President Murmu bats for more power to women dairy farmers
Says need to provide more opportunities in education, training & skill development to make women entrepreneurs in dairy farming
KARNAL: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday hailed women dairy farmers of the country for their contribution in making the country self-reliant in milk production and stressed the need to give them more opportunities.
“Women power is playing an important role in the management of the dairy industry in the country. More than 70% participation in the dairy sector is by women. But we need to ensure that they have equal rights and opportunities to make decisions and provide leadership. For this, there is a need to provide them with more opportunities in education, training and skill development, easy loan and market access to make women entrepreneurs in dairy farming,” she said while addressing the convocation function of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Dairy Research Institute (ICAR-NDRI) here.
“The dairy sector has a special role in making women self-reliant as well as in changing their social and economic status,” she added. At the function, 544 students received their degrees.
“The dairy sector is facing challenges like the availability of good quality fodder, change in weather due to climate change and livestock diseases. Making milk production and dairy farming sustainable is a challenge before us.
“It is the responsibility of all of us to develop the dairy industry by adopting environmentfriendly and climate-smart technologies, keeping animal welfare in mind,” she said. “The farmers of Punjab and Haryana played a special role in the success of the green revolution as well as the white revolution. I salute all the farmers,” she said.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the state government will provide loans to unemployed youth who are interested in running the dairy industry. This step will certainly prove to be resourceful in ensuring their contribution in milk supply to the country apart from giving them self-employment opportunities.
“Today Haryana is at the second position in per capita milk availability in the country, but I am hopeful that due to the hard work of the farmers, the state will soon overtake Punjab,” Khattar said. He urged the vicechancellor of the NDRI to organise a get-together of the alumni so that the students can take inspiration from them.
Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatraya, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union minister Parshottam Rupala also attended the function.
‘Golden girls’ of NDRI
The President and the governor praised girl students who contributed 50 % in the total number of pass-outs who were awarded degrees on Monday. Also out of the six gold medallist students, three were girls.
“It is a matter of great pride that more than one-third of the students who received their degrees are girls and 50 % of those who received gold medals are also girls,” the President said.
In his address, the governor also hailed the three girl gold medallists, Supriya Chhotray, Sweety Mukherjee and Kanika Bhakuni for their achievements.