Port Blair, Oct 16: ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair has establsihedBIOTECH KISAN-HUB funded by DBT, Govt of India with the main aim for dissemination of Livestock and Poultry Production Technologies for Enhancing the Farmers Income of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. The objective of the programme is doubling the farmer’s income through addressing the issues in development of rural poultry and goatery of the island farmers. In this regard, a whatapp group ‘’KISAN HUB-SCI-FARMER INTERACTION’’ has been created wherein the farmers are directly contacting the scientists for any field problems and the same are addressed. The hub is involving in training and demonstration of various technological tools at farmers’ field and in these series, 5 days hands on training was conducted from 30.09.2020 to 14.10.2020 on biotechnological tools such as vaccination in rural poultry and application of FAMACHA for detection of anaemic goats and deworming them subsequently. The programme was organized by team of scientists namely Dr.D. Bhattacharya, Dr. Jai Sunder, Dr.T.Sujatha and Dr.Arun Kumar De in villages viz., Wandoor, Hasmatabad and Manpur. During the training, Ranikhet disease vaccination in poultry was demonstrated for the farmer fellow ambassadors of Biotech Kisan Hub. Farmer fellows were trained how to use the FAMACHA card for scoring the anaemic goats. They were also trained how to do tagging for animal identification. Blood samples of goats and poultry were collected for testing the immunity and blood profile. Faecal samples have been taken for testing worm loads. A total of 500 birds were vaccinated and 40 goats were tagged and dewormed. A total of 30 farmers were given practical awareness through this mass vaccination and deworming. They were also given awareness on bio-security measures to be followed in the health management of rural poultry. Farmers told that there is huge scope for poultry farming with vanaraja birds for self-employment of unemployed youth in these islands as tourism is rapidly progressing. However, there is frequent outbreak of diseases in desi birds and vanaraja poultry. Hence this type of awanreness on vaccines in desi and vanaraja poultry and hands on demonstrations will help development of skills in vaccination by farmers themselves.
