Mangalore : Minister for Animal Husbandry Revu Nayaka Belamagi said that the increase of Rs 2 in milk and increase of Rs 2.50 in the KMF marketing price with the total amount of Rs 443 crore has been distributed to around 6.41 lakh people to encourage farming.

He was speaking at the press meet held at Ocean Pearl on August 17, Tuesday.  He also said that In order to help the widows and Devadasi  the department has implemented the Amrutha  Scheme and been giving the financial assistance of Rs 10,000  for around 27, 353 beneficiaries  to purchase buffalo and cow from the year 2007- 2010  at the estimate cost of Rs 29.07 crore.

Further this financial assistance will be increased to Rs 35,000 and percentage of Rs 50, 60 and 75 of cash will be given to common, Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe members respectively he said.

There are only 1430 veterinary doctors in the state, while it lacks 972 doctors. There is also lack of students who opt veterinary as their subject in the colleges. There are around 67 students in Hassan College and 306 students in Shimoga further the college will be established at Gadag. The large number of students opting for this course in Bangalore is to be appreciated.

According to the survey of the present year, the percent of animals have increased but the percentage of buffaloes and cows have drastically decreased. At present there are only 1,090, 47 local cows.

After the government has imposed the Anti cow slaughter bill it will surely benefit the state because the cow dung and urine are very useful for medicinal purposes. The state is ready to give 83 acres of land at Koila farm to KMF to grow the fodder for the cows and no other construction will come in that place other than it. There is lot of laterite stone in Koila Farm and the KMF must identify the suitable land. There are also two bore wells in the farm he said.
Dr KV Halagappa, deputy director of Animal Husbandry, Dr Venkatesh, deputy director of Koila Farm, Dr Shankar, in charge of Fisheries College, Dr Jayaprakash and Dr Satyanarayana of KMF were also present at the press meet.