LAHORE: The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) on Wednesday arranged two consultative stakeholder video conferences on challenges to efficient food supply chain of dairy, poultry and meat in Punjab during Covid-19 emergency.

Punjab Minister for Livestock and Dairy Development Department Sardar Husnain Bahadur Dareshak presided over the meeting to discuss issues affecting livestock sector and sought recommendations and technical inputs from stakeholders for formulation of policies for smooth supply chain to catering the needs of the country.

UVAS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad, University of Education VC Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Livestock and Dairy Development Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Iqbal Shahid, Prof Dr Sajjad Khan and many stakeholders from public and private sector were present.

Prof Pasha suggested a media campaign for awareness of the general public that milk, meat and eggs consumption is not only safe but also significantly help boost immune system for effectively combating the coronavirus.

He said it was important to enhance consumption of livestock and poultry products to achieve better immunity in general public as well as ensuring economic safeguard of farmers.

Mr Dareshak said the home department was playing a vital role in the continuation of supply chain during lockdown.

In an open discussion, the participants recommended that the import of milk powders especially skimmed milk powder in the country should be banned immediately to safeguard local dairy industry.

They said feed mills, franchises and livestock products related retail shops should be allowed to remain open by the government during emergency from 9am to 8pm.

They demanded provision of cargo flights and subsidy in freight for facilitation of export of chicken, eggs and red meat to the regional markets during lockdown.

They called for giving a special package to new investments in livestock and poultry farming by giving tax exemptions and free electricity during Covid-19 situation and they also demanded subsidy especially on the value addition related equipment.

UMT: The university management has decided to take extra measures to conduct 120 concurrent online class sessions to complete remaining course work of the semester after closure of universities.

UMT President Ibrahim Hassan Murad said the university connected students of all the departments and conducted training of over 900 faculty members from Lahore and Sialkot campuses.

He said there was an internet connectivity issue in far-flung areas and the government should take extra measures to provide free internet facility across Pakistan for improving the quality of online classes.

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY: The Virtual University of Pakistan, an administrative organisation under the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, is collaborating with the Higher Education Commission, universities and the education department to spread e-learning in far-flung areas of the country.

In this regard, the Virtual University will also give its air time on its television network for schools all over the country. Moreover, the VU is supporting and offering its Learning Management System (LMS) free of cost to more than 14 public sector universities.

VU Rector Dr Naeem Tariq said LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses and training programmes. The learning management system concept has emerged from e-learning and supports successful execution of distance learning.

Its App can be installed on mobile, laptop and desktop computers and a student is given a login and password for attendance.

After logging into the system, students can get access to course details including recorded videos lectures, assignments, notice board, educational content, assignment of teacher, its running and pending courses, grades of the courses, discussion boards and fee structure.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020