Animal hostels for cattle rearing in Guj

In a bid to equip villages with clean cooking fuel, hygienic environment and healthier animals, the Gujarat government is building animal hostels to rear cattle on a community basis.

“The animal husbandry and dairy industry contributes Rs 14,733 crore, which is 4.8 per cent of the total domestic production in Gujarat. Due to the government's animal health services and breeding facilities, production through animal husbandry has increased over the years,” state agriculture and fisheries minister Dilip Sanghani said.

Animals play an important role in the rural economy and the government has started building community-based facilities in villages where animals can be kept, and its excreta used to generate bio-fuel, he said.

“The state government has undertaken construction of what we call animal hostels, a community-based facility, where nearly 1,000 milch animals from a village could be kept,” the minister said.

This will ensure that the villages and individual homes remain clean as the cattle would be kept at a central location for the entire village. The excreta would then be collected and used for generating bio-gas, Sanghani said.

“As the excreta would be used for bio-gas plant, less of methane gas would be released in atmosphere, making the environment clean and green. Further, the slurry from the bio-gas plant could be used in vermi-compost pits to generate good quality organic manure for the fields,” he said.