State-level seminar to chart vision for Kerala’s animal husbandry sector

KOLLAM: The state government will organise a seminar to chart a roadmap for Kerala’s animal husbandry sector for the year 2031.

The event will feature paper presentations on key areas such as dairy production, meat and egg production.

Currently, the animal husbandry and dairy development sector contributes to about 29 per cent of the state’s domestic income.

Kerala produces around 27 lakh tonnes of milk annually, against a requirement of 35 lakh tonnes.

The meat production sector remains largely unorganised and of the annual demand of 11 lakh tonnes, only 7 lakh tonnes are produced within the state.

Meanwhile, around 1.4 crore eggs are imported daily from other states, leading to an outflow of nearly Rs 6 crore every day.

The seminar aims to address these gaps by outlining plans to increase daily milk production from 70 lakh litres to 95 lakh litres, organise the meat production sector and promote new industries that utilise slaughterhouse by-products.

It will also focus on improving the genetic quality of livestock and enhancing farmers’ income by creating more workdays.

Experts, scientists, and farmers from within and outside Kerala will participate.

The integration of information technology including artificial intelligence and chatbot-based systems will also be discussed as part of the modernisation plans.

Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development J Chinchu Rani will inaugurate the seminar at 10 am on October 21 at the Gago Convention Centre, Kadakkal. Finance Minister K N Balagopal will preside over the function.

District Animal Husbandry Officer Dr. D Shinekumar said documents detailing the government’s achievements, flagship projects and suggestions for the coming decade will be submitted to the government at the event.