Sarhad Dairy Farmers Association (SDFA) President Hafiz-ur-Rehman has urged the government to organise exchange of dairy farmers' visits with India, Australia and New Zealand to improve knowledge and expertise of farmers and help them learn modern trends and techniques in livestock sector.
He made this demand in his paper read out at the Livestock Investment Conference 2005-06. He said livestock farming played very important role in the economy of Pakistan and was single largest sector employing people. The sector has potential to play very important role in creating jobs and employing people. Besides, creating most of job opportunities in rural areas it also stopped movement of rural population towards urban centers.
In his recommendations, The SDFA president called for declaring livestock sector as an industry to pave its way for entering into mainstream economic activities and play its role in an organised manner. He said poultry farming was declared industry many year back and it has now become the most vibrant sector of our economy.
The SDFA president also called for deregulation of the prices of meat and milk immediately to encourage investment in the sector, saying the prices of poultry have been deregulated 15 years back.
For financing, he said special funds should be allocated and every bank/FDI be given specific targets for reimbursement in the sector. "Problems in the sector be immediately solved and viable packages be offered to the public for investment," the presentation added.
The department of livestock should arrange short courses with easy language to impart training to farmers, especially in health & common diseases, fodder, and concentrate requirements and farm management & marketing. Similarly, in order to attract investment, extensive seminars on feasibility studies of different projects in livestock should be conducted to make investors as well as general public aware of opportunities available in the sector.
To facilitate investment in the sector, Hafiz-ur-Rehman said at least five years' tax holiday and exemption from labour laws, social security, employees' old age benefits and other government regulations be given to this sector. The government should also establish Buffalo Colonies having capacity of accommodating 6,000 to 10,000 buffaloes in every big city of the province. The provincial government has already announced establishment of three such colonies in Peshawar, Mardan and D I Khan.
For development of livestock sector, he also suggested encouragement for the formation of associations and co-operatives to solving their problems of management and marketing. The banks, he said should be advised to give loans on minimum mark-up rate and on easy terms to dairy farms, processing units and other downstream industries of the sector.
The government should constitute Livestock Development Board headed by a private sector representative to facilitate and promote livestock and dairy sector. He also called for introduction of amendments in the Food Control Act and issuance of Livestock Degrees from Agriculture Universities in the country.
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