

In order to prevent the disease among the cattle, a Foot & Mouth Disease control Programme is undertaken to vaccinate 100% cattle population once in every six months

Strategies adopted by the District administration to ensure 100% vaccination of cattle population in future vaccination programme:

• Entire cattle population in the State has to be vaccinated.
• To vaccinate all the cattle population hamlet-wise in the village Panchayat and ward-wise in urban areas as per the approved schedule of vaccination. Coordination with all the relevant Departments is required so as to ensure 100% vaccination.
• To create sufficient awareness among the cattle owners/ farmers, a comprehensive IEC campaign has been launched, special Grama Sabha meeting for each village Panchayat has to be convened and with their cooperation 100% coverage should be ensured.

STATE FODDER DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (SFDS)

Green fodder is essential for the Cattle to minimize the expenses on feeding concentrates. Also green fodder provides essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals which is required for the good breeding performances and to increase conception rate. To ensure this, our government is implementing SFDS.
In this scheme a target is fixed for various activities like irrigated fodder, rainfed, Azola, planting of fodder trees like agathi, subabul and recently Hydrophonic fodder are introduced in a subsidized manner.

BACKYARD POULTRY

The meat protein requirement for human is mostly met out by poultry industry. The major contribution is from broilers and nowadays the rearing of desibirds (nattu kozhi) starts slightly replacing it. Apart from used as supplement protein for human the scheme also meet out the daily expenses for rural women.

Under this scheme 20 birds are given to each woman beneficiary at free of cost with a cage. Health care also has been carried out by the nearby Veterinary Dispensary. The scheme is very important in increase the rural economy of women.

SCHEME FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMAL HEALTH

As animal health is the nation’s wealth the Govt of Tamil Nadu initiated so many programmes for the Control of animal diseases and upliftment of animal health. One of these is Kalnadai Padhukappu Thittam (KPT).

Under this scheme cattle health measures are done at the door steps of farmers. Health camps are arranged in the microlevel with proper announcement and various health related services like deworming. Artificial insemination, treatment are being done by a group of veterinarians freely. During the camp, special cases in surgical, obstetrical are identified and the same are referred to Hospitals. In our district 126 camps were conducted in 2017-18.

Number of Camps conducted in 2016-17