Pakistan can meet its energy crisis through promoting biogas plants in every village like neighbouring countries like China, which has developed 22 million plants, India 4 million, and Nepal 2 million, but Pakistan has only 4000 biogas plants, said Sarfraz Ahmed, programme manager of Dairy Pakistan, at a seminar jointly organised by the TDAP and MCCI, chaired by Asrar Ahmed Awan.
He said that Dairy Pakistan intends to introduce economical production of biogas. Electricity is not always available through rural areas of Pakistan; so, this initiative would provide alternative and renewable energy for rural communities, while reducing environmental impacts and improving fertiliser values, he added.
He said that Dairy Pakistan intends to broaden links between the market and farmers by enhancing milk collection through assisting investment in small milk collection units, of the scale of motorcycles and auto-rickshaws. Access to many farms in rural Pakistan is difficult; so such a scheme will enable more milk to be collected and taken to cooling stations.
It is proposed to establish farm input stores across rural Pakistan. These stores will provide to farmers good quality animal feed and other farm necessities at fair prices. Farm input stores will be focal points for the dissemination of information relating to farm management and market developments.
It is intended to review the effectiveness of the training courses provided to people involved in supporting the dairy sector. In the medium term it is important that the lessons from the Model Farm Programme are built into the education of people who will work in the dairy sector.
It is vital that breeds indigenous to Pakistan are protected. Not only is this a matter of principle, but this breeds also offer traits such as resistance to tropical pests and diseases and the ability to cope with high temperatures. It is important that these traits are protected and indeed built upon, he said.