Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) has established different awards for rural innovative and progressive farmers in the field of livestock farming. Dr. Harish Kumar Verma, Director of Extension Education, GADVASU revealed that now the award categories has been increased from the existing categories. He informed that awards have been bestowed to boost the livestock sector in the state and consist of cash prize as well as citation & shawl. He said thatthe awards have been conferred to innovative farmers of the rural units in the important fields of livestock profession. It is pertinent to mention that in the present setup there are separate awards in dairy farming for cow & buffalo farmers and the cash prize for buffalo and cows categories are Rs.21000/- each, for Poultry Rs.11000/- and for Goatfarming Rs.5100/-.
Now, onwards there will be categories of Dairy Farming (Buffalo), Dairy Farming (Cattle), Poultry Farming, Pig Farming, Goat Farming, Fish Farming and Entrepreneur in Value Addition of Livestock Produce. In the dairy farming category the cash reward will be Rs. 21000 whereas for all other categories cash reward has fixed at Rs. 11000 for each award. He revealed that to give a boost to value addition we have introduced the new category of ‘Entrepreneur in Value Addition of Livestock Produce’
While explaining the selection procedure Dr. Verma explained that the contesting livestock farmers are short listed for the awards based on their contributions in respective fields and further a team of Deans and Directors of the varsity visited the different farms for making on the spot assessment and winners will be declared by the committee. He revealed that the awards will act as a source of inspiration for the unemployed youth for starting their own livestock enterprises and as well as it will bring healthy competition among the farmers to adopt the livestock farming on recommended scientific lines and also to improve their productivity and profitability which will help in the diversification of agriculture with livestock enterprises. Whereas visit to farms, help university experts to brush up their modus operandi to provide updated and fresh remedies. Livestock farmers also get new ideas and knowledge from experts.
