He said federal secretary during meeting with his counterparts in Sindh on the other day informed that federal government would give Rs97 subsidy while Sindh government have to pay Rs300 and rest of the Rs1100 would be collected from the farmer against each fowl. Moreover, he said that this initiative could not be materialised in Sindh as the provincial government was already providing 20 fowls free of cost to the farmers and hoped that PM initiative to promote poultry farming might also be opposed by Sindh cabinet.
Pitafi said that Sindh livestock, fisheries & cooperative department was planning to organise exhibitions at district level to take all stakeholders on board and apprised that LDFA would be held at Hyderabad this year. He said that Sindh government has set 5 percent as growth target by 2030 and for the purpose considerations were being made to streamline the affairs and added that poultry and agriculture sectors, which had been neglected for long, were now recognised as major potential sectors to achieve this growth target.
Mehboob-ul-Haq MD Sindh Enterprise Development Funds (SEDF) said that 'Marhaba Protein Farms', a private sector company, has invested Rs350 million for the establishment of a breeder farm and hatchery and SEDF would pay KIBOR part of interest on the loan provided by bank. He said that Sindh had a vast potential of profitable investment in poultry breeder farming and hatchery sector as the province was producing only 20 percent demand of breeding and hatchery while the rest of 80 percent demand would be fulfilled by Punjab.
He said that Frisian Eggs - Holland would start its egg processing unit by next month and added that egg processing in Pakistan was 30 percent cost effective as compared to other parts of the world. Saeed Ahmed, Joint Director, AC&M department SBP said that the central bank had set a target of agriculture credit to Rs1250 billion for current fiscal year and Rs527.3 billion were disbursed during first six months, of which Rs288.4 billion were lent from five top commercial banks. He said that agriculture credit amounting to Rs973 billion was disbursed as against the target of Rs1001 billion in FY17-18.
Azhar Ali Dahar, Dirctor General, TDAP termed poultry sector as vibrant segment of livestock sector in Pakistan, which provided over 1.5 million direct or indirect employment. He said that current investment in this was estimated to more than Rs700 billion and Pakistan was ranked at 10th in the world in poultry production; adding that poultry meat production for the year 2017-18 was to the tune of 1.39 million tonnes, which was 32.7 percent of the total meat production (4.3 million tonnes) in the country.
Furthermore, he said that the poultry sector had contributed 1.4 percent in GDP while the contribution of agriculture sector stood at 7.5 percent during 2017-18 and added that value added products of livestock created 12.7 percent impact on country's exports. He urged the investors to pour investments in this sector for Halal meat exports especially to Middle East. Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, Executive Director Sindh Poultry Vaccine Centre (SPVC) said that they had developed 64 types of poultry vaccine and four types of livestock vaccine and the centre was providing free medicine assistance to the farmers.
Aijaz Ahmed Mahesar, secretary Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative department, Dr Muhammad Ilyas DG, Animal Quarantine department, Ghulam Khaliq, chairman Southern Zone Pakistan Poultry Association, Karachi and Kabool Muhammad Khatian President Sindh Chamber of Agriculture also spoke on the occasion. A large number of banks, investors and others attended the event.