E-Quality Assessment Solutions for Agricultural Commodities, December 08, 2022

An Animal Health Awareness Camp and Scientists’-Farmers’ Interaction Session was jointly organized by ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute-ERS, Kalyani, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur at Dakhshin Chandamari village of Nadia District, West Bengal on 25-11-2022 under the project “Electronic Platform to Monitor Cattle Health and Milk Quality (MeitY under AgriEnICS Program)”. In this programme, Dr. S.M. Deb, Head, ICAR-NDRI, ERS, Kalyani, Mr. Alokesh Ghosh, Associate Director, CDAC Kolkatta, Dr. Hena Ray, Joint Director, CDAC, Kolkata, Dr. T.K. Dutta, Principal Scientist, Dr. C. Bhakat, Principal Scientist, Dr. Ajoy Mandal, Principal Scientist, Dr. M. Karunakaran, Dr. Amitava Ghosh, CTO and Dr. S. Dutta, CTO of ICAR-NDRI, ERS, Kalyani and Mr. Avijit Mondal from IIT Kharagpur had participated. A total of 65 farmers from nearby villages of Dakhshin Chandamari have participated in the awareness camp. At the outset, Dr. Ajoy Mandal welcomed all the experts and farmers and informed about the collaborative project on animal disease monitoring and milk quality by NDRI Kalyani, CDAC Kolkata and IIT Kharagpur. Dr. S.M. Deb elaborated on the importance of dairy farming and their challenges in current scenario. Mr. Alokesh Ghosh emphasized the advantage of integrating the knowledge on animal farming with advancements in electronics and computing in dairy farm management. Dr. C. Bhakat explained the causes of mastitis, its impact on milk production, control and prevention measures at village level. Dr. Hena Ray appraised the farmers about the utility of sensor based devices for screening of mastitis in dairy cows at cow side and displayed the first version prototype device for mastitis screening developed by IIT, Kharagpur. Dr. T.K. Dutta informed the farmers about the feeding management of dairy cows and the advantages of feeding bypass fat to improve milk production in dairy cows. Dr. M. Karunakaran explained importance of timely breeding of dairy cows for profitable dairy farming and estrus detection measures through sensor based device in dairy cows. Dr. Dutta have demonstrated the California Mastitis Test for screening of mastitis milk, conducted the door to door screening of mastitis in dairy cows and treated the affected animals. Inputs such as bypass fat, dewormer, vitamin and mineral mixture supplements were distributed to the beneficiaries. Dr. A. Ghosh proposed vote of thanks and the farmers expressed their keenness in participating in the development sensor based devices for health monitoring and mastitis screening.