An MoU was signed between the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on 22nd September, 2021, to collaborate in furtherance of their mutual objectives of sustainably improving the livestock sector to support India’s food security and economic development agendas. As per MOU, the collaboration with Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation would provide technical assistance for the design and delivery of new technologies and implementation of best practices that are relevant in the local context. This engagement would support India’s overall One Health framework and provide technical support for establishing the platform.Further, the MOU would jointly support programmes to improve sector productivity in support of small-scale producers:-
(a) to improve livestock health, production, and animal nutrition
- to identify scientific and technological solutions for major infectious diseases including, but not limited to vaccines and diagnostics for animal health;
- to strengthen translation capacity in India and as appropriate to collaborate to apply this capacity
- to identify projects that will create scientific and technological advances related to livestock, food and nutrition through improvements in livestock sector
- to identify opportunities for scientific and technological collaboration to benefit small-scale producers in India and other developing countries in the region
- to strengthen the One Health framework along key aspects (disease monitoring, R&D, and digital infrastructure to promote integration and growth in the sector)
- to strengthen technical capabilities around traceability of livestock and livestock products, value addition of livestock products, marketing solutions (like e-platforms), and disease reporting
The MOU inter-alia states that the Scope of technical cooperation may be amended (added/deleted/modified) from time to time during the tenure of the MOU to accommodate for cooperation in new and emerging areas.
To promote the dairy industry across the country including the State of Gujarat, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has been supplementing the efforts of States by implementing the following dairy development schemes:-
- National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD)
(2) Dairy processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF)
- Supporting Dairy Cooperatives and Farmer Producer Organizations engaged in dairy activities (SDCFPO)
This information was given by The Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Shri. Parshottam Rupala in the Lok Sabha in a written reply today.