A high-level national workshop aimed at transforming India’s animal husbandry sector took place on July 9 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Organized by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the event drew participation from stakeholders across the country, including representatives from state and union territory governments, the National Dairy Development Board, and milk cooperatives. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were represented by the Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services.
The workshop, titled “Modernising India’s Animal Husbandry Sector for Quality Production,” was centered on creating a collaborative roadmap to align livestock practices in India with international quality standards. In her keynote address, Secretary of the Department, Alka Upadhyaya, noted that the sector contributes 30.7% to the country’s Gross Agricultural Value Addition (GVA), highlighting its strategic and economic importance.
The gathering emphasized the need for innovation in livestock rearing, disease management, genetic improvement, and feed optimization. Government officials, researchers, and cooperative leaders shared region-specific strategies and discussed bottlenecks faced in different parts of the country. The workshop was segmented into four regional sessions, North, South, East, West, and North-East, to enable focused discussions tailored to diverse agro-climatic and socio-economic conditions.
Each regional session encouraged knowledge-sharing on core issues such as increasing productivity, improving veterinary services, establishing cold-chain logistics, and promoting eco-friendly practices. The sessions also addressed policy gaps and the need for robust data systems to support decision-making at local levels.
The concluding session of the workshop presented feedback and key takeaways from the various regions. Officials agreed that a multi-tiered approach involving central and state coordination was crucial to enhancing India’s livestock ecosystem. Focus was also placed on sustainable models of development, particularly in ecologically sensitive regions like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where livestock management has to balance productivity with conservation.
For the Andaman delegation, the workshop provided an opportunity to engage with national policymakers and explore technologies that can be adapted to the island context. Issues such as limited land availability, transportation bottlenecks, and veterinary outreach in remote villages were discussed in parallel sessions. The officials emphasized the need for capacity-building programs, mobile veterinary units, and feed security in island territories.
The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is expected to consolidate the insights from the workshop into an actionable national framework. This framework will likely influence budget allocations, technological deployments, and new policy interventions in the sector over the next few years.
The workshop is part of a broader move by the central government to future-proof the animal husbandry sector against climate risks, market disruptions, and health crises like zoonotic outbreaks. By integrating state-specific concerns into a national dialogue, the initiative marks a step forward in ensuring that rural economies dependent on livestock are more resilient, inclusive, and economically viable.
As follow-up, states and UTs, including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, are expected to submit detailed proposals on how they plan to implement region-specific recommendations from the workshop. The central government has committed to extending technical and financial support to speed up implementation.
For the Islands, the workshop sets the tone for future collaboration and modernization in a sector that is vital to local livelihoods, especially in areas where agriculture is limited. The move signals a shift from traditional practices toward a more integrated, tech-driven and climate-resilient animal husbandry sector.
