‘Indian Council of Veterinary Research to be reality soon’
   Date :21-Jun-2022

Indian Council of Veterinary Research 
 
 
Staff Reporter
“India will soon get Indian Council of Veterinary Research to function on the lines of Indian Council of Agricultural Research,” said Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Development.
Rupala was speaking at the inaugural function of two-day XX Annual Convocation-cum-Scientific Convention of National Academy of Veterinary Sciences (India) (NAVS (I)) at Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU) here on Monday. Dr Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS); Dr Ashish Paturkar, Vice-Chancellor of MAFSU, Dr Prakash Rao, President of NAVS (I), and other dignitaries also shared the dais on this occasion.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, separate departments have come into being for Agriculture as well as Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, said Rupala. Now, it won’t take much time for the Indian Council of Veterinary Research to be a reality, he added. He also laid emphasis on restructuring veterinary education, research and extension for enhancing livestock and poultry production to boost gross domestic product of the country.
Rupala appealed to the participants of the convention to deliberate upon making available the artificial insemination/in-vitro fertilisation technologies to the cattle owners and also for private
investment. Also, he expected the experts to deliberate upon organic farming, significance of cow-dung for carbon fixation of soil, standardisation of disposal of carcass of cattle and making of natural fertilizers etc.
Dr Mohan Bhagwat laid stress on  organic and ancient methods of farming. “Our farmers were agriculture scientists, their farms and animal shelters were laboratories. It would be wrong to reject such local knowledge as unscientific without testing them with time,” he said. There is need to make agricultural research India-centric based upon local reqirements.
The veterinary sciences should be made available in local languages to the farmers to increase their utility, he added. He predicted that mechanised farming would not last long.
Dr Ashish Paturkar shed light on the initiatives taken by MAFSU. He made a special mention of Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Dudhbardi in Kalmeshwar tehsil, ICMR-sponsored One Health Centre, testing of 25,000 samples in COVID-19
laboratory.
On this occasion, NAVS (I) awarded Honorary Fellowship to Parshottam Rupala, Dr Mohan Bhagwat, and Sunil Kedar, Maharashtra Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, and Fisheries. The Honorary Fellowship was awarded to 20 noted veterinary scientists too. A souvenir also was released on this occasion by the dignitaries.