January 24, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 14, 1429

HYDERABAD, Jan 23: Caretaker Sindh minister for fisheries and animal husbandry Mansab Ali Jakhrani has said that the Sindh government had devised a plan worth Rs1465.944 million to increase breeding of cattle on the pattern of Australia and New Zealand.

He said its implementation would begin in coming weeks and it would help eliminate poverty in rural areas.He was addressing a meeting of officers in the directorate of animal husbandry.

The minister said the project has been named Embryo Transfer Technology and Semen Processing Centre and its headquarters would be established in Tando Mohammad Khan.

He said that a steering committee headed by additional chief secretary development for the project's supervision had been formed.

This project was designed on the pattern of an identical ongoing project in Okara, he said.Under this project, he said, the embryo of fine breed of cattle would be entered into another female for reproduction.

For this purpose, he said, 69 field centres would be established in 15 district of Sindh.

Mr Jakhrani further said that the staff of animal husbandry would be given proper training and as per a safe estimate the province will have 750 million litres milk annually, 60 million kilogrammes of meat, and 0.3 million hides which would also lead to job opportunities in related fields.He said that a mega project for cattle breeding at a cost of Rs3.328 billion by the provincial government was under way and as part of this project cattle colonies were being established on 200 acres in districts including Tharparkar, Tando Allahyar and Umerkot in collaboration with district government and cattle breeders.He said that under this project in every cattle colony, 70 sheds would be set up on one-and-half acre of land and each shed would have capacity of accommodating 50 animals.

He said the project would be jointly financed by government and cattle breeders and they would be required to pay back the money in 120 easy instalments.