Livestock and Dairy: Govt to collaborate with businesses, UVAS to boost productivity

LAHORE:

The Livestock and Dairy Development Department will work together with the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and businesses to boost the productivity in livestock sector, newly-appointed Livestock Secretary Irfan Elahi said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at an iftar-dinner held in honour of the outgoing secretary Hamid Yaqoob Sheikh.

He said progress in the livestock sector was central to the progress of the economy of the province.

Earlier, Hamid Yaqoob Sheikh said there had recently been an improvement in the working relationship between the department, the UVAS and the livestock and dairy businesses.

The capacity building and training programmes organised jointly by the department and the UVAS were an example of this trend, he added. However, he said, there were still some gaps in the livestock and dairy development policy of the province.

Yaqoob said the Punjab Livestock Advisory Forum should provide technical support to livestock farmers and other related businesses.

UVAS Vice Chancellor Talat Naseer Pasha said the department and the university had jointly undertaken campaigns against the outbreak of diseases like the New Castle disease and Congo fever and during the 2010 flood.

Later, Prof Pasha presented a souvenir to Hamid Yaqoob Sheikh.

Former-Chairman Pakistan Poultry Association Dr Raza Mehmood Khursand, Big Bird Managing Director Dr Abdul Karim Bhatti, Big Bird Director Mustafa Kamal, Solve Agri Pak CEO Haroon MK Lodhi, Dairy and Rural Development Foundation Project Director Jack Moser and Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council President Dr Muhammad Arshad, were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2012.