Pashu Palan Mela of GADVASU on the theme Pashu Palan Dhanda Apnao, Punjab Nu Khushal Banao attracted a large number of dedicated livestock farmers. The mela concludes with a note to meet again after six months with new researches and latest informations. The mela was inaugurated yesterday by Dr S S Johal, Former Vice-Chairman, Punjab State Planning Board, Dr Taneja VC, GADVASU presided over that function. Mela attracted a huge gathering with a thought to develop livestock professions. People were interested to adopt fish farming as profession. The college of fisheries displayed different varieties of fish like corp fish, cat fish and prons fish and ornamental fishes. Many farmers told that fish farming is more beneficial than agriculture as it gives 2-3 times return in comparison to agriculture and its marketing is also easy. The products of university’s Livestock Product Technology department sold briskly within one hour of mela inauguration. People were interested to get the training to set up their own units and for household usage also. Dr O S Parmar, Director of Extension Education, GADVASU revealed that University is going to start a pilot milk processing plant at College of Dairy Science & Technology in a couple of month, it will increase the production many folds with better technology and more number of items ,renovation of meat processing laboratories is on and we will be able to start short term training courses in a very short future for better profitability in milk and meat processing units he added .Long queues of livestock farmers were seen to purchase mineral mixture and uromin lick prepared by the Animal Nutrition Department of university. These products are very beneficial for animals’ health and were available on a nominal price and were in great demand. University’s Public Health Department cautioned the pet and livestock owners about the zoontic diseases. Experts conveyed that, this department is very helpful for these types of diseases. They are collecting the data about ill effects on human health due to residue effects of pesticides. The Veterinary Clinics of GADVASU is doing a lot in livestock health. The experts told the farmers that they can get a number of services like ultra modern diagnostic laboratory, surgical, clinical and medicinal facilities etc. The livestock farmers showed their great interest in quality animal semen because it improves the productivity of animals. They were also interested to get the high yielding animals to improve the quality of their herds. University experts gave them all the technical informations about high yielding stocks of cattle, buffalo, poultry, sheep, goat, pig, rabbit and fish. The farmers got the first hand information from experts for nitrate poisoning, treatment of wheat straw with urea and method to produce uromin lick. A number of farmers said that Pashu Palan Mela is a good platform to meet the experts of different animal husbandry departments of state ,scientists of university ,technical experts of different companies and financial institutions collectively. University publications entitled Dairy Farming, Package of Practices and monthly magazine, Vigyanak Pashu Palan also attracted a great response. The special issues of Vigyanak Pashu Palan on Dairy,Poultry,Fisheries & Dogs were highly demanded by farmers. Pharmaceutical companies, different animal husbandry departments of Punjab, machinery firms and farmers’ associations showed their enthusiastic presence. The Pashu Palan Mela concluded with the a new hope to diversify the agriculture with livestock enterprises to boost the economy of rural masses and save the depleting water condition of the state.
