Bhubaneswar: Odisha Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Minister, Ranendra Pratap Swain has flagged off the program of distribution of chicks to more than seven lakh families under the Nutrition at Doorstep Programme to combat malnutrition and anaemia.
Officials from all the districts of the state connected through video conferencing and distributed chicks to beneficiaries in their respective districts, after the flagging off by Minister Swain at Krushi Bhawan today.
On this occasion, Minister Swain said that extensive steps have been taken by the State Government to eliminate malnutrition and anaemia. These include the distribution of fruit and vegetable saplings and poultry chicks. The families suffering from malnutrition and anaemia have already been distributed with saplings of drumstick, raw banana, papaya, sweet potato etc. From this, they can get vegetables as their nutrition. Along with this, chicks are being distributed to provide nutrition filled with animal protein. More than 7 lakh identified families across the state will be benefited under this scheme. Each family will get five number of 28-day-old chicks free of cost under this programme. Day-old chicks are difficult to rear as their mortality rate is high, so 28-day-old chicks are being provided by the Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department. These chicks will grow well with negligible mortality. Eggs from these backyard chickens will play an important role in supplementary nutrition. From this scheme, the state’s egg production will be increased by about 4.5 lakh eggs/day or 16 crore eggs/year. Around Rs. 24 Crore will be spent by the Government of Odisha in the current financial year for the implementation of the programme to provide chicks to combat malnutrition and anaemia of 7 lakh affected families of the state.
Minister Swain also said that these chicks are being supplied at the doorstep of the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries, who attended through virtual mode thanked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain for such innovative steps taken for their benefit. During the programme, Minister Swain interacted with the beneficiaries of 30 Gram Panchayats in 30 districts.
At the outset, Principal Secretary, of Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department Suresh Kumar Vashishth said that about 7 lakh families of the state will get protein supplementation through poultry rearing. Director, of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Ramashis Hazra and other departmental officers were present on the occasion. Dr.Satchidananda Sarangi, Addl. Director of poultry Development proposed vote of thanks.
