The officers and experts of Livestock and Dairy Development Department should encourage private sector for enhancement of milk and meat production to meet the future food needs, said Punjab Chief Secretary Azam Suleman Khan.
He stated this while talking to a delegation of private investors during a meeting on livestock sector, at Civil Secretariat here on Monday. Detailed deliberations were made on a proposal by the delegates to establish a disease-free zone in Kasur and set up check-posts at all entry and exit points of the city.
The meeting was briefed that this zone would help save animals from diseases through timely vaccinations, resulting into ample availability of healthy meat and milk for food. The delegates also presented the proposal of setting up check-posts to scan animals for diseases at entry and exit points of district Kasur.
The chief secretary asked the delegation to prepare a workable model of the project so that it could be finalized with local administration in next meeting. He also inquired about tagging of animals and steps to save them from diseases.
The Livestock director general briefed the chief secretary that foot and mouth disease in Cholistan has been controlled as six doses of vaccine have been administered to animals in the area at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion.
He mentioned that process of tagging animals has been completed and according to data there are about 89 million animals in the province. Of these animals, about 44 million are cows and buffalos, he added.
The chief secretary assured the delegation that the Punjab government would extend full cooperation to private investors for execution of this project and it would be replicated in other districts after success. The meeting was attended by Dr Masood Rabbani, Capt Jaffar Chaudhry, Dr Suhail, Jahanzeb Barana, Waqar Ahmad, Khalid Mehmood and officers concerned.
