From seafarers to engineers, Goa sees animal farming rise amid pandemic

PANAJI: A new breed of animal farmers is slowly emerging in the state. Officers at the department of animal husbandry and veterinary services (AHVS) spent weeks visiting panchayats to popularise their schemes for piggery, poultry, goat and cattle rearing among those looking for an alternative means of income during the lockdown.
Among those availing of the scheme are seafarers who have returned to Goa owing to the pandemic.“There are also graduates and engineers who have lost their jobs during the pandemic who have taken this up. We are currently training 30 such people in dairy and piggery farming,” director of AHVS, Dr Santosh Desai said.
Desai said that roughly calculated figures indicate that the demand for poultry and goat farming has doubled compared to the previous financial year. So far, 174 poultry units have been sanctioned since the lockdown and another 100 are to be disbursed next month. For goat rearing, AHVS has received 40 applications so far, which shall be granted after the officers approve them.
“We have received good feedback. Hundreds have expressed interest in cattle farming and poultry. We are compiling the total figures so that we can grant them the schemes by end of March 2021,” Desai said.
Dhave-based Anirudh Joshi has applied for the Kamdhenu scheme for the first time this year and is being granted approximately 90% subsidy. Once he has all the cows through this scheme, he intends to sell the milk obtained from them to Goa Dairy and also use their cow dung as organic manure.
“After training unemployed youth, the veterinary officers from the department gave us guidance on how to go about the scheme. The government must further popularise such schemes to empower villagers,” he said.
Santosh Borkar, who rears buffaloes in Merces with the help of the scheme, said that the process of availing the scheme is easy.
“There is no problem with approaching the department and getting the subsidy, however, the scheme must also include free access to a veterinary doctor to make things easier for us,” he said.
For Batim-based farmer Hemant Edathadan, availing of the scheme has helped ease his financial burden of purchasing animals instead of spending from his own pocket.
The AHVS officers have been carrying out training for piggery for small batches of 20 people each to ensure social distancing. After the last batch, training of cattle farmers will be taken up. So far, 900 people have shown interest in cattle management. The training will be carried out from October.
“People who have their own land can also carry out integrated agriculture and animal farming.” Desai said.
However, these schemes have their negatives too, for some of them have not proved to be much of a blessing for the farmers who have been availing of these schemes for the past few years. Animal farmer Sameer Hoble said that he has discontinued the Kamdhenu scheme after a few years of availing it.
“The price of buying bovines is far more expensive in Goa despite the scheme. It costs about Rs 70-80,000 per bovine to purchase them locally. The same quality of bovine can be purchased from Karnataka or Maharashtra for Rs 50-60,000. I therefore prefer purchasing my own cattle from neighbouring states,” he said.