Cattle wealth is national wealth: Venkaiah Naidu

Vijayawada: Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu called  everyone to come forward to encourage and sustain livestock. He unveiled the Ongole breeding compendium book at a function organised at the Vijayawada chapter of Swarna-bharat Trust in Atakoru and hoped that the liveliness of livestock would sustainable and ensure coordination between farmers, agriculture, horticultural and forest sectors. He stated that for more than 15 years, more than 300 photographs, 13 books and 80 research labels were collected and composed for the Ongole cattle breeding compendium book by Mullapudi Narendranath and Madhusudan Rao.

The Vice President said that the book will stand witness to the history of cattle of the 130-year-old Ongole breed. This breed was called the Nellore breed in olden days when Ongole town was in the limits of Nellore district before the formation of the new district of Prakasam. Later it was called the Ongole breed, he said.

He lamented that Brazil had imported 20 cattle of the Ongole breed in 1960 and 84 in 1962 from India and now there are lakhs of the population of Ongole breed cattle. In India, they had decreased in number and there was no development of the breed. He recalled that when he was a union minister, the Ongole Kamadhenu breeding centre was brought to Andhra Pradesh with his initiative.

The Vice President said that cattle wealth is national wealth. He said that Ongole cows in Brazil were giving 25 litres of milk.

He inaugurated a free medical camp at Swarnabharathi Trust from the same stage. He praised Trust chairman Kamineni Srinivas.