national-research-canter-on-camel

DIRECTOR

About The Director

Domicile of Odisha and graduated (BVSc & AH) in 1988 from OUAT, Bhubaneswar. Post-graduation (MVSc, Animal Nutrition) in 1990 and PhD (Animal Nutrition) in 1994 from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar. Joined Agricultural Research Services (ARS) as Scientist in 1993 and become Director, ICAR-National Research on Camel in January, 2021. Received Endeavour Research Fellowship-2009 by DEEWR, Govt of Australia to undertake post-doctoral research at CERAR, UniSA, Adelaide. Major field of activities are nutrition and feed resources, feeding systems & evaluation, rumen ecology, clinical nutrition & dietetics, environment-nutrition interaction. As a member of National Team delineated ICAR Standards on ‘Nutrient Requirements of Animals’. As a member Technical Committee(FAD 05), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), contributed to drafting Indian Standards on Animal Husbandry, Feeds and Equipment. Published > 500 publications with ~200 peer-reviewed research papers and 16 edited books. GoogleScholar rated him as internationally acclaimed Animal Nutritionist with 28 H-Index, 83 i10-index (~3100 Citations). Granted patents (3), Technology Certification (3), Copyrights (4), Trademarks (10) for his footprint in R&D. Received Extraordinary Leadership in Technological Advancements by Agriculture Today Group (2023), Best Director Award by Education Expo (2023), Best Researcher Award (NESIN 2020) and International Research Leadership Award-2019 as “Distinguished Scientist in Small Ruminant Nutrition”. Recognized as Fellow (4) by different National Professional Societies Received ‘Life-Time Achievement Award’for outstanding contributions in research & development in the field of Nutrition and Welfare of animals and allied societal development.

 

 

Message

The camel production system in India remains traditional, e,g, nomadic, transhumance, sedentary that is mainly linked with the social life of the pastorals and camel herders. Despite its indispensability as a mode of transportation and draught power in the desert ecosystem, modern-day transportation and road-network has diminished its potentiality and it is now thus facing the threat of unsustainability. India’s camel population has decreased drastically from 10.0 lakhs in the early part of the century to only 2.5 lakhs in 2019 and the populated state of Rajasthan has the maximum decline compared to neighbouring Gujarat. In this scenario, promotion of ‘Camel Dairy’ emphasizing therapeutic benefits of camel milk would definitely widen the prospects of camel rearing and earn additional revenue to the farmers for their socio-economic stability and may possibly also block its declining trend. Tactical intervention in production and application of marketing strategies for higher return from produce and products would open up avenues for future investment and maximize profit from ‘Camel Dairy’ based livestock enterprises. Further, possibilities need to be explored for use of male camels in eco-tourism business for additional revenue and socio-economic upliftment of camel herders. The unique species of the desert ecosystem has also widened its scope in biomedical research due to its exceptional immune system and adaptive thermoregulation mechanism.
The unique animal of the planet needs concerted efforts from policy makers, research & development agencies, stakeholders and the farmers for its potential application as ‘Multi-utility’ animal. I am sure, in times to come, ‘Camel’ will serve the socio-economic livelihood of the traditional rearers and block its declining trend in safeguarding the community as well as the camel.

 

Dr Artabandhu Sahoo