Protocolo de activación de placa bipartitta – Técnica indirecta

Mahesh Chander13

Key words: Sikkim, organic state, sustainability, livestock

Abstract

There is significant interest in promoting organic agriculture in rainfed, drylands and mountainous areas in developing countries like India. Considering the natural benefits in switching to organic farming in these areas, the government find it justified to declare such regions as organic zones or fully organic states. The state of Sikkim in North-eastern part of India is one such state declared as fully organic state. The political decisions and policies need preparedness for implementing such decisions to prove the move justified. Moreover, the sustainability requires efforts across different dimensions of the practices. The stakeholders are expected to make required changes especially by making it more science based. This paper describes the preparedness of the department of Animal Husbandry especially efforts put in by scientists and officials in drawing a roadmap for organic animal husbandry development in Sikkim.

Introduction

On 18th January, 2016, the Prime Minister of India announced Sikkim2 as India’s first fully organic agriculture state. It was a huge announcement having wide ranging implications for the agricultural sector of the state. Sikkim has been gearing itself for switching to organic agriculture since 2010 when Sikkim Organic Mission3 (SOM) was officially launched on 15th August 2010 to organize activities more systematically under a formal structure. Even much before this, in 2003,the historic declaration was made in Sikkim State Legislative Assembly, wherein, resolution was passed for policy interventions towards realizing the vision of transforming Sikkim into a ‘Total Organic State’. These intent of state to convert to organic status led to series of activities and initiatives by various departments of government to iniatiate pro organic activities in the state. The state department of agriculture & rural development department were particularly more active to bring about necessary changes in the system. The state department of animal husbandry too took initiative to follow up the activities compliant to organic animal husbandry. This paper describes the initiatives undertaken towards developing a roadmap of Organic animal Husbandry development in Sikkim state.

Material and methods

For streamlining organic animal husbandry developmental activities in the state, the Department of AH, LF & VS organized the first Organic animal husbandry workshop for the Veterinary Officers of the state on 27 & 28th September 2014, which initiated some thinking on the lines of Organic Animal Husbandry. To take forward organic animal husbandry development activities in the state a little further, a daylong workshop was convened on 31st October, 2015 by the SOM.

This workshop was conducted under the expert guidance of the author, wherein, 42 veterinarians took part in the deliberations.

13

Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Extension Education, ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar- 243 122 (UP) India. www.ivri.nic.in, Email: [email protected]

2_{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim} 3

Rahmann et al._{(2017) Proceedings of the Scientific Track}

“Innovative Research for Organic Agriculture 3.0”,

Organic World Congress 2017 in New Delhi, India, November 9-11, 2017

The development officials of the state including veterinarians from the state animal husbandry and dairy development and rural development departments have been attending various training programmes, exposure visits outside the state, workshops, orientation programmes, certification procedures etc over last 3-4 years while marching towards becoming truly an organic state in India.

Results

The key objective of this workshop was to develop a Road Map for organic animal husbandry development in the state of Sikkim. The workshop and series of discussions with the stakeholders in livestock sector of Sikkim state resulted in a document, Organic animal husbandry development in Sikkim: The roadmap _{(Chander & Sharma, 2015). The document so developed, thus, showed the}

way forward for organic animal husbandry developmental activities in the state. Further to this, three senior level veterinary officers of Livestock & Dairy Development Departments attended a Model Training Course on Organic Animal Husbandry at ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar during 16-23 November, 2015 coordinated by the author. Later on, two scientists from ICAR- National Organic Farming Research Institute based in Sikkim underwent a short course on Organic animal Husbandry coordinated by the author at ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute to enhance their capacities in this emerging area. The SOM, the Department of AH, LF & VS and the newly established National Organic Farming Research Institute are working towards making organic animal husbandry alongside crops a sustainable practice in Sikkim leading to an increasing number of visitors to the state to learn and promote organic farming. In India’s North Eastern region in particular, Sikkim is being seen as a role model state to be followed upon in other states in the region in matters of organic agriculture.

Discussion

This document is a humble effort towards development of organic animal husbandry in state of Sikkim, which has taken an ambitious, path breaking and a bold & pioneering decision to be the first fully organic state in India in all respect. This is appreciable but challenging decision at the same time, since many nuts and bolts would have to be fixed to give a practical shape to it to be acceptable under organic production systems. The farming practices including animal husbandry practiced in Sikkim being very close to practices recommended under organic production systems; the State is naturally blessed for organic farming. Yet, we need creative interventions in the areas of animal breeding, feeding, housing, management, disease control, value addition, product marketing etc. to make it truly organic state. It is a challenging task considering the feed and fodder scarcity, nagging diseases especially coccidiosis in poultry, uncontrolled movement of livestock along borders of the state. This document has recommended several needed interventions for guiding the stakeholders at different levels towards orienting & developing organic animal husbandry in Sikkim as the sustainable practice.

References

Chander, Mahesh and Ghana Shyam Sharma. 2015. Organic Animal Husbandry Development: The Roadmap. Sikkim Organic Mission, Government of Sikkim, Department of AH, LF & VS, Tadong,

Scientific Track “Innovative Research for Organic Agriculture 3.0” 19th Organic World Congress, New Delhi, India, November 9-11, 2017 Organized by ISOFAR, NCOF and TIPI

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