Peren lands 3 new development injections

JALUKIE, AUGUST 6 : Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh, has inaugurated the College of Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry at Jalukie in Peren district on Saturday.

The Veterinary College will function under the Central Agriculture University (CAU) of Imphal in Manipur. The classes for the first batch will commence this year on September 15. There are already seven colleges under the CAU.

Out of the six colleges that have been added to the NE region during the Twelve Five Year Plan by the Government of India, the College of Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry in Jalukie is one of them.

The first batch will accommodate 20 students. Out of it, four seats belongs to Nagaland, while the admission for the rest of the 16 seats was done through All India Pre-Medical Veterinary Test, it was informed.

The newly-inaugurated college has prospects to become one of the biggest Agricultural institutes/colleges in the North East region. A total of 1030 acres of land has been earmarked for the college premises, however, as for the first phase, a suitable land of 266 acres of land has been listed free of cost by the State government to establish the college.

In his address, Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh envisioned the role of the college that it would go a long way in helping the Nagaland in accessing modern technologies ‘to fulfill the vision of the state government for self-sufficiency in animal husbandry produce, given the reality that livestock, piggery, and poultry farming has been an integral part of the Naga people.’

He expressed hope that the new college would ‘try to maintain high standards of education’ and help the state ‘make rapid development and advancement in term of agriculture and allied sciences and human resource sector.’ Singh also expressed hope that the college would complement the development of animal husbandry in Nagaland from which the people would benefit.

While the college has been established by the central government, help and support of the state government is also equally important in achieving the mandate of the college in letter and spirit.

To this, the union minister assured that infrastructure would be developed faster. The posts of teaching and non-teaching staffers will also be filled up expeditiously, he said.

The chief minister of Nagaland has expressed high hopes that the college would become an important player and catalyst in the socio-economic development of the state and “to achieve self-sufficiency in meat.”

TR Zeliang said in a note on Saturday: “It is my expectation that this college will not become just another veterinary College churning out a number of veterinary doctors every year who will be knocking at the doors of the government to provide them jobs. I expect this college to produce an army of dedicated veterinary doctors who will become hands-on practitioners and animal farmers who will be the change agents in revolutionizing our animal husbandry system, and then helping the State realize its vision of self-sufficiency in meat by the year 2015.”

The CM also expressed expectation that the college would be ‘research-oriented, rather than focusing on mere academic results.’

“We need to do research which are more relevant to our society and the conditions prevailing in Nagaland; research that will marry our traditional knowledge with modern science, and draw the best from both,” Zeliang stated.

KVK: farmers’ training center 

Also, Radha Mohan Singh unveiled the foundation stone for a new Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) center at Jalukie. The KVK is an institution that functions as knowledge and resource centre of agricultural technology supporting initiatives of public, private and voluntary sector for improving the agricultural economy of the people. The KVK plays pivotal role in technology assessment, refinement, demonstrations and dissemination of technologies in agriculture and allied enterprises.

In addition to the existing KVK at Dimapur, Longleng and Wokha, the KVK in Jalukie will function under the ICAR Research center at Medziphema. It will address agriculture and allied related issues in the district.

Dr. DJ Rajkhowa, Joint Director, ICAR RC for NEH region, welcome the dignitaries and mentioned the importance of the KVK while highlighting the role KVK Peren would play in the development of the district.

During the inauguration of the “Farmer’s Fair cum Exhibition”, Chief Minister TR Zeliang, highlighted the importance of the KVK in the development of agriculture. He said that the center will help in imparting technical knowledge to the farmers of the district thereby improving the economic status. Also, Zeliang mentioned that three institutes besides the KVK, a “farmers’ training school” and “college of veterinary science” would be inaugurated in Peren district which he expressed that the people should welcome the initiatives.

“The present KVK is not only for technical and educated people, but more for farmers’ welfare, school dropout and all sections of people who are willing to work,” TR Zeliang said. The chief minister also mentioned the Vision 2030 document. He said that the Nagaland government was ‘targeting to increase agricultural productivity and reduce its dependency on other states for self sufficiency.’

S Chuba Longkumer, parliamentary secretary for Veterinary and Animal Husbandry expressed gratitude to the ICAR and KVK for imparting latest technologies and training ‘as per needs to the farmers, farm ladies, youth…’

Dr. S. Bhaskar, assistant director general (natural resource management) highlighted that the state was bestowed with natural resources and the importance of conservation while mentioning the suitability of integrated farming system for the state. He also stressed that the technology should percolate to the farmers; farmers should in turn adopt the technologies developed by the ICAR.

Dr AK Singh, the deputy director general (agriculture extension), also highlighted that the existing KVKs in the state as well as ICAR had been contributing immensely to development by addressing various issues related to agriculture and its allied sectors. He said that the new KVK was the 646th in the country.