THE University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences is in the process of developing the National Livestock Technology Park near Lahore with the Higher Education Commission’s financial support.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) would commit over Rs3.5bn for this park and the University of Veterinary and Animal Science (UVAS) will lead this initiative with the help of five more educational institutions from other provinces.

Despite having a huge livestock base across the country, the sector is massively fragmented, making it an uphill task to integrate its pieces.

The Economic Survey of Pakistan (2015-16) highlights the extent of this fragmentation. According to the survey, the livestock sector forms over 58pc of the agriculture sector and adds up to 11.6pc to the GDP.

The massive herd of 42.8m cattle, comprising 36.6m buffalo, 29.8m sheep and 70.3m goats, with an average herd of three animals, is maintained by illiterate and untrained farmers.

The sector is central to the rural economy because 8m families draw 35pc of their income from livestock.

Similar is the situation of the poultry, which is now second to the textile industry in terms of investment and employment. With an investment of over Rs400bn, 280 hatcheries, 139 feed mills and over 20,000 layer, broiler and breeding farms, the industry is still in the throes of crisis.

The National Livestock Technology Park aims to act as a hub linking research, farmers and the industry with a special focus on training

The poultry farmers struggle to sell their merchandise in the local market.  Only 1pc flock goes into processing, while the seasonal production and variations make it hard to check the price volatility.

Its future lies in value added processing but it cannot be done due to absence of locally trained manpower. The processing unit owners have to import manpower.

According to the planners of the park, it is the first attempt to integrate the sector by creating a platform to lead this national initiative in four directions: showcasing new research and technology, providing training as per the recent international requirements and standards, developing the livestock business and creating a pool of human resource that could bring sustainability and efficiency to the business. 

The new park aims to act as a hub linking research, farmers and the industry, with a special focus on training.

The sector needs expertise at the basic level. Over 80pc of the herd is maintained by people with little knowledge of disease control, breeding and genetic improvement. This park targets to create awareness through education, training and facilitation.

Expertise is also needed at the industrial level. The meat export business, growing at a brisk speed of 30pc for the last one decade ($29m in 2005 to $243m in 2015-16), still lacks in meat technology.

An elaborate plan of short-courses, diplomas and post-graduate level studies and training to build capacity along the entire supply-chain of livestock products has been put in place.

The technology transfer and product display centre will spearhead the efforts to transform the livestock sector into a commercially profitable proposition through public and private sector partnerships.

Other objectives include creating a livestock information processing model for collection and processing of on-farm information and development of decision making tools to improve the performance benchmarks for producers.

The park would also develop centralised data pool for breed improvement through genetic recording, based on phenotypic traits, farm animal genetic management, genetic evaluation and reproductive technologies which will also assist the government in policy recommendations.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, April 10th, 2017