Youth must consider livestock farming

CHENNAI: The growth prospects of entrepreneurial ventures in livestock production are enormous and the youth of the country must consider such options, experts in the field said. They pointed that India’s food demand was growing even as agriculture’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product and a substantial expansion in animal husbandry and livestock production were inevitable.“Since the Green Revolution, we have reached a plateau. We have reached stagnation in agriculture. We are moving from subsistence farming of livestock to a more commercial level. This combined with the fact that urban population is growing makes it critical to increase food production through livestock,” said T Sivakumar, head of the Department of Livestock Production and Management at the Madras Veterinary College. Speaking at the workshop to impart hands-on training on commercial livestock farming at Loyola College’s Department of Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology, Sivakumar also pointed out that it wasn’t just food, but a number of other related items whose supply did not match the market’s requirements. He underlined the point by making out the case of feed and fodder for livestock, where there is a 60 per cent deficit in supply. “There is massive potential for growth, production, export and packaging in this sector,” said Sivakumar. Albin T Fleming, HOD of Loyola’s Department of Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology and S John William, co-ordinator, poultry programme, were among those who took part in the inauguration of the three-day workshop.