The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) on Tuesday organized a post-budget dialogue in which various stakeholders from poultry, dairy, meat, and leather sectors discussed the current budget’s implications for livestock sector.
UVAS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad along with Animal Husbandry Commissioner Dr Muhammad Akram chaired the session held at UVAS.
The participants lauded the exemption of import duties on agricultural machinery and several other initiatives of the government.
It was suggested that allocations for livestock sector should be enhanced keeping in view the mammoth contribution of the sector in the GDP. The dairy sector should be given industry status and duties on imported milk should be increased to protect local farmers who were facing increasing pressure from rising costs of production.
It was underscored that there was need for significant policy and budgetary initiatives to ensure the viability of livestock business in order to stop small and medium farmers from quitting livestock farming.
In order to cope with rising cost of imported supplies, there was need to gear up on initiatives for localization of soybean and other hitherto imported inputs.
It was also noted that delaying the sales tax refunds was soaking up the working capital of corporate dairy businesses and was increasing their cost of business.
Farmer trainings and awareness initiatives should be undertaken to increase livestock productivity and to avoid loss of valuable materials to leather industries caused by various skin related diseases.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Muhammad Akram lauded the role of UVAS for arranging post budget dialogues every year and providing platform to stakeholders for discussing challenges facing the livestock sector.
He also suggested that organizing pre-budget dialogues in coming years to provide timely inputs for budget preparations.
UVAS Vice Chancellor Prof Nasim Ahmad said the UVAS was playing the leading role of a think-tank for livestock sector and was arranging such debates in the larger interest of the society.
