Veterinary university plan awaits funding

Top official says project was approved by authorities concerned

Balochistan government has planned to build a veterinary university in Quetta to boost the livestock sector of the province.

Balochistan Livestock and Dairy Development Director General (DG) Dr Ghulam Hussain Jaffar told APP that the project had been approved by the authorities concerned and awaited financial assistance.

He said a recent census conducted by the Statistics Division of Pakistan revealed that 70 per cent of locals were directly or indirectly related to the livestock sector.



“The livestock sector requires immediate attention of the authorities for its development,” DG Jaffar said. He added that the livestock activities in the province stretched to around 34 million hectares.

The DG said the province contributes 20 per cent to the entire production of livestock in the country.  Dr Jaffar said, “More than 48 per cent of the total sheep present in the country are in Balochistan.” He added that as much as 42 per cent of the total camels in Pakistan were in the province.

He informed that the livestock sector in Balochistan had a total value of Rs500 billion with an annual growth rate of 13 per cent.  With regard to the awareness programmes about the livestock sector, the DG said, “We are conducting several awareness programmes to inform the farmers about the feeding processes and diseases likely to infect the animals.”



Dr Jaffar said water shortage is one of the major problems faced by the livestock sector.

He said the government had provided vaccination to the animals after every six months. The DG added that animals owned by nomads coming from Afghanistan were also provided vaccination through mobile camps to curb the threat of different viruses.

He said Balochistan was environmentally different from other provinces and the businessmen were being encouraged to promote the livestock farming.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2018.