A meeting of the Asian Buffalo Association (ABA) was held in the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore on Wednesday. The meeting chaired by ABA President Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha decided to organise 6th Asian Buffalo Congress in Lahore on 27th-30th October 2009.
It may be mentioned that the 5th Asian buffalo congress was held in China last year. The meeting also decided that the secretariat of the congress would be located at UVAS, Lahore, while Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and Professor Dr Masroor Elahi Babar were given the responsibilities of Chairman and Organising Secretary of the congress, respectively. The meeting also constituted Congress Steering Committee, National Organising Committee and different management committees to organise this Asian event in a befitting manner.
Addressing the meeting, Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said that the main goal of 6th Asian buffalo congress was to share and disseminate knowledge of cutting-edge technologies for the benefit of sustainable buffalo production. He said buffalo had been an integral part of livestock in this region for over 5000 years producing milk, meat, draft power and hides.
"Buffaloes are becoming economical and thus popular animal with farmers in Asia where around 97 percent (165.4 million) of the world's buffaloes (170.5 million) are found. India has almost 59 percent followed by Pakistan (15 percent) and China (13.8 percent) of the world's buffalo population. Thus three most populous countries of the Asian continent own almost 87 percent of the Asian buffalo wealth," Professor Pasha added.
Animal Husbandry Commissioner Dr RH Usmani, Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab Director General (Extension) Dr Sajjad Zaheer Malik, Chief Research Officer Dr Muhammad Mushtaq Aziz, Director Livestock Farms Dr Ashraf Iqbal Mughal and senior faculty members of the UVAS attended the meeting.