The Ministry of Department of Animal Husbandry is a department of Government of Maharashtra to regulate animal husbandry in Maharashtra.
The department is headed by the cabinet level minister. The Minister of State assists cabinet minister. Pankaja Munde is current Minister for Husbandry.
Many farmers in Maharashtra depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and drayers. Thus, animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy. The national gross value of output from this sector was 8,123 billion Rupees in FY 2015âÂÂ16.
Department is further divided into following sub-departments for ease of administration.
Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University is an agriculture state university headquartered from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. It was established under The Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University Act, 1998. It was officially established on 3 December 2000 by carving seven colleges out of the other four state agriculture universities in Maharashtra.