Govt-run farm for conserving Thari cattle breed in dire straits

Watercourses feeding the livestock experimental station closed since 1995

KARACHI:

Thari Cattle Farm, the largest livestock experimental station of Sindh established during the British rule, located near Nabisar Road, a town in the Umerkot district, has reached the brink of destruction due to inattention, mismanagement and political interference of Sindh government and officers.

The British had built the cattle farm to save the Thari cow breed and increase the breed to get milk and meat production.

However, the Government Livestock Experimental Station, popularly known as Thari Cattle Farm, was now a tale of destruction due to inattention, corruption and political interference of the officers and staff over the past decades.

Many cattle sheds, staff quarters and other important buildings at the farm spread over 4,000 acres have collapsed and turned into piles of rubble.

Livestock Experimental Station Superintendent Dr Noor Deen Memon said that all the three water courses irrigating the farm were closed by the then minister for water affairs in 1995.

Memon maintained that efforts were made by the department in 2001 to open the closed watercourses and formal letters were written to the high officials of the department but they have not been implemented yet.

He said that when he took charge, the affairs of the Thari Cattle Farm were very chaotic, which were being rectified. Currently, there are total 17 cows and their calves and nine bulls at the farm.

The Sindh government provides an annual budget of almost Rs50 million to take care of them which is not enough in this era of inflation. He said that the total agricultural land of the livestock experimental station is more than 4000 acres, only five per cent of the agricultural land is inhabited on which grass is grown for cattle.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2023.