Chennai: While confronting shrinking resources such as land and workforce, we need to find a way to scale up our production to feed an additional one crore people every year, said Niranjan Kalita, vice-chancellor of Assam Veterinary and Fishery University here on Saturday. Delivering his convocation address at the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas), he pointed out that India’s population was projected to touch 165 crore by 2047. A shortage of feed and fodder was one of the most persistent challenges in the nation, he said, adding: “To address this, we must promote cultivation of high-yielding fodder varieties, implement effective crop residue management techniques, encourage farmers to adopt agroforestry practices and integrate livestock with crop production.”
He further said that the age of transformation — in AI and research and data centres — was yet to make India self-reliant and technologically, socially and culturally competitive.Earlier, Governor R N Ravi conferred degrees upon 699 students — 307 girls and 392 boys. Fisheries minister Anitha Radhakrishnan, who is the pro-chancellor of the university, did not turn up for the event. He was the second minister to not attend a state university convocation this month. Both the ministers were unavailable for comment.tnn
