Outreach Services – Dairy Science Park

وَمَاۤ اَرۡسَلۡنٰكَ اِلَّا رَحۡمَةً لِّـلۡعٰلَمِيۡنَ

Wama arsalnaaka illa rahmatallilalameen (And We have sent you, Oh Muhammad, not but as a mercy for the Worlds (Qur’an, 21:107)

DSP has been introduced as a sacred mission for welfare of people of the Region through generation of self employment and hygienic/Halal food production. The Park has been registered as a Society with the Government of KP, Pakistan and accepted by the United Nations as #UNSDGAction9671. In line with the vision of the Higher Education Commission, the business incubation concepts were integrated into postgraduate research ongoing at the Faculty, shaping up the University – Industry linkages. A biennial series of international workshops was initiated and it continued during November, 2011, 2013 and 2015, each by 450+ delegates, with 100+ technical papers and industrial exhibition. The proceedings were published online/printed and in impact factor journals. The 1^st workshop focused on post-flood revival of dairy industry, the 2^nd on meat potential of the region and the 3^rd on entrepreneurship development for the outgoing graduates. The fourth conference was held at Selcuk University Konya, Turkey Nov 1-5, 2017 with the theme, “Achieving Food Security through Entrepreneurship Development and Biorisk Management”.

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been the sites of international conflicts. The region is mostly mountainous and arid, rich in natural resources, predominantly livestock like sheep, goats, cattle, buffaloes, and poultry. The total value of livestock heads is Rs.1.09 trillion (US $10 billion). However, the huge resource base can neither provide good economic return to the producers, nor quality food to the consumers. These holdings threaten public health safety. The main reasons behinds this state of affairs are poor socio-economic status of the farmers, lack of resources and focus on part of the state institutions, and a hostile marketing system. DSP has been working on generating solutions to these issues.

Emerging industries in milk and meat processing and marketing have been provided technical and Quality Control certification support to relieve legal threats from the District Administration, who focus on price capping of milk and meat rather than quality. Meat shops established on modern lines of hygiene produce quality beef; however such facilities are raided by the government agencies on the basis of higher prices. DSP has been facilitating inspection of such facilities; providing SOPs for quality standards and issuing certificates. Similar services are being extended to private slaughter houses and meat/milk processing centers and other emerging entrepreneurs. Sandia National Lab USA has been supporting DSP under a Biorisk Management Collaboration. Five consultative workshops were held in Amsterdam, Dubai, Bangkok, Puket and Colombo, participated by 70 members/times of DSP; and developed contents on biorisk management into the DVM curriculum in Pakistani Universities and food value chain. Selected faculty members of the DVM degree awarding Universities would be trained in BRM under DSP-SNL collaboration.

The Senior Minister, Local Government, Government of KP chaired a high level meeting held on 3-3-2016 and agreed on proposal of DSP for implementation of an ADP project for establishing a Modern Slaughter House. Consequently, a Summary was initiated for Chief Secretary which was supported by Additional Chief Secretary. A note was initiated by the Senior Minister for Establishment of Task Force on Dairy Science Park which was approved by the Chief Minister on 2-8-2017. Dairy Science Park intends to establish Technoparks in various universities of the country through collaboration with Konya Teknokent and other development, government and private sector organizations.

DSP-UN partnership for SDGs

CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS

Biennial Conference Series