Videoconferencing planned to popularise dairy farming

BANGALORE: The Bidar-based Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (KVAFSU) is planning to use videoconferencing to popularise dairy farming in northern parts of the State and also to help dairy farmers of these areas to get counselling from experts.

Disclosing this while participating at the inaugural session of a technical symposium organised by the Karnataka Veterinary Association in Bangalore on Sunday, KVAFSU Vice-Chancellor G.S. Bhat said the university would organise videoconferences between farmers as well as farmers’ leaders in northern parts like Bidar and the dairy experts in Bangalore.

The farmers can clear their doubts related to dairy farming with experts. Such a system was likely to take-off in two or three months, he said.

Under the proposed system, select northern parts like Bidar would be connected to Bangalore to facilitate an interaction between farmers and dairy experts.

The main reason for the moves to introduce videoconferencing was to beat the severe shortage of veterinary experts, he explained. In the veterinary sector, the extension wing was yet to be given due importance. Though the university had set up an extension department, it was yet to gain momentum due to staff shortage, he said.

Through videoconferencing it would be possible to reach out to a large number of farmers with the limited number of experts, he said.

While the southern parts of the State had gone a long way in dairy farming, the northern parts were yet to take up dairy farming on a large scale, the Vice-Chancellor observed. Listing the importance of dairy farming, he said it was possible to get an assured income from it.

Dr. Bhat also stressed the need for having an institution like Indian Council for Veterinary Research on the lines of Indian Council for Agricultural Research for supporting veterinary research.

He said the university would come out with postgraduate diploma courses in veterinary sciences to provide scope for specialisation in the field.

Speaking on the occasion, Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry Commissioner V.S. Ashwath said the department was facing a shortage of about 2,000 veterinary doctors.

Stressing the need for all city corporations and municipal bodies to have the services of a veterinarian, he said the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike had agreed to get the services of veterinary doctors to look into policy issues related to pets and street dogs only after the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Department took up the issue with it. Now, the department would try to persuade other city and town municipal councils to create a post of veterinary assistant director in their organisations to look into the issues related to veterinary sciences, he said.

The veterinary association office-bearers demanded that the salaries of veterinary doctors should be on a par with those of medical (MBBS) doctors. The Union Government and several States had already raised the salaries of veterinary doctors to match that of their medical counterparts. But Karnataka was yet to set right the anomaly in salaries, they alleged.