The Dairy-Beef and small ruminant project team of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore in collaboration with the University of Melbourne Australia organised a “National Livestock Forum” in Islamabad
LAHORE (Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2022) The Dairy-Beef and small ruminant project team of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore in collaboration with the University of Melbourne Australia organised a “National Livestock Forum” in Islamabad.
UVAS Vice-Chancellors Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor University of Education Lahore (UE) Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Dr Fateh Mari from Sindh Agricultural University while Dr David McGill, Dr Angus Campbell and Dr Anna Barrett joined the forum along with the Dairy-Beef and Small Ruminant projects team members. A number of extension managers, heads/CEOs from research and academia, government and NGOs from private and public sector and farmers were present.
Addressing the audience, Prof Nasim said that the project has identified key constraints to smallholder production and implemented innovative nutrition and health solutions that reduce mortality ratio in young lambs. He said such applied research-for-development projects carried out research that resulted in on-farm productivity increases of 25-30% and developed an important innovation, the ‘whole-family extension approach’.
Earlier, Project Manager Dr Humera Iqbal and Dr Hassan Mehmood Warriach spoke about the background of working in Pakistan in dairy, beef and small ruminants’ sectors. Dairy-Beef and Small Ruminant team shared their major contributions to the livestock sector within the previous decade. Dr Humera spoke about importance and gender inclusive approaches in livestock development. Dr Humera and Dr Haroon spoke about the conventional livestock setting in Pakistan and the interventions that the project undertook to mitigate the challenges of smallholder farmers within Pakistan.
The objective of this role play was to highlight the farmer challenges of dairy/beef and sheep/goat farming. Then how traditional farm advisory services by various organisations (govt, private, NGO and research oraganisations) are impacting overall farm production and then how these can be improved using whole family extension approach.
Dr David highlighted the challenges of smallholder farmers and importance of finding local solutions. Project team also set up stalls based on the themes according to the project objectives and all the participants visited the stalls. At the end Dr Talat Naseer Pasha appreciated the project team for their great contribution to improving the livelihood of the smallholder farmers.
