CLFMA of India, the apex organization and the voice of the country’s dynamic livestock sector conducted its annual flagship event, 61st National Symposium on 22 to 23 August 2019 in New Delhi recently focusing on 'Indian Livestock Farming: Prospects & Role of Government Policies' towards fostering sustainable growth for Indian Livestock Sector.
The Chief Guest of the Seminar was Indian Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh who was the chief guest at the seminar. Pawan Agarwal, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Government of India, presented the keynote address and Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India gave the Thematic Address.
The Symposium started with a special session with a launch of book titled Nutritional Guidelines for Animal Feeds by the Compound Feed Manufacturers Association (CLFMA) of India launched by the minister at the event.
This is a pioneering effort made by CLFMA to keep the farmers, feed manufacturers and Industry abreast with latest nutrient requirements of various types of species used in animal agriculture, CLFMA said in a statement.
In its welcome address Divya Kumar Gulati, Secretary CLFMA of India said that the livestock sector is becoming a sunrise sector and all the stake holders including the government have to work in close co-ordination and emphasised the fact that doubling farmers income can be achieved by focussing more on livestock farming.
He said that the Symposium is being organized to build partnership with the government to take forward the agenda of doubling farmers' income through livestock farming.
Addressing the occasion S. V. Bhave, Chairman CLFMA of India said that the government has recognized the unexposed potential of Livestock Sector and created a separate dedicated ministry for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying and since livestock sector has its own parent ministry now it will be an easy process for all the stakeholders to resolve the issues and problems.
Giriraj Singh in his speech appreciated CLFMA for conducting the event and said that the ministry is involved in making a model for the livestock sector, which will work on co-existence of all the species including the humans involved in the food chain, Promote Scientific technologies and Integrated Farming Systems.
He emphasized that QPM maize,moringa,Bajra and Cassia should be promoted as animal feed as the protein percentages is more in these feeds and can be produced by Indian farmers.
Singh also insisted in starting livelihood incubation centres for livestock. He insisted in promoting few practices that will benefit the farmer viz merino sheep which will be useful for dual purpose (meat and wool) and promotion of goat farming.
Delivering the thematic address at the symposium, Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India said that apart from the Doubling Farmers’ Income the Prime Minister of India had the vision of USD $5 trillion economy and the sectoral allocations were USD $3 trillion to service sector, USD $1 trillion to manufacturing and one trillion to agriculture.
Presently, Agriculture contributes to 270 to 280 billion and to take it to USD $1 trillion mark in near future, we need to focus on Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries.
Chaturvedi said that breeding techniques, compound livestock feed or nutrition of fortified foods, Control of diseases especially FMD and Brucellosis play an important role to increase productivity of animals and also emphasized the fact of promoting processing, marketing and exports of value-added products.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in his keynote address emphasised on the importance of Food Safety in the Country and said that FSSAI will be stringent about food safety concerns so that safe food is available in our country.
Agarwal said that FSSAI will be working with Ministries and Agencies, who are responsible for primary productionand safety regulations will be started at this level itself, as it is difficult to remove the contamination occurring in the primary producing stages while processing.
CLFMA also awarded P. S. Nandakumar, MD, Nanda Feeds Pvt. Ltd with the Life Time Achievement for its work in the sector. The award was presented by Dr. Ashish Motiram Paturkar, Vice-Chancellor, Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur, DrAshok Kumar, ADG- ICAR and Dr. Raghavendra Bhatta, Director, ICAR-National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru for their marvellous contribution to the Indian Livestock Sector.
First Session: Doubling Farmers' Income: Government and Industry Partnership
The first session was titled “Doubling Farmers' Income: Government and Industry Partnership”. Balram Singh Yadav, Managing Director of Godrej Agrovet Ltd was the moderator of the 1st Session.
The 1st Session’s Panellists from the Government of India, were Tarun Shridhar, IAS(Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (AH&D), Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries & Panellist from the Industry side were, Daljit Singh, Chairman, Progressive Dairy Farmer’s Association (PDFA), represented the Dairy Industry, Ravi Kumar Yelanki, Managing Director, Vaishaki Bio Resources & Vaishaki Bio Marine, represented the Fishery Industry & B. Soundararajan, Managing Director of Suguna Holdings Pvt. Ltd. and immediate past chairman of CLFMA, represented the Poultry Industry. In the 1st Session, the problems faced by the Fisheries, Dairy and Poultry Industry, existing Government Schemes were discussed in detail and recommendations were drawn.
Second session: Value Addition with Special Focus on Processing
During the second session titled 'Value Addition with Special Focus on Processing' was discussed in detail. The Session Moderator was Narayanan, Advisor – Food and Beverage.
The 2nd Session’s Panellist from the Government of India were J. P. Meena, IAS(Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI), Dr. Amit Sharma, Director, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Tarun Bajaj, General Manager at Ministry of Commerce (APEDA) & from the Industry side Vishwas Chitale, Executive Director, Chitale Agro Industries Pvt. Ltd. represented Dairy Industry, Ravi Kumar Yelanki, Managing Director, Vaishaki Bio Resources & Vaishaki Bio Marine represented Fishery Industry &Mr. Prashant Vatkar, CEO of Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd. represented Poultry Industry.
The Second Session deliberated the importance of Food processing in doubling farmers income, addressing the traceability issues, reduction of food wastage and Food safety Issues, promotion of Export Markets etc. were discussed in detail.
Third session: Livestock Industry Interaction with Government of India
The Third Session was on Livestock Industry Interaction with Government of India. In this session, the Industry Pain Points were discussed with the Government.
The Third Session Moderator was Bharat Tandon, Past Chairman of CLFMA & Managing Director of Healthline Pvt. Ltd. (Sericare Divison). From the Government of India the Panellists were Dr. O.P. Chaudhary, Joint Secretary (NLM), Dept. of National Livestock Mission, Ministry of Fisheries, AH&D, G. N. Singh, Joint Secretary – Trade, Department of Fishery, AH&D & Keshav Chandra, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and from CLFMA Team S.V. Bhave, Chairman, Divya Kumar Gulati, Secretary, Naveen Pasuparthy, Treasurer and Suresh Deora, West Zone President.
About CLFMA
The 50-year old industry association is recognized as one among the highly reputed in India. It currently has over 230 members representing diverse subsectors of animal protein value chain including feed manufacturing; poultry, dairy and aquaculture business; animal nutrition and health, veterinary services, machinery and equipment; processing, distribution and retailing of meat; and ancillary services such as banking.
Photo cpation: CLFMA chairman S V Bhave welcoming Giriraj Singh, as Divya Kumar Gulati, Secretary CLFMA of India look on