Livestock Sector: Punjab to spend Rs2.7 billion

LAHORE: The Punjab government will spend Rs2.7 billion on the livestock sector during the fiscal year 2012-13 to enhance meat and milk production, official sources told APP on Friday. Projects in the relevant sector will create job opportunities for hundreds of youths in rural areas, sources added. The government has already started exporting meat to Malaysia and Iran. A modern meat processing plant had been set up with Iranian cooperation which enabled the province to export halal meat. They said that the government had also established the Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board for the promotion of livestock. The board through model livestock farms is training farmers so that they could take care of their cattle efficiently and effectively and generate income for their families. They said that spade work for a livestock university to be set up at Bahawalpur had already been completed and a sum of Rs4.4 million will be spent on its construction.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2012.