Tamil Nadu University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (TANUVAS) Vice-Chancellor K.N. Selva Kumar has said that the livestock will a crucial role in achieving the ‘zero hunger’ target by 2030.
Referring to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI)-2021 report, Dr. Selva Kumar on Thursday expressed concern that the world was not ‘on track’ to achieve the target.
Addressing the graduates at the 11 th convocation of Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) here on Thursday, Dr. Selva Kumar observed that India was lagging behind to achieve the food and nutritional security targets.
“India tops the world in milk production. The country witnessed 5.98% rise in meat production in 2019-20 fiscal, while the egg production went up from 45.2 billion in 2004-05 to 114.38 billion in 2019-20 fiscal year. We are the fourth largest capture (marine and inland) fishery, second largest aquaculture producer and the third largest in overall fish production in the world,” he said, adding that the sector had an ample scope.
‘One Health’ concept
The ‘One Health’ concept which recognises human health in relation to the health of animals and environment is gaining importance, said Dr. Selva Kumar.
“The veterinary faculty members have a big scope for contribution towards this holistic approach,” he said and advised the graduates to explore entrepreneurship.
“With your efforts, I am confident that the livestock farmers will move from subsistence farming to a financially-viable livestock enterprises,” he said.
Governor and Chancellor of universities Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, who virtually declared the convocation open, congratulated the university for its measures to conserve Punganur and Ongole cattle breeds and Nellore, the native sheep breed.
As many as 392 graduates who completed their courses in three veterinary colleges, two dairy technology colleges and one fisheries college received their degrees.
Vice-Chancellor V. Padmanabha Reddy, while reading out the annual report, highlighted that the university had supplied 1,00,000 and 1,000 doses of semen collected from Ongole and Punganur breeds respectively to farmers for conservation. Among the 37 gold medal winners, Aman Kumar Tiwari, a B.V.Sc graduate, bagged eleven gold medals, the highest by any student of the university.
