The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi may have overlooked Gujarat’s contribution to the increase in India’s meat production during his tirade against the Congress at election rallies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Data compiled by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry from Gujarat’s Pollution Control Board reveals that meat production in the State, under Mr. Modi, more than doubled in 10 years.
Gujarat produced 22,000 tonnes of meat in 2010-11 against 10,600 tonnes of meat in 2001-02. During the same period, India’s meat production grew from 18,59,430 tonnes to 48,69,000 tonnes, or by 163%.
With 39 abattoirs, which slaughters over 1,000 animals a day, Gujarat is amongst the top 10 States in India in terms of the number of slaughterhouses.
During his campaign, the BJP leader accused the Congress of promoting cow slaughter. “We brought in the white revolution in the country, but the Congress wants a pink revolution,” Mr. Modi said in Ghaziabad on Thursday, referring to the meat industry.
The alarmist spin Mr. Modi sought to put on the livestock sector in rural India, resulting from rising meat exports, may be unwarranted. Data reveals that overall, export of dairy products is growing faster.
Data made available by the Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority shows that buffalo meat exports grew 27% in 2012-13 over the previous year. This rate of growth was, however, 10 percentage points slower than the rate at which exports from the entire animal products sector rose.
No comments:
Post a Comment