The decision of the State Government to establish a new veterinary and fishery university in Assam and the recent passing of the Assam Veterinary and Fishery University Bill, 2024 in the State Assembly has brought in high hopes and aspirations among the farmers, entrepreneurs, veterinary and fishery professionals, other stakeholders and the general public, as a whole, for future development of the animal husbandry and fishery sectors in the state in the right perspective. Establishment of the new university is going to fulfil a longstanding aspiration of all stakeholders directly or indirectly related to these sectors.
With the mandated activities as stipulated in the bill and with the liberated opportunity of planning and execution of its futuristic programmes, the new university will be able to take care of human resource development, and state-friendly technology generation & transfer to provide the required technology backup to the state more efficiently than before. The university will bring all the stakeholders under one umbrella bringing in a better coordination among them helping the state government in planning, policy making and proper implementation of people-oriented, innovative programmes for all-round growth and development of the concerned sectors providing space for entrepreneurship development and consequently, the overall economic development of the state. A shortfall in production in the animal husbandry and fishery sectors in the state compared to the high domestic demand has been plaguing the state so far. However, these sectors have tremendous potential for providing livelihood security to the rural poor, opportunities for large-scale employment generation, entrepreneurship development and industrialization as well as export opportunities to bring in an economic renaissance in Assam.
In the academic front, the state of Assam being connected not only to the other north-eastern states but also to five neighboring countries through its international borders, has a tremendous scope of developing it into an academic hub of the region making itself a favourite destination for the students from across the region aspiring for higher education in relevant areas of veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, fisheries science & aquaculture, dairy science, animal biotechnology etc. With the strengthening of necessary infrastructure and manpower resources as per the need and the growing demand of the rapidly advancing and emerging areas of knowledge in the related sectors under the independent university, it will thrive to fulfil the expectations of the aspiring students and researchers.
Assam is bestowed with high biodiversity in its animal resources with several indigenous species of livestock & domestic birds, i.e., chicken, duck, geese etc. As per the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2023, the state produces 1006.42 thousand tons of milk, 58.24 thousand tons of meat and 5590.00 lakh eggs annually. The per capita availability of milk is 78 gram/day (compared to all India average of 459.00 gram/day), meat 1.65 kg/annum (compared to all India 7.10 kg/annum) and egg 16 nos./year (compared to all India average of 101 nos./ year). There is a huge gap between demand and supply of these products. Lack of quality germplasm, seed, feed, and emerging diseases coupled with impact of climate change are some of the hindrances identified which substantially influence the growth in this sector. In respect of the fisheries sector also, although fish production in the state has increased from 2.94 lakh tonnes to 3.73 lakh tonnes between 2015-16 and 2019-20, registering an increase of 26.8%, the sector has not yet been able to meet the demand of the consumers and hence the state has to import fish and fish products from outside the state almost every day.
The new university will certainly provide an opportunity for furtherance of its research and development agenda with an effort to bridge the gap between demand and supply of the products of animal and fishery sectors in the state. It will also strengthen the service sector related to animal husbandry and veterinary as well as fisheries through establishment of efficient linkages with the line departments as well as other stakeholders including NGOs, farmers and entrepreneurs.
