Kohima: Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh visited the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) -National Research Centre on Mithun at Medziphema under Dimapur district yesterday.
According to a statement issued by ICAR, speaking at the inaugural programme of the function, Union Minister Singh, who was in his maiden visit to Nagaland, described the Mithun, a semi-wild bovine, as a social animal which may play a pivotal role in the economic development of Mithun rearing states and also to generate employment to educated unemployed youth. He emphasized on semi-intensive rearing of Mithun which will not only provide meat but also will be a good source of milk and dung, it said.
Singh also interacted with the KVK officials and demonstrated how to prepare vermin-compost using soil, decomposed material of banana leaves, dried Mithun dung and earthworm. Singh also proposed an innovative model of rearing coloured poultry birds like Vanaraja and Gramapriya, which feed on the earthworm produced in the decomposed materials, which are locally available.
This integrated system comprising of Mithun-poultry bird and vermin-compost model, he said, not only will provide a good source of protein feed to the poultry but also will help in the domestication of Mithun and improving livelihood security to the farmers, it added.
By using this model, at least one thousand poultry birds can be reared on the dung of only one Mithun, Singh claimed. (UNI)
