Livestock technicians urge courses for skill development

By Rameshwor Yadav

KATHMANDU, Nov 26: Middle level livestock technicians are demanding that the government formulate a curriculum to upgrade their skills or give them the opportunity to pursue higher studies.
Nearly 90 per cent of such technicians, who have only completed non-academic courses, are stuck in the middle of their academic journey in the absence of provisions to attend further studies.

"The government has been treating us unfairly," says director general of the Nepal Peraveterinary and Livestock Association (NEVLA), Shyam Sundar Yadav. "There is neither any institution where we can pursue further studies nor a course to improve our skills.

Only a few technicians have so far had the opportunity to receive advance training."

Unless they have the qualification, they cannot become second class officials. And if promoted, the post does not carry any weight. "We cannot be working as junior level technicians all our life," Yadav said.

NEVLA is a union of middle class livestock technicians who are working in the Department of Livestock Services.

NEVLA organises regular animal health camps, parasite control camps, sterilisation programmes and carries out awareness programmes on communicable diseases.

Says Dand Prasad Majakoti, president of Lalitpur branch office, "We provide our services to more than 100,000 livestock belonging to 12,000 families. Our experience shows that most cattle suffer from parasites."

The parasites as such do not affect the animals directly, but they are instrumental in lowering their productivity.

Major diseases afflicting the livestock are communicable such as TB, brucellosis and Japanese encephalitis.

Livestock has a big role to play in improving the living standards of the Nepalese people. But due to lack of skilled manpower to look into the diseases of livestock, productivity is often low.

To remain healthy, per capita consumption of milk should be 57 litres, meat 14.4 kg and eggs 18.1 However, the country produces 48.432 liters of milk for every citizen, 8.378 kg of meat and 21.85 eggs. As a result, the country imports milk worth Rs. 464.3 million annually from India. Livestock currently contributes 18 per cent to Nepal's GDP.

Govt, mills agree to mix iron in wheat flour

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU: His Majesty's Government, the Nepal Flour Mills Association (NFMS) and the Micro-nutrient Initiative (MI) recently agreed to implement a joint action plan of action in order to fortify wheat flour with iron and other micronutrients with an objective to help reduce iron deficiency anemia, one of the major public health problem in Nepal.

The government will make the fortification of wheat flour with iron and other micronutrients mandatory at all rollers mills, said a press statement of MI, an international development agency with its headquarters in Canada.

The rollers will bear the ongoing cost of micronutient premix to make fortification activity sustainable.

Dr. B.D. Chataut, chief of Policy, Planning and International Cooperation Division at the Health Ministry, Dr. T.B. Karki, Director-General of Department of Food Technology and Quality Control at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, B.K Chaudhari, president of NFMS and V. Mannar singed on the Letter of Intent on behalf of their respective organisations.

The MI will provide a grant assistance of about Rs 13 billion to carry out various activities in this regard, it said.

About 68 per cent women and 78 per cent children under five have been found to be anemic in Nepal.