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Kashmir gets substandard feed

An overwhelming majority of farmers in Bandipora are aghast over the “influx of huge quantities of substandard feed and feed ingredients into the Kashmir market” that has been impacting the health and milk production of cattle.

They lamented that there are no controls and regulations to regulate the sale of cattle feed which is proving catastrophic to the poor farmers in terms of cattle and production losses.

Participating in am interactive programme on cattle and poultry health organized by the Block Veterinary Officer, Bandipora termed the situation as “free for all” as every Tom, Dick and Harry gets feed and feed ingredients in to the market for sale to the gullible farmers leading to mysterious deaths or sudden decline in production levels. They urged the minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution and Animal Husbandry to introduce suitable legislation to regulate the production and sale of livestock feed in the state.

They also urged him to ensure that only quality medicines from reputed concerns only are made available at Veterinary Centers as the farmers were being charged costs for the medicine supplied. Why a farmer should be held hostage to the state’s Financial Code when he is to pay the price for the medicines supplied to him for his livestock, they argued.

They urged the government to dispense with the tendering business in the procurement of medicines and drugs for both humans and livestock as it was a matter of life and death for the people in both cases.They demanded setting up of a Veterinary Clinical Laboratory in Bandipora and creation of the post of Chief A H Officer and other posts to give a fillip to livestock development in the district.

Earlier Drs GM Rather, M S Surma and Giyas-ud-din delivered lectures on departmental programmes, poultry production in the backyard, immunization and de-worming of livestock for better production. Dr F A Kaloo, Dy Director, AH, made a pre4sentation each on Bird Flu and fertility management in farm animals which was followed by a a free and frank interaction.

Drs Mehmood-ul-Hassan, BA Mir, Altaf H Kangoo also took part in the interaction with the farmers. Dr Manzoor A Mir, BVO later thanked the participants for making the programme lively and useful. The farmers too thanked the doctors for the useful information provided to them.

Tags · Kashmir · India · Feed · Ingredients · Quality

23.03.2008. 07:36

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