The UP government is looking at diversification for farmers and will therefore pitch in for extra budgetary allocation in the next fiscal for poultry and dairy sectors so that farmers do not have to rely solely on farm earning.
“The government is realizing that there is massive scope of expansion in dairy and poultry sectors. The villagers are willing to go for these sectors but do not have the know how and as a start up also lack finances,” Agriculture Production Commissioner, Praveer Kumar said in lucknow on Monday.
Kumar visited Barabanki on Sunday and had the first hand feel about innovations in farming. “A big poultry farm is coming up in Jaitpur in the district. New machines have been put up there that would clean eggs and also keep the area hygienic. We need such poultry farms across the state. Such poultries are imperative for meeting the demand of eggs in the state,” the APC said.
Uttar Pradesh is not a prominently egg-eater state but it excels in poultry meat export. The per annum consumption of egg in UP is 32 egg against the national average of 144. The state’s share in poultry meat export has however jumped up from 4.46 per cent in 1981 to 12.1 per cent in 2014. The striking feature of poultry is that it is more concentrated in eastern UP than in the western part.
“The demand of egg has increased in the state so much so that it has import a considerable quantity from Hyderabad to meets its demand. More poultry will mean that we will be able to meet this growing demand,” he said.
The APC said that another sector that has caught the CM’s attention is the dairy sector. The state government has launched the ‘Kamdhenu’ scheme and has given many sops to farmers adopting the project. “In Barabanki Jagdish Prasad Gupta has made a fortune by adopting the government’s ‘Kamdhenu’ scheme and we want all the farmers to adopt the project,” said Kumar.