Ludhiana: Department of Livestock Products Technology under the aegis of Directorate of Extension Education, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana organised a three days practical training programme on farmers’ demand on Value addition of Pork for the pig farmers and budding entrepreneurs. Dr. Nitin Mehta, coordinator of the training programme highlighted that the course content of the training programme included hygienic slaughtering and dressing operations of pigs, development and packaging of various value-added products viz. pork pickle, sausages, nuggets etc. The trainees were also briefed about meat quality standards and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India guidelines for hygienic pork production.
Dr. Yashpal Singh, HoD informed that participants conducted Hands-on-training on various value-added pork products and were satisfied with the information disseminated to them during this training. Dr Parkash Singh Brar, Director Extension Education released a compendium on pork processing and value addition developed by the department faculty for this training programme. He said that in Punjab majority of the farmers are selling their produce as live animals to the contractors, which leads to uncertainty of the returns and many times they also get exploited by the middlemen. Processing and value addition of pork will certainly help them in enhancing their income. He distributed the certificates to the participants on successful completion of the training.
Dr Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor applauded the efforts of the department in carrying out practical training programmes for farmers and highlighted that the acquired scientific knowledge on the processing of pork will help the trainees in getting assured income and certainty in marketing of pigs and its products.
Drs. O.P Malav, Simranjeet Kaur and Jaswinder Singh were associated as coordinators in the training programme and made the smooth arrangement for conduct of this practical training programme.