Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, Clarence Ramb­harat, says his min­istry, based on di­a­logue with and rec­om­men­da­tions by the lo­cal live­stock farm­ers and in­dus­try ex­perts, plan to im­ple­ment an em­bryo trans­fer pro­gramme to as­sist with the im­prove­ment of the lo­cal breed­ing stock.

He said so yes­ter­day while cel­e­brat­ing Eid-Al-Ad­ha with mem­bers of the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty at the live­stock farm of Shi­raz Khan in Carlsen Field.

Ramb­harat added: "Gov­ern­ment should re­duce its in­volve­ment in terms of main­tain­ing its own as­sets in live­stock. What we should be do­ing is in­creas­ing our tech­ni­cal sup­port, the num­ber of vet­eri­nar­i­ans we have avail­able to the sec­tor and our re­search."

The min­is­ter said there was a lot of work to be done in live­stock in­dus­try. He said his vis­it to Carlsen Field was based on him want­i­ng to see for him­self the op­er­a­tions of lo­cal live­stock farm­ers

"This is an op­er­a­tion that has a good fu­ture in the hands of pri­vate farm­ers, with young peo­ple in­volved, and that is the di­rec­tion that we need to see," the min­is­ter added.

Khan and oth­er Mus­lim devo­tees al­so ex­pressed ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the min­is­ter's vis­it yes­ter­day.

Eid-Al-Ad­ha is one of the holi­est cel­e­bra­tions on the Is­lam­ic cal­en­dar. It is known as the Feast of Sac­ri­fice.

Mus­lims cel­e­brate this day as a re­minder of the time in which Ibrahim was about to sac­ri­fice his son but was told by God to sac­ri­fice an an­i­mal in­stead. The cel­e­bra­tion sym­bol­is­es Ibrahim's de­vo­tion to Al­lah. Devo­tees start out the day with a morn­ing prayer and then ex­change gifts and food among fam­i­ly and friends.