Chennai: Enumeration of cows and buffaloes will soon go digital in Tamil Nadu. Government staff is now learning the nuances of note pads and I-pads as the state agriculture department is training its staff on livestock enumeration using the latest gadgets. Livestock plays a major role in poverty alleviation and this data will help Tamil Nadu to ascertain its livestock status at all India level. Further, poverty alleviation projects aimed to benefit rural pockets can be designed, a senior government official said.
The census data will help the state to identify its animal husbandry resource and whenever a species specific data compilation will also help to know about the impact of a particular breed in terms of revenue generation and food chain balance, the official added. According to the director of animal husbandry, T. Abraham, “The training of veterinarians and livestock inspectors has begun and the year-long enumeration will begin by next week. About 2,000 veterinarians and livestock inspectors are to be roped in for the project and this time the data compilation will be done through note pads and the data will be digitised for further references. Cattle, donkey, horses, poultry and small domestic animals will be enumerated in all the districts of Tamil Nadu”, the official said. “Data like sex, age, breed, nativity, size, weight are to be added to the census data sheet”, said the enumerators.
