Skilled Training to Dairy farmers in TN Kulam



ICAR KVK hosted by SCAD has organized 3 days vocational  training programme on the topic eco -friendly technologies for improving the productivity of small holder dairy farmers for the benefit of farmers belong to TN Kulam village in Kayathar block of Thoothukudi district. This programme was organized to 24 women and 8 men farmers with the support of  NABARD Thoothukudi.

            The training participants were identified and selected from TN Kulam village who are part of various farmers group and who are already having dairy cows in their homestead. Details were collected from all the identified trainees along with baseline details regarding their present problem and status of their dairy farm.

On the first day (11th Feb 2019) of the programme Dr. V.Srinivasan, Senior scientist and Head i/c, ICAR KVK, Thoothukudi handled two sessions in the morning on Importance of dairy farming and scope of technologies to augment the profitability of dairy farming, balanced feeding techniques, green fodder cultivation, Azolla rearing and hydroponics method of green fodder production, total mixed ration and Prosopis juliflora (mesquite) pod as cattle feed, machineries for small scale dairy farming chaff cutter, brush cutter, reaper and binder. 

In the afternoon sessions the trainees were exposed to green fodder cultivation practices by Mr. A. Murugan SMS (Agronomy) ICAR KVK, Thoothukudi.  Apart from this the trainees were also sensitized on the importance of joint liability groups, farmers producer organisation and farmers interest group by Mr. C. Bhagavathsingh, SMS (Agricultural Extension), ICAR KVK, Thoothukudi.

On the second day on 12th Feb 2019, Dr. Vijay Kumar, Asst. Prof., Dept of Animal Nutrition, VC&RI, Tirunelveli trained the farmers on the topics of different feeds- Green fodder, Dry fodder, concentrate feed, balanced feeding, Smart mineral mixture feeding, Silage preparation and feeding, Urea enriched paddy straw. In the afternoon session, the trainees were taught about small holder status and their problem and prospects. They were also taught about the breeds of cattle, selection of animals, selection of housing site, house cattle shed construction, vaccination, deworming, calf rearing, colostrum feeding by Dr. Sathya Bharathi, Asst Prof. VC&RI, Tirunelveli. In the end of the Day Mr. Vijaya Pandian DDM NABARD, Thoothukudi visited the training programme and highlighted the importance of CAT programme for the benefit of farmers. He felicitated the trainees for the better adoption of technologies learned in the training programme and the exposure visit.

On the 3rd day, the trainees were taken to exposure visits to ICAR KVK demo units at Vagaikulam, in Thoothukudi. The trainees were given various demonstrations on Vermicomposting, Azolla rearing, value addition of dairy farm waste into Panchakavya and Vermiwash.  They also visited millet value addition unit, Mushroom unit, Nursery, Chicken rearing unit, etc in KVK. Then the trainees were given with participation certificate and inputs for cattle rearing and taken a group photo.  Feedback about the training programme was collected from all the participants and the programme was concluded with vote of thanks.