He was speaking at the passing out ceremony of third batch of 'Artificial Insemination Assistants (AIAs)' and 'Women Livestock Extension Workers (WLEWs)' trained by the Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board (PLDDB) here on Friday. In all 132 boys and 132 girls graduated as AIAs and WLEWs in third batch to serve in 10 districts of the province for the betterment of livestock farmers.
Major General Muhammad Ali (Retd), PLDDB Chief Executive Officer also spoke on this occasion while the ceremony was also attended by Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Vice Chancellor University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Talat Naseer Pasha, Vice Chancellor University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, General Manager (Field Services and Capacity Building) PLDDB Dr Naveed Ahmad Niazi and others.
The Board is working on an ambitious project of training 2,000 young men as AIAs and 2,000 women as WLEWs to provide modern breeding services and nutritional and other livestock related inputs to the livestock farmers of the province. The Minister said livestock sector had overall 11 percent share in the national GDP while it had 55 percent share in agricultural GDP, according to recent survey.
He said the government was working with full devotion for uplift of agriculture and livestock sector, adding that the government had established a modern slaughterhouse in Lahore in line with international standards to help meat exports from Punjab. He said the PLDDB was also formed to enhance milk and meat production in the province, adding that Board was successfully working on project of training AIAs to meet the shortage of trained workforce in this sector.
He said the Board was also training women as women extension workers to speed up the livestock sector development as well as financially empowering the rural women folk. He said a state of the art semen production was also being set up in Khizarabad, which after completion would produce one million doses of semen per year and help increase good quality animals.
PLDDB CEO, Major General Muhammad Ali Khan (Retd) in his welcome address stated that 500 boys and girls from last two batches were working in eight districts of the province covering over 1,000 villages. They have inseminated 55,000 animals during last few months besides ear-tagging and also built up a database of animals in these districts. Artificial inseminations being carried out by the PLDDB trained AIAs are showing good results and over 55 percent animals have shown positive pregnancy.