Centre of Excellence for Animal Husbandry, Hessarghatta, Bengaluru – CEAH Academy organized special training programme“Financing of Animal Husbandry Production & Processing Activities” for NABARD officers representing across India from 26th to 28th December, 2023. The officers were deputed through NABARD – National Banking Staff College (NBSC), Lucknow. Dr. Sudharsan, DGM, NABARD-NBSC Lucknow and Dr. Esakkimuthu, DGM, NBSC Lucknow coordinated in deputing 26 officers from Asst. Manager, Manager and upto AGM grades.
The inaugural function of the programme was graced by Mrs. Brindha, General Manager, NABARD Karnataka Range, Prof. K.C. Veeranna, Vice Chancellor, KVAFSU, Karnataka and Dr. Vasappa, DGM and Head, Union Bank Knowledge Centre, Bengaluru. They all appreciated the joint venture of NABARD and CEAH in exploring entrepreneurship opportunities in Animal Husbandry Sector with various business models in Dairy, Poultry, Sheep & Goat, Piggery etc.
The three day sessions involved a packed schedule from morning 9.30 am to 7.00 pm comprising technical sessions, sandwiched with visits followed by experiential sharing in various sectors. Their accommodation was organized at “Our Native Village Resort” Hessarghatta.
On day one, 26th December, 2023, Dr. Mahesh P.S., Joint Commissioner & Director, CEAH briefed about overall status of Indian Animal Husbandry Sector contributing about 15 lakh crores to the national GDP. Dairy Sector contributes 10 lakh crores with about 10 crore people being employed, Poultry contributes about 2 lakh crores followed by Small Ruminants and other sectors contributing 3 lakh crores. He further narrated various entrepreneurship opportunities in Animal Husbandry Sector.
Both faculty of NBSC, Dr. Sudharsan, DGM, NABARD-NBSC Lucknow and Dr. Esakkimuthu, DGM, NBSC Lucknow presented topics from Techno-economic aspects of Animal Husbandry Projects and financing of Animal Husbandry Activities – Role of NABARD.
Prof. Vivek M. Patil, Associate Professor, KVAFSU gave a business prospective of various models in Animal Husbandry sector. Dr. Narahari, Project Consultant explained in detail about opportunities in poultry processing sector with ideal project financials for 1000 birds per hour processing plant. This was followed by visit to Milk Cooperative Society hessarghatta, coordinated by Dr. H. Teggi and Dr. Balraj. During this visit the NABARD officers were exposed to operations of milk collection, bulk milk cooler and other supply chain management of Dairy Cooperatives in Karnataka.
On day two, 27th December, 2023, the NABARD officers were taken a field visit at 7.00 am to Desi cow unit established by a Chartered Accountant with 550 Desi Cows in one acre area at Kakolu near Hessarghatta. NABARD officers appreciated the great skill and enthusiasm of the entrepreneur for converting it into a very good business model in desi dairy sector.
The technical sessions started at 9.30 am with every session being punctually restricted for 30 to 40 minutes. The first session was from Mr. Ashok Kumar, MD, MAA integrators sharing of experience of his venture into various sectors of Agriculture and allied agriculture fields. He narrated his journey of borrowing and successfully repaying upto 150 crores financial assistance from banks. Presently he is actively involved in poultry entrepreneurship.
This session was followed by Dr. Mahesh Kumar, Professor & Head, Dairy Engineering, KVAFSU. He is a very illustrated entrepreneur by himself being an academician, made his department self-sustaining and earning 2 crore revenue per year. He narrated various “Atmanirbhar”, “Made in India” models of Dairy Engineering for milk processing involving Ghee making, Khova making, Greek Yoghurt etc. Further he also briefed about largescale industrial dairy processing ventures up to 300 crores across India.
The third session was presented by Dr. Dinesh Bhosale, Dairy Expert from Pune and he emphasized the significance of clean milk production in India and briefed the revolutionary success of cooperative system in Indian Dairy sector with the help of Dairy Man of India, Mr. Kurien. Mr. Muralikrishna, Joint Director, presented on Silicon City Piggery FPO with nearly 300 FPO members doing both production and trading of piglets and adult pigs across the country especially Northeastern states.
The next session was on raw material dynamics in livestock feed by Mr. Jason John, Team Lead, United States Soya Export Council, USSEC India, in his presentation he narrated the global dynamics and Indian Supply and demand dynamics of Soya and Maize in India. He cautioned that growing animal husbandry required equally matching sectoral growth in soya and maize both in productivity and scale.
Mr. Veerakempanna, successful sheep entrepreneur presented his experience in sharing of his illustrious journey for the past 45 years in sheep farming. Mr. Veerakempanna is nicknamed as “Encyclopedia in Sheep Farming” explained in detail how to make sheep farming a sustainable venture with 6 months of complementing revenue from agriculture entrepreneurship together synergizing with sheep farming.
Dr. LipiSairiwal, Deputy Commissioner, DAHD, New Delhi presented on Government Sponsored Schemes in Animal Husbandry Production namely AHIDF and NLM followed with success stories in each categories, wherein lots of beneficiaries are benefited by 3 percent interest subvention under AHIDF and up to 25 to 50 lakhs subsidy under NLM. Dr. Tapan Kumar Sahu, Deputy Commissioner, CEAH-AQCS presented on the scenario of export/import of animal products from India. He narrated the present system of quarantine stations at New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in regulating import and export of livestock products as per the act of Govt. of India.
NABARD officers were taken for visit of all campuses of CEAH, Campus-1 (Poultry Units), Campus-2 (CFSPTI and CCBF), Campus-3 (AQCS) and Campus – 4(RFS) during the two days of training.
On the concluding day, ie., 28th December, 2023, the first session was by Mr. Anil Kumar, COO and Mr. Madhu, Marketing head of Stellapps (Dairy Digital organization funded by Melinda Gates Foundation). They presented their revolutionary digitization of entire value chain of Dairy around the ecosystem of farmer, Cow, Milk Society, Retailing, Financials, branding, inputs etc. They are developing large scale predictive models by use of AI and ML in Dairy sector for better efficiency and profitability.
Mr. Harish Garware, CMD, Gartech, Pune presented a detailed overview of modernization and digitization of poultry sector not only in feeding and watering but emphasis is given for building structure with the new concepts like radiant energy usage with net zero energy consumption in poultry sheds. Mr. Santosh, entrepreneur from Bengaluru shared his experience of his venture of Honey bee farming and Sheep farming.
The next sessions by Dr. Gopakumar, MD, DLG India who presented on the sunrise sector “The Piggery Enterprise in India” with as high as 10 crore to 20 crore business opportunities per venture. This was followed by Mr. Naveen, MD, Nandu’sand Mr. Rajesh, MD, SR Daily Nutrition presented on Startup ecosystem in poultry sector for retailing and branding.
The afternoon session began with a brief presentation by Dr. R.M. Kummur, former CGM, NABARD about great success stories of Microfinance in India in general and Microfinance in Animal Husbandry in particular. This was followed by a session on Vaccines and Diagnostics by Dr. Azad Meer from Hyderabad and Dr. Samuel, MD, Bhadra Agencies presented on Business opportunities in Animal Husbandry Medicines, Vaccines and Diagnostics. The last session on Animal Husbandry database was presented by Dr. H. Teggi, Joint commissioner, CEAH.
The valedictory function concluded at 5.30 pm on 28th December, 2023. Dr. Abdul Rahman, Executive Director of Common Wealth Veterinary Association (former President CWVA) the global body. Dr. H. Raghuraja, Director General, National Academy of RSETIS, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India alongwith their National Director, Sri. Murugesan and National Controller of RSETIS, Mr. Singh represented in the valedictory. Mr. Jeyachandran, Regional Head, (South India), UNDP also graced the occasion. The VIP dignitaries distributed certificates to NABARD officers. NABARD officers expressed greater satisfaction and appreciated the efforts of CEAH team in making the programme a great success.
The VIP dignitaries from CWVA, RSETI and UNDP praised CEAH as an Institution in bringing such a fantastic programme with full package of modules around financing of Animal Husbandry business models. The event concluded with vote thanks by Dr. Esakkimuthu, DGM, NBSC, Lucknow and promised to engage long term with CEAH with various programmes in the future.
