Govt wants entrepreneurs to explore ideas on converting agri-wastages into animal feed

Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala on Thursday expressed concern over the rise in the cost of animal feed and said there is a need to think about the food security of animals as well.

He said there is a need to prepare some programme to ensure food security for animals.

The minister was addressing a conference on the Rs 15,000 crore Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) here.

The fund seeks to incentivise investments by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME, Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs), and section 8 companies to establish dairy and meat processing capacities, animal feed plants, and breed improvement, among other objectives.

Rupala said the government is making efforts to double farmers' income and noted that this sector can contribute immensely to meet this objective.

He said the ministry is aggressively working to provide Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to animal husbandry farmers.

He said the cost of animal feed has risen, as it was pointed out by the Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying Sanjeev Kumar Balyan.

"Like we have prepared programmes on food security for humans, we will have to think about food security of animals," Rupala said, while emphasising on the need to think about big programmes.

The minister highlighted that the FCI godowns are full with foodgrains and asserted that there is a need to prepare a programme to maintain the same level of food security for animals.

He asked entrepreneurs to explore possibilities of converting agri-wastages including crop residues, into animal feed.

Rupala said the government has given a lot of attention to this sector in the last eight years, including the setting up of this ministry, to promote developmental activities in animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries.

Earlier, Balyan expressed concern that the cost of animal feeds has risen but said the prices of milk and poultry products cannot be increased too much as this will hurt consumers' interest.

He stressed on the need to reduce the prices of animal feed and also suggested some alternative products that are cheap and healthier.

Rupala also launched the credit guarantee portal for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF).

During the launch, Nabard chairman G R Chintala highlighted the uniqueness of the scheme with its features for credit guarantee.

One of the key elements of the AHIDF scheme is the Credit Guarantee Scheme (Rs 750 crore) for Animal Husbandry and Dairying, which is being managed by NABSanrakshan Trustee Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NABARD.

The Credit Guarantee Portal has been designed as a rule-based B2B portal and shall implement the enrollment of eligible lending institutions under the Credit Guarantee Scheme, issuance/renewal of Credit Guarantee Cover and Settlement of Claims.

Notably, the Credit Guarantee Scheme for AHD is the first-ever scheme in the agriculture sector to provide a guarantee to the investors to boost the rural economy.

It is expected that the credit guarantee will encourage entrepreneurs to set up new enterprises and expand capacity by enhancing investments in areas of dairy processing, meat processing and animal feed manufacturing.