Dr T Mohapatra, Former Secy. DARE & DG, ICAR and Dr S K Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (NRM), ICAR visited Bureau

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, former Secretary DARE & Director General, ICAR along with Dr S K Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (NRM), ICAR visited the Bureau on 1^st March, 2023 and interacted with the scientists.

In his address to the scientists, Dr Mohapatra lauded the Bureau’s efforts for documenting the animal genetic resources in the entire country in mission mode and accelerating the cryopreservation of germplasm of indigenous breeds. He recalled the moments when the Mission was conceptualized to identify all potential breeds, as a dire need for the country to make it nearly zero non-descript. Appreciated the Bureau for taking the challenge in a focused manner despite limited manpower, he asserted to keep the momentum and completing the task within a time frame of five to eight years and wished all its success. He further suggested the need of preparing a digital library of good-quality photographs of the breed with digitized identifiable characteristics, which can be directly useful to the stakeholders. Genes and genomic regions of strategic importance should be studied in breeds of important traits. Similarly, epigenetic role in adaptation and climatic resilience should also be studied. Proteomics and metabolomics should be studied to characterize the milk across the breeds so that a profile may be created for the available biomolecules in the indigenous cows. For conservation efforts, research on newer technologies including cloning should also be emphasized, he added.

Dr S K Chaudhari, DDG (NRM) also complimented the bureau for increasing the visibility of the institute in recent time. He emphasized over the need of preservation of animal genetic diversity in consonance with natural resource management in the country.

Dr B P Mishra, Director, ICAR-NBAGR in his welcome address informed about the work carried out under the Mission towards Zero Non-descript AnGR in country. He informed that the mission activities has been initiated in project form in 22 states. Interface meets with 13 states have also been completed to sensitize stakeholders on documentation and management of AnGR in respective states. He also informed that the country co-chaired in the FAO’s recently held Inter-Governmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) Session in Rome. Dr M S Tantia proposed the vote of thanks. Dr S K Niranjan and Dr Sonika Ahlawat coordinated the visit and scientific interaction.