Entrepreneurship Development Programme on Donkey Farming

 23 - 25th August 2022, Bikaner

As the mechanization advances, the use of donkeys has dwindled at faster pace. As per the 20th Livestock census, the indigenous donkey population registered a drastic decline of approximately 62%.  This necessitates adopting necessary conservation strategies to save this endangering species. However, an increase in the demand for donkey milk and its by-products has been observed together with that of meat products that are commercialized in the European markets and as specific dietary products. Even in our country, many upcoming farmers/ entrepreneurs are adopting donkey milk as business venture as due to its unique rheological properties.

ICAR- National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar also working in this direction of developing a donkey dairy unit and aiming at studying the special properties of the donkey milk. In this endeavor to appraise about the various products of donkey milk and how to take up donkey farming as an entrepreneurship a three-day training programme entitled “Entrepreneurship Development Programme on Donkey Farming” was organized by Aug 22-25, 2022. The three days long training programme included theory and practical training on donkey rearing, breeding, milking and value addition of donkey milk including innovation products and packaging solutions.

The Chief Guest of Valedictory Session, Dr Artabandhu Sahoo, Director, ICAR-NRC on Camel also lauded the efforts of NRCE scientists and staff to train the upcoming entrepreneurs in this non bovine dairy sector and encouraged the entrepreneurs for adopting donkey milk as business opportunity in future.

Dr Yash Pal, Director, NRCE emphasized that the efforts like a value addition training on donkey milk will take a lead in popularizing the theme in a strong manner and such initiatives will provide golden opportunity to add Indian products to the export basket.

To participate in this training programme, 13 entrepreneurs from seven different states (Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) have arrived at Equine Production Campus, ICAR-NRC on Equines, Bikaner

(Source: ICAR- National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar)