RATNANAGAR, CHITWAN: The First International Buffalo Symposium 2017 has begun in Sauraha of Chitwan district.

Vice Chancellor of the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Dr IP Dhakal inaugurated the four-day conference of buffalo experts on Wednesday.

Around 200 buffalo experts, scientists, scholars and students from 11 various countries including Nepal will be holding discussions on the topics of buffalo nutrition and production, buffalo health, buffalo reproduction and breeding, genomics and biotechnology for Buffalo production, policies and socio-economics of buffalo production, and buffalo as a source of food and nutrition.

Discussions will also be held on the plan of developing Rampur in Chitwan as the centre for animal science research. As many as 90 research papers will also be presented and discussed in the symposium, according to the organisers. Altogether, 55 experts from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines, America, Canada and Britain are also attending the symposium.

The symposium is organised by the University's Faculty of Animal Science, Veterinary and Pisciculture. The main theme of the symposium is 'Increased Production of Buffalo'.

Speaking in the inaugural session, Dean of the AFU, Sharada Thapaliya expressed his belief that the symposium would play a significant role in the promotion of buffalo nutrition and production, and buffalo reproduction and breeding.

President of the International Buffalo Federation, Dr Antonio Borghese, Vice Chancellor of Veterinary University of Pakistan, Prof Nasim Ahmed, president of the Asian Buffalo Association, Indrajeet Singh, US Michigan State University professor Nanda Prakash Joshi, Director General of the Department of Livestock Services, Dr Bimal Kumar Nirmal, among others also participated in the inaugural session.

Ratnanagar Municipality mayor Narayan Won said that the municipality would manage the expenses required for increasing the buffalo production if the university were to provide the experts and prepare a plan for the same.

The population of buffalo is around 5.2 million in Nepal where 57 per cent of the meat supply is comprised of buff.