State not ready for holding livestock census from Oct 1

We have received around ₹30 lakh under the National Mission for Bovine Productivity, but the amount is not sufficient to purchase the number of tablets required. DR DESHDEEPAK, deputy director, Punjab animal husbandry dept

JALANDHAR:WITH the Union ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare issuing an advisory to all states to conduct the 20th livestock census from October 1, Punjab is not ready for it. The process has already been delayed by over a year with the last census being held in 2012.

Punjab is ill-prepared for the census, which for the first time is to be conducted digitally, using tablet computers for data collection of animals, according to their breed and other characteristics.

The state needs 1,500 tablets with each costing ₹6,000, entailing a budget of ₹90 lakh.

“We have received around ₹30 lakh under the National Mission for Bovine Productivity, but the amount is not sufficient to purchase the number of tablets required. Once we receive a grant from the Centre, we will float tenders for the purchase of tablets,” said Dr Deshdeepak, deputy director at Punjab animal husbandry department.

He is also the state’s nodal officer for the census.

In its advisory issued on September 20, Tarun Shridhar, secretary, department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries had asked all the states to launch the field operations of 20th Livestock Census on October 1, 2018 across the country.

“The census will be a threemonth extensive field survey, where enumerators will visit each household to record the number of animals according to their breeds and other characteristics,” the advisory had added.

Officials in the state’s animal husbandry department said even if the department received the pending grant for the purchase of tablets by this week, it would take a minimum of one month to buy these.

SOFTWARE ALSO NOT UPDATED

The ‘Livestock Census’, a mobile application that the National Informatics Centre has developed to help the process is also not updated with data of many areas and villages not uploaded on it.

Thus, there is also a gap in information.

“We are matching data on the application with the manual data. The missing areas will be sent for the uploading. After this is done, we will divide areas among staff,” an official said.

Dr Deshdeepak added, “There were some issues in the software which will be sorted out. Officials have undergone training on how to conduct the census digitally.”

State animal husbandry minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said, “There has been a delay in conducting the census. We will conduct it as soon as possible.”

The last census had put the total livestock population at 512 million (51.2 crore) and the poultry population at 729 million (72.9 crore).