Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana bagged the Partnership Excellence Award’ from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on its 33 foundation day held at Chandigarh. The award was given by Chief Minister, Punjab S. Parkash Singh Badal to Dr. V. K. Taneja, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU. The award function was attended by Dr. S.N.S. Randhawa, Director of Research cum Director of Ext. Edu, Dr. J. S. Bhatti,HoD, Vet. Extension and Dr. H. K. Verma, Professor. Dr. S.N.S. Randhawa said that the award was based on the performance of Veterinary Varsity in 2013-14 for “Technology dissemination to farmers in allied fields”. It is important to mention here that GADVASU has been associated with NABARD since 2012 by conducting training programmes for dairy farmers, transfer of new practices and technologies in the field of dairy farming to the farmers clubs promoted by NABARD. Under the Area Development scheme operated by NABARD in two districts of the state, a novel project started for subscribing the monthly Animal Husbandry magazine ‘Vigiyanak Pashu Palan’ published by GADVASU to 210 farmers clubs.It was sponsored by NABARD for a period of two years. These projects are showing excellent results and now the dairy scheme has been extended from already operational in 2 districts to further 3 more districts including border area of Amritsar.
An innovative project on “milk chilling” by the Department of Dairy Engineering, College of Dairy Science & Technology was implemented. It is the development of an innovative solar energy based prototype for milk chilling using vapour absorption system sponsored by NABARD under Rural Innovation Fund. Dr. Randhawa, revealed that Directorate of Extension Education is actively involved in updating the knowledge of the field functionaries especially veterinarians on the current issues of the animals with the active participation of the Extension Education and other departments viz. Medicine, Gynaecology, Surgery, Microbiology and Animal Disease Research Centre. Further, the Directorate of Extension Education is also undertaking the capacity building of the farmers of the state and farmers from other states like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, UP, Karnataka, Uttranchal etc. through various training programmes undertaken during the year.
