ISLAMABAD: Chairman PARC Dr. Yusuf Zafar said on Monday poultry production was the most efficient and economical system of animal protein growth.
Chairman PARC said this while addressing to participants at the occasion of the national seminar on "Development of a dual purpose chicken breed for rural poultry sector of Pakistan" held at National Agricultural Research Council (NARC), said a statement issued here Monday.
Dr. Yusuf Zafar said from the start of poultry industry in Pakistan, a number of exotic strains have been imported mainly from the temperate countries.
He said that development and conservation of local Naked Neck breed and hybridizing with Rhode Island Red and Black Australorp would help us to develop high producing dual purpose breed for rural areas.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Johar Ali, Member (ASD) said "our indigenous poultry possesses bright prospects for future development in view of easy and abundant availability of all the requisite inputs such as land, labour and feed resources in rural areas and lower cost of production as compared to commercial poultry".
Indigenous chickens had the advantage of being well adapted to the local environmental conditions (hot, cold, humid, dry and rainy weather).
These chickens were scavengers by nature and scavenge for their own feed from morning to evening around houses and fields.
Dr. Fatheh Ullah Sr. Director (ASI) in his remarks said that another advantage of the naked neck chicken was the good taste and flavor of both eggs and meat as claimed by the common consumer.
In order to enhance the rural poultry egg and meat production, it is desirable to develop breeds with better egg and meat production and suitable to the local environment.
Selection, development and conservation of indigenous poultry breeds and hybridizing with high producing exotic breeds would help us to develop high producing dual purpose breed for rural areas.
These hybridized local genetic resources could be further utilized to develop our own dual purpose rural chickens, adjustable to the local environmental conditions.
Dr. Abdul Ghaffar, Director (LRS) on the occasion said that during the first year 1530 eggs of NN were set in a private hatchery in 10 batches.
The average day old chick weight was 37.9 grams which increased to 50.4_+ 8.7 in first week.
He said that currently more than 200 NN birds were laying eggs at the Poultry Section.
At end of session, Dr. M. Azeem Khan, DG NARC thanked all participants and said that with the genetic improvement of selected indigenous naked neck by crossing with exotic poultry breeds of Rhode Island Red and Black Australorp would effect positively over poultry production in country.
Comments
Comments are closed.