University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Bashir Ahmad said that Pakistan was facing challenges to boost agriculture and livestock sectors according to the international standards.
Addressing a seminar on "Dairy nutrition and management to improve animal well-being and performance", organised by the Institute of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology in collaboration with the USDA and the American Soybean Association, he underlined the need for introducing new technology for silage in the livestock sector.
He urged the scientists to develop a manual of composite feed for livestock for all seasons.
He said that milking animals were suffering from shortage of green fodder twice in a year, once in May and June and second in October and November. This was the crucial period for our livestock in the context of green fodder and their management. He said that our livestock farmers were not properly educated regarding storage of animal feeds.
He asked the scientists to convey their research to the stakeholders.
Dr Bashir Ahmad also pointed out that we could achieve good results through providing vaccination facilities to the livestock farmers.
Earlier, Institute of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology Director Professor Dr Mohammad Sarwar, in his address of welcome, said the livestock management was a key issue which was being neglected in past.
He said that milking animals were suffering from 32 percent protein deficiency and 28 percent other food supplement deficiencies. The livestock sector is the most important emerging sub-sector of the agri sector as reflected by its shares of 46.8 percent in agriculture and 10.8 percent share in GDP during FY05. The livestock registered a deceleration in growth from 2.8 percent YoY in FY04 to 2.3 percent YoY during FY05.
Other speakers mentioned that livestock incomes complement crop income of the small and subsistence farmers and provide insurance against risks of crop failures arising from the vagaries of the weather.
Livestock output and prices affect the cost of living for urban poor by their impact on overall affecting the food price levels. Due to this importance, livestock has gained the attention of policy-makers and scheduled commercial banks. The latter is visible in the rise of finance credit extension to livestock.
They pointed out that the government has provided many incentives for the promotion of the livestock sector. Imported plant and equipment not manufactured locally are completely exempted from sales tax and only subject to customs duty of 10 percent.
Import of breeding stock will be allowed, subject to the import duty of 10 percent. Locally manufactured machinery will be provided credit. In order to meet Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) requirements under WTO for quality assurance of livestock and livestock products exports, various steps have been taken to improve sanitary and hygiene conditions of animal casing processing units in the country and National Veterinary Laboratory has been constructed for drug residue testing in the livestock products.
The Livestock Development Board (LDB) has been established for the promotion and development of the livestock sector.
Besides these measures, there is also an urgent need for strengthening the government veterinary departments and research & development (R&D) activities/programs related to breeding of animals.
The higher expenditure on health and R&D expenditure would be justified because these are public goods and having positive externalities, they added.
American scholar Dr Tillak Ram Dhiman also spoke on the occasion and said that Pakistan had a great potential in the livestock sector, which could be utilised through better management and balanced feed.
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