Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog begins “Kamadhenu Deepawali Abhiyan”

On October 12, 2020, the Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog (RKA) began the nation wide campaign called “Kamadhenu Deepawali Abhiyan”.

Key Highlights

The campaign aims to promote extensive use of cow dung during the Diwali season. The RKA will promote cow dung based Diyas, dhoop, Agarbatti, swastika, wall-pieces, idols of goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha.

The aim of the campaign is to reach to 11 crore families and ignite 33 crore diyas made of cow dung. The initiative is being implemented by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

The initiative will ignite 3 lakh diyas in Ayodhya, 1 lakh in Varanasi.

Significance

The use of cow dung to create innovative products will generate business opportunities to thousands of cow-based entrepreneurs and farmers. Also, the campaign will help in creating Gaushalas Atma Nirbhar. Also, these lamps will be the best alternatives to Chinese made Diyas.

Inspiration

The “Gaumya Ganesha Campaign” was the main inspiration for Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog to start the campaign. It encouraged the usage of user friendly materials in making Ganesh idols.

Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog

It was established in 2019 to protect and conserve development of cows and their progeny. It will work in collaboration with animal sciences, veterinary sciences and agriculture universities that are engaged in the field of breeding and rearing cow, biogas and organic manure. It will provide direction and policy framework on cow conservation in the country and ensure proper implementation of laws for the welfare of the cows.

It was set up under Rashtriya Gokul Mission. An interim budget of Rs 750 crores was allocated to Rashtriya Gokul Mission.

Significance

Establishing Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog will help conserve, protect and develop cattle population in the country. It will also help in the conservation of indigenous breeds. The team will work towards increasing growth of livestock sector.

Rashtriya Gokul Mission

The mission was launched to set up Gokul Grams. These grams are Integrated Cattle Development Centres. As of June 2019, four such gokul grams were set up in Varanasi, Phora, Patiala, Mathura. The mission is to set up another 21 such centres.

The mission aims on the following objectives

• To develop and conserve indigenous breeds in a focused and scientific manner
• To enhance milk production
• To promote breed improvement programme.
• To distribute high genetic and disease free merit bulls.

Initiatives under Rashtriya Gokul Mission

• Under the mission, Gokul Grams were established.
• The National Kamadhenu Breeding Centres were established to conserve indigenous breeds
• Pashu Sanjivi was launched to provide animal health cards
• Advanced Reproductive Technology: Sex sorted semen techniques, In-virto fertilization were adopted to increase availability of disease free female bovines.
• National Bovine Genomic Centres were launched to select breeding bulls with high genetic merit.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2020