They also called for proper legislation to overcome problems in exporting of livestock and dairy products. The speakers put certain recommendations and proposals at the concluding session of the three-day "Dairy Science Park" Workshop held under the auspices of Department of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Sciences, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University, Peshawar.
At the closing day of the workshop, the dairy development experts have suggested chalking-out cohesive and viable strategy with consultation of all stakeholders, including academia, research, extension, industry and government. They stressed standardisation of milk and dairy products to compete at the international level. They demanded that nutritional status of livestock should also be improved by cultivation of high yielding and high nutritive fodder, and pastures for grazing livestock. They called for specific legislation for overcoming the problems in exporting of livestock and dairy products.
For the facilitation of researchers and institutions, the experts said there should be promoted quality research in dairy sector and asked for using barren land for livestock production in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They demanded establishment of model dairy farms for extension and research purpose in every district of the province besides creating extension system to provide facilities to farmers at their doorsteps.
They observed that research needs to be conducted to address the marketing problems of milk and dairy products and give solid recommendations in the light of its findings. The developing and testing of locally produced drugs and vaccines could be used to reduce health-related costs and create new employment opportunities.
They also called for establishment of standard laboratories to assess the quality of feed and water for healthy and more productive livestock. Moreover, devising on-farm tests to check feed and water quality. The smuggling of livestock and dairy products should be banned across the border to Afghanistan. There should be regulating of slaughtering of animals, particularly immature animals, to avoid losses of potential animals, they recommended.
The government, speakers said, should extend special benefits in terms of electricity charges, loans and taxation etc. Training of livestock workers, researchers and other scientist should be carried out to cope with the new challenges of modern livestock and dairy sector, they demanded. The experts also demanded establishment of salvage farms to rear animal and prevent them from slaughtering to maintain the genetic pool of best breeds of livestock population along with slaughterhouses offering latest facilities to ensure production of quality meat to the consumers.
More than 400 local and international delegates, including farms researchers, experts of livestock and dairy development, government extension department, researchers from different agricultural universities of the country along-with neighbouring states, including Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh, participated in the workshop.