SIALKOT: Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) Punjab has planned to promote quail farming as a profitable enterprise for rural women.

A plan has been chalked out with an aim to generate employment opportunities and address poverty issues across the province.

Official sources told APP here on Monday that quail farming is an income generating rural enterprise in various countries, which does not require huge investment or infrastructure.

SMEDA will extend support and guidance to those interested in initiating quail farming in the province, sources added.

The plan has defined the role of service providers with focus on provision of latest techniques and information to rural women to create business opportunities for them.

Quail farming was started in Pakistan in the seventies with the introduction of breeding stock of Japanese quails. However, quail farming has remained a neglected component of poultry sector in the country, said the sources.