Union minister pitches for Bharat mata ki jai, and ‘mithun ice cream’

[caption id="attachment_281700" align="aligncenter" width="565"] Giriraj Singh examines locally grown sugarcane at the ICAR-NRC exhibition stall on Saturday in Dimapur.[/caption] Our Reporter Dimapur, Nov. 9 (EMN): On his maiden visit to Nagaland, Union minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Giriraj Singh said ‘be it the land Nagaland or land of Tripura,’ he considers them the way he would a mother. That is the reason why he hails “Bharat Mata ki jai” or Hindi for ‘hail mother India.’ This chant and “vande mataram,” which is roughly ‘I bow to you, mother,’ should reach Delhi, he said. The Union minister was addressing a programme at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Research Centre (ICAR-NRC) on Mithun on Saturday Nov. 9, at Medziphema in Dimapur. Singh was in the state to inaugurate the centre’s hostel and guest house. On his visit to the establishment, Girija assured to visit Porba village in Phek district in four to five months to meet mithun farmers there. The Union minister paid a visit to the institute’s mithun farm at Medziphema. He remarked that the animal should be used for all purposes similar to that of dairy. He suggested that the selling price of the mithun’s milk should be made ‘compulsory for state legislators.’ A meeting should be convened during which only the mithun’s milk should be provided to the legislators ‘to understand its importance,’ he said. Singh is known for giving controversial speeches. The minister said further that the ‘ice cream man’ should be encouraged to take to production of “mithun ice-cream.” He acknowledged that he is ‘regarded as someone who speaks and points out negativity more than the positive’ but he does ‘not find any negative about Nagaland.’ The minister also called for commercialisation of pork, fish, poultry and the mithun so people would be willing to work in the state. “The world is changing so Northeast should also change,” Singh remarked. In other matters, the director of the ICAR-NRC Dr. Abhijit Mitra requested the minister to consider the mithun institute to be a ‘nodal agency’ and allow the ICAR-NRC to have mithun-specific projects for funding. He announced that a ‘techno-economic-paradigm for bankable mithun’ has been finalised too. Mitra maintained that the ICAR-NRC at Medziphema is the only research and farm in the world centred on the animal. The mithun is the only species that does not compete for fodder which also means it can also be a constant source of income. Mithun, he said, acts as ‘nature’s gardener’ if kept in the forest, he said. According to Mitra, the mithun is a ‘walking automated teller machine (ATM) for farmers.’ It has a social status in the Naga society, he said. The minister explained that the ‘mithun is the only livestock species which is secular with no religious wires.’ Also, the advisor for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary R Khing said the mithun occupies an important place in the Northeast. He requested the Union minister to give importance to its conservation and promotion. The legislator was optimistic that the program’s stewardship in India will greatly change and help farmers contribute to the economy. Also, the deputy director of General Fisheries and Animal Science Dr. Joykrushna Jena said it aims to target school dropouts to train them in Artificial Intelligence or AI for animal science in the next five years and make the team go to villages.