GUWAHATI, July 24 ? A serious situation awaits the State?s farm sector. For, almost 50 per cent of the State?s 87-lakh livestock population is affected by the current wave of the floods.
According to an estimate made by the State Veterinary Department, the floods have affected 42.82 lakh of the livestock so far this year. Of these, 28 lakh are poultry. About 4,000 cattle and 5, 525 poultry have been washed away so far by the floodwaters. The Veterinary Department has 418 of its institutions, including the staff quarters, affected by the floodwaters, not to speak of the fate of the instruments, which were installed in these institutions.
The loss faced by the Department is worth around Rs 83.6 crore, while the loss incurred by the farmers is around Rs 40 to Rs 50 lakh. Reports of more loss are pouring in and it is evident that a sizeable number of the State?s farmers have lost their draught power totally or partially.
This will have a tremendous negative impact on the State?s agrarian economy in the coming days if immediate help from the Governments at the Centre and in the State cannot be extended to these farmers and the construction and equipping of the Veterinary institutions with the required instruments are delayed, said Director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Dr P Das. To bail out the State?s farm sector from the impending mire, the Veterinary Department needs on an urgent basis, supply of cattle feed, veterinary medicines, provision of clod chain, and two lakh compact hay blocks, among others, for the next three months, worth around Rs 99 crore, from the
Central Government, Dr Das said.
The State is also facing a scarcity of green fodders and feed. Till date, 8,000 quintals of green fodder and 12,201 quintals of wheat bran have been distributed in the affected areas but considering the magnitude of the problem, the above amounts of the fodder and the feed are meagre. The State is eagerly awaiting the 150 metric tonne of cattle feed promised by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) even as the requirement is much more as per the national Calamity Relief Fund (NCRF) norms, Das said. The State needs at present supply of 12,000 metric tonnes of cattle feed per month, at least for the next three months, to continue with its rescue and relief operations of the affected livestock. Besides, the State also needs urgently adequate supply of medicines to combat the foot and mouth disease (FMD) of the cattle in the aftermath of the floods. It will be a very generous gesture on the part of the Central Government if it supplies the two-lakh doses of FMD vaccines from the Indian Immunologicals under the Central assistance of NCRF, as promised by the Union Water Resource Minister recently, Das said.
The State also needs other emergency veterinary medicines to treat its affected livestock. Already, a list of the medicines worth around Rs 1.67 crore has been furnished to the Union Minister during his recent visit to the State.
Dr Das also described the latest directive of the State Government to procure the veterinary relief items at district levels as a rational step. The productive capacity of about 12, 62,097 domesticated big animals is affected by the floods every year on an average. The floods also affect around 15,218 small animals annually. The loss the State faces annually from all these in terms of money is around Rs 536 crore. However, the real worth of these animals in terms of farm activities is much more than what has been stated above. According to a conservative estimate, the State loses over 250 of the livestock annually due to the floods and this amounts to around Rs 3 crore of loss in terms of money. Besides, the Veterinary Department faces a loss of around Rs 204 crore every year due to the floods, as over 100 of its institutions are lost/ damaged during the floods.