First National Conference of Society for Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension (SVAHE) will be organized from November 18-20, 2015 in the College of Veterinary Science, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. The theme of the conference is “Push to Livestock Farming through Knowledge Empowerment of Farmers”. The conference will be attended by scientists, academicians, researchers and postgraduate students from all over the country. The conference will provide a common platform for all the stakeholders of animal husbandry to share their experiences and expertise with the extension fraternity as well as with farmer’s community. The conference will not only help to understand the effectiveness of present strategies of livestock extension but also will be instrumental in framing future policies and programmes for better dissemination of livestock research to the end users.
Dr. Harish Kumar Verma, Director, Extension Education, GADVASU cum Organizing Secretary of SVAHE conference told that the conference will be conducted in five technical sessions including Livestock Farming/ Entrepreneurship, Livestock Extension Policy Framework, Knowledge Dissemination Tools, Women/ Youth Centred Opportunities and Technologies for Sustainable Livestock Production. One plenary Farmer-Scientist Interface session to share the problems faced by the livestock farmers will also be conducted. The inputs received during the session from the farming community can be incorporated for furthering research in Veterinary Science. Dr. Verma further told that SVAHE will confer the Budding Extensionist Award to the young scientist (below 35 years of age) during the conference to promote and devise better strategies for transfer of knowledge from labs to land. Besides, best Oral and Poster research papers will also be awarded during the conference. According to Dr. Verma, the conference will be an excellent forum for interaction and exchange of ideas amongst the extension workers across the country.
Dr. Amarjit Singh Nanda, the Vice-Chancellor of the Veterinary University congratulated the organizing committee for holding conference in the institute. Dr. Nanda anticipated that the conference will go a long way to address the challenges in livestock farming. Dr. Nanda said that Veterinary Extension Specialists play a very important role in motivating and creating awareness among livestock keepers and emphasized the role of veterinary extension services in protecting the health and well-being of food animals and in contributing to public health. They are the liaison between institute and the farming community, carry the message of technologies from the institutes and bring back the feedback, which is helpful for further research and refinement.
