Ethno-Veterinary Medicine Research and Training centre

Thanjavur: The State Government has sanctioned Rs.18 lakh for establishing an Ethno-Veterinary Medicine Research and Training centre for livestock at Thanjavur, said N. Balaraman, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, here on Friday.

The centre will have a research laboratory to test contents of medicinal herbs to be grown in-campus and produce them into tablets and medicines and supply to farmers. Already a fisheries training and research centre of the university is functioning at Soorakottai near here. It had been giving training to farmers in inland fishing and was providing seeds to farmers.Livestock could play a major role in supplementing the income of the farmers and providing an alternate livelihood. Water shortage has become a major crisis in Tamil Nadu, affecting cultivation of crops. Search for alternate water vocation was going on even in agrarian centres such as Thanjavur.

Livestock and fisheries could provide a standard income throughout the year to farmers. Crop sector alone could not fulfil food requirements of the human population in India, whereas the staple food in foreign countries was meat.Livestock and crops depend on each other. For poultry, maize and soya beans could be cultivated as feed.In Tamil Nadu, there are nine million cattle, two million buffaloes, six million sheep and seven million goats, 86 million poultry. It was not the number of animals that matter, but quality yield from them. Hence fertility rate of these animals were kept up.

The veterinary university was supplying mineral mixture at Rs. 35 a packet, to keep up fertility rate .Dr. Balaraman also said that the university entered into Memorandum of Understanding with two U.S. universities for taking up joint research and exchange of visits. The two Universities were Michigan University and Virginia tech University. Purdue University in the U.S. has also evinced interest in taking up joint research in wildlife, he added.