Mega Two-Day Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela Kicks Off in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh

Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India and ICAR – Central Institute for Research on Cattle, Meerut have observed the Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela (Animal Exhibition and Agriculture Fair) which was inaugurated by lighting the lamp on 06th April 2023 by chief guest  Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Government of India in the presence of special guest Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India.

Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela's major goal is to promote and demonstrate agricultural, animal husbandry, and fishery practises. The exhibition serves as a platform for participation by many exhibitors from 15 organisations supporting fisheries, among others, and highlights the latest technologies, such as RAS Biofloc, fish food, fish seed, other information on fisheries schemes, and tools and techniques used in fishing, farming, livestock rearing, and animal health management. The exhibition was organized to raise awareness among fishermen, farmers, breeders, and other stakeholders about new and innovative approaches to farming, fisheries, and animal husbandry, as well as to educate the general public about the value of fisheries, agriculture, and animal husbandry to the country's economy and overall development.

The Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela programme began on April 6, 2023, in Numaish Ground in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, and will conclude on April 7, 2023. Farmers from various districts and states, in addition to Muzaffarnagar, have successfully registered and participated in the programme. Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela is a programme that reflects the government's far-reaching policy and strategy, resulting in direct interaction with fishermen, farmers, breeders, and other stakeholders to educate one another about the importance of these critical sectors, while also supporting and informing the latest trends, technologies, and innovations.

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, gave a welcome speech at the start of the event to thank the guests and farmers for making the effort to attend.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways, and Shipping, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, and other dignitaries were welcomed at Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, by department of fisheries, animal husbandry, and dairying officials, farmers, and other stakeholders.

During the fair, animals such as cows, buffaloes, horses, goats, and sheep walked the catwalk and competed in a variety of other competitions. Apart from Uttar Pradesh, animals from other states such as Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Delhi took part in this tournament. More than 150 stalls were put up with agricultural, fishery, and dairy machinery on display. The programme also included agriculture and dairy enterprise development, ICAR, agriculture/veterinary universities, and agriculture science centres. During the exhibition, there was a demonstration of technology produced by start-ups and agro-industry agencies, as well as a demonstration of animals belonging to significant livestock species like as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, and so on. There were also farmer scientific dialogues, technical sessions, and seminars.

The following Dignitaries were present on the occasion  i) Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, ii) Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, iii) Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, iv) Dharampal Singh, Minister of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of Uttar Pradesh, v) Kapil Dev Agarwal, Minister of Vocational Education & Skill Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, vi) Jai Parkash Dalal. Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Fisheries and Law & Legislative, Government of Haryana, vii) MLA’s, Ex MLA’s, viii) Leaders of Kshetra Panchayat, district leaders and other officials.

Parshottam Rupala also stated that this display was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the difficulties that farmers face and the solutions that are being created to meet them. He also addressed the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), which will be used efficiently by fishers and fish growers, as well as other stakeholders.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways, and Shipping, spoke on socioeconomic development, emphasising the process of increasing the economic and social well-being of farmers and their communities, among other things, because their livelihood is inextricably related to the sector.  He discussed how infrastructure development, access to finance, technology adoption, farmer capacity building, and easy and flexible market access for farmers and their communities led to effective socioeconomic development. He stated that improving farmers' livelihoods and economic development of communities required the participation and collaboration of numerous parties, including the government, private sector organizations, civil society groups, and international development agencies.

Kapil Dev Agarwal, Minister of Vocational Education and Skill Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, thanked the dignitaries and participants for their attendance and contributions to the event. ICAR institutes such as CIFRI and NBFGR offered information about the models displayed during the programme and issued pamphlets with more specific information about the technology. Officials from several institutes, such as Vinod Prajapati from Saharanpur, demonstrated Growing Oyester for Pearl Farming, while other participants/institutions organised the stalls.

National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad (A.V. Madhuri, Senior Executive Tech, Nataraj, Monitoring Asst) from Telangana plays a vital role in enhancing sustainable and responsible fish production and productivity by effectively promoting modern technology and utilizing the untapped potential resources in a coordinated, integrated and holistic manner.

Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh (Director of Fisheries) from Uttar Pradesh plays an important role in accelerating the sustainable development of fisheries, poverty reduction, food and nutritional security and inclusive economic growth through increase in fisheries production and community participation through technically driven aquaculture,

NIFPHATT (Kamlraj.K.) from Kerala: NIFPHATT envisages the best post-harvest fish utilization and consumption with the least post-harvest losses and delivery of the best quality fish and fish products. ICAR-NBFGR, Lucknow (Amit Bisht Singh) from Uttar Pradesh plays vital role in assessment and conservation of fish genetic resources for intellectual property protection, sustainable utilization and posterity. Also, in collection, cataloguing and documentation of fish genetic resources using operational strategies of partnership and cutting-edge technologies.

RS Polymers (Siddharth Mehta) from New Delhi: focusing on the fish cultivation to accelerate sustainable development of aquaculture sector. PVR Aqua. (Rajnish Kumar) from Uttar Pradesh: focusing in providing the commercial fishing assistance consisting of fish farming, fish marketing, fish products and fish processing.

Aqua Doctor Solutions (Dr. Barman) from Uttar Pradesh: involved in activities like commercial fishing, fish hatchery, biofloc fish, aquaponics, RAS farming etc. Everest Blowers Private Limited (Amit Senger) from New Delhi: providing the innovative engineering solutions in entire range of pressure & vacuum systems by having state of art technology, optimized designs, R&D, manufacturing low pressure compressors.

Everest Turbo (Deepak Toonwal) from New Delhi: provides innovative solutions to Aquaculture Farms, Water & Wastewater Treatment Plants, Effluent Treatment Plants & Pneumatic Conveying Systems with the products such as Centrifugal Technology Blowers like Side Channel Blowers/Regenerative Blower, Aluminium Die Cast Centrifugal Blowers, High Speed Centrifugal Blowers & Air Knife Systems and Turbo Blowers.

Sunflex India (Mohd Ali) from New Delhi: involved in manufacturing and supplying of fish farming tank material specially Biofloc Fish Farming tank. Coastal Aquaculture Research Institute Pvt Ltd (Sudhakar) from Tamil Nadu: supporting fisheries and agriculture industry research and proving services/ products such as water testing equipments, fish foods etc.

Optify Industrial Solutions Pvt Ltd Start up India (Piyush Patil) from Maharashtra: focusing on food processing for dryers like in powders and pallet foods, biomass etc. Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (D.N. Jha) from Uttar Pradesh: involved as a knowledge-based management for enhanced fishery, supporting sustainable fisheries from inland open fwaters for environmental integrity, livelihood and nutritional security.

In total, around 30,000 farmers participated in the Pashu Pardarshani & Krishi Mela 2023 in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, including fish farmers, fish entrepreneurs, veterinary officers, extension workers, agro-industry employees (animal science), agro-professionals, scientists, and others. AI was also discussed and encouraged. The seminars and conferences held during the programme aided in disseminating information among participants and people about animal product processing, adulteration testing methods, cattle maintenance and health management, urea molasses block production processes, and so on.

Pashu Pardarshani and Krishi Mela will go a long way and have a significant impact on various aspects for all fish farmers, fishermen, fisheries scientists, and other fisheries stakeholders, including innovation and technology transfer, business and economic development, education and awareness, policy and decision making, conservation and biodiversity, and so on.

Students from schools and colleges also took part and were overjoyed with the knowledge and information they received, which would have a good impact on the lives of fish farmers in terms of economic upliftment by enhancing efficiency in their fishing and farming practices.