UVAS organises stakeholders meeting

The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore organised stakeholders meeting to identify priorities initiatives proposal for the year ADP 2017-18 here on Wednesday in city campus Lahore.
UVAS Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and Member Production Planning & Development Government of Punjab Mukhtar Malik jointly chaired the meeting and sought suggestions and technical input from the relevant stakeholders about the process initiated for identification of project proposal to be considered for the year 2017-18 for the development of livestock sector.
Additional Secretary Livestock and Dairy Development Punjab Khalid Mahmood Chaudhary, Chief Agriculture Planning & Development Dr Muhammad Ashraf and a large number of researchers, academician, farmers, professionals, stakeholders and representative from public and private sector attended the meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor said that livestock has major share in agriculture GDP so there is need to focus more on livestock sector development. He said that there is a dire need to initiate school milk program and provide an egg a day to our school children to attract them to schools and improve their health by solving their issue of malnutrition as well as providing market to our livestock, dairy and poultry farmers for their prosperity and their profitability. He said that there is also a need for huge investment to the uplift of livestock sector especially in camel, sheep and goat production. He said through this forum we need to make farmer friendly policies and build bridges between farmers and consumers for their mutual benefit. He also said that UVAS's doors are always open for the professionals from public and private sectors to come forward to seek or offer assistance.
The meeting participants put forward various suggestions including starting messaging service for the guidance of farmers, establishing vaccine production unit for the eradication of diseases, local breed improvement through progeny testing system, adopting new technologies in milk and meat supply chain, conducting livestock census and enhancing fodder production and result oriented research and all these aspects will be viable, sustainable and more beneficial for farming community.