Source:thehindu.com
The Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) has been selected as one of the institutions to get Worldwide Universities Sustainability Fund to strengthen and accelerate the development of major initiatives under sustainable agriculture.
The project titled ‘Global farm platform — towards sustainable ruminant production’ has been accepted under the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) sustainability fund. KVASU is the only institution selected from the country and it would get nearly £5.7 million under the project initially, said T.P. Sethumadhavan, project coordinator and Director of Entrepreneurship, KVASU.
Besides KVASU, other universities such as University of Alberta (Canada), University of Leeds (UK), University of Sydney, University of Western Australia (Australia), Zhejiang University (China), Kansas State University, Penn State University, University of Wisconsin (USA) and Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) have been selected for the project.
KVASU has been identified for the project towards dairy stabiliser for the tropics and feed intake. A significant proportion of grazing animals utilise feed resources poorly so they fail to meet market specifications and thus reduce profitability. These unproductive animals have a disproportionate environmental impact because they have low productivity, Dr. Sethumadhavan said.
The key aim of the project is to standardise protocols for collection of individual feed intake records on young, growing cattle and on grass land production systems. Target funders of the project include the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Stabilizer, International Development Research Centre, Genome Canada, Innovate Agritech Canada.
The project includes international workshops at Malawi, Alberta and India in the areas of advanced ruminant feed intake, genetics and ruminant methane emissions. WUN sustainability grant will be essential to maintain functionality of network and envisages genetic improvement in dairy cattle for tropics.
The project will recognise and emphasise the role of women in livestock rearing and smallholder livelihoods. “At a time when women self help groups are actively involved in dairying, this project assumes more significance for Kerala,” said Dr. Sethumadhavan.
KVASU is the only institution selected from the country, will get nearly £5.7 million for project
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