Mr Arif Yousaf, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (Law), Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, who is also representing the province as a member of Task Force on MDGs, led a fourteen members delegation of Dairy Science Park Peshawar to attend a consultative workshop at Bangkok, Thailand from 12 to 19 November. Prof M Subhan Qureshi Dean FAHVS/Cheif Patron DSP, University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan; Prof Umer Sadique, Prof Sarzamin Khan (UAP), Dr Zia ul Haq (KMU), Mr Nasir Shah (HEC) and Engr Irfan ul Haq (DSP) and Mr Kamran Khan (farming and industry) assisted him during the visit.
The workshop focused on Curriculum Development for Pakistani and regional universities and is sponsored by the Sandia National Laboratories USA. This is the third workshop of its kind after those held at Amsterdam and Dubai recently.
The workshop evaluated the biorisk contents of curricula in place at various universities. Recommendations would be prepared for standardizing the courses and accommodating the concerns of the local livestock/poultry farming, products processing, marketing and quality control systems present in the region.
Dairy Science Park has been registered with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a Scientific Society committed for self-employment of the youth and hygienic food production for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA and the adjoining regions of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China. DSP has been accepted by United Nations as a Sustainable Development Action #SDGAction9671 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=9671. DSP has been taking care of SDGs # 2, 3, 7, 8 and 16.
KP and FATA regions have been the site of international conflicts and are hit by poverty and illiteracy. However, the people work hard and are naturally blessed with a rich livestock and poultry resource base. This resource base could be utilized for generation of self-employment and hygienic food production, which will help in achieving the DSP goals. DSP has worked a lot through holding three international conferences, demonstrating feasible entrepreneurship models and extended Quality Control support to the emerging youth entrepreneurs. The delegation will also visit the Bangkok office of SDGs-UNDP for considering development plans for the KP and FATA regions.
