Dear Colleagues,
Happy new year 2017, my dear colleagues and well-wishers of Dairy Science Park. The current year was a productive year, full of excitements, hopes and enthusiasm.
During the commencement of the current year we were winding up the Third International Workshop on Dairy Science Park spread over three day and participated by 500+ persons belonging to diverse backgrounds of academia, government, private sector and the civil society. The Senior Minister Mr Inayatuallh Khan has been kind enough to inaugurate the conference and declared the meeting as a bridge between the government and academia for policy formulation. He has already approved Rs.200 million for establishing a model slaughter house and agreed on establishing Dairy Science Park Board under an Act of the provincial assembly.
A memorandum of understanding for Collaborative Biorisk Management Initiative (CBMI) was signed between, the University of Agriculture, Peshawar (UAP), Dairy Science Park (DSP), Khyber Medical University (KMU) and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). The signing ceremony was supervised by Prof Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman HEC. The MoU was a follow up of a consultative workshop in Bangkok and will cover consultative meetings of experts from various disciplines of biological sciences to develop curriculum on Biorisk Management.
Mr Arif Yousaf, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (Law), Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, who is also heading the Task Force on SDGs, lead a fifteen 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 ended with recommendations to develop a national biorisk management curriculum and development of SOPs for food value chain in the DSP region.
Hafeez ur Rahman and Mr Kamran Khan introducing calf fattening at Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Both of these farmers have been in dairy farming since last two decades and active partners of Sarhad Dairy Farmers Association and Dairy Science Park. Initially both of the farmers practiced dairy farming, however, the higher cost of inputs and a control price for the milk sold, is putting a tremendous financial pressure on the producers and reluctantly they quit the dairy production business.
The two farmers utilized their dairying experience, participated in scientific cum business dialogue of the Dairy Science Park, surveyed marketing status of the inputs and sale of the finished products and planned their fattening activities as separate models. One farm fed the animals with energy-protein rich concentrates (probably resulting in overfeeding of the nutrients), expensive medication and veterinary coverage provided by the feed company. The other farm provided simple wheat straw and a little green fodder, keeping the cost at the minimum, with almost zero medication and veterinary coverage. Astonishingly both of them resulted in similar growth rates and and each calf saved about Rs.8000 per calf within a period of three months. This provides an excellent model for entrepreneurship for the youth.
Such type of calf fattening programs are facing marketing challenge, as these animals providing prime beef, have to compete with the beef coming from slaughtering the aged, sick and culled buffaloes and cows after completing their lactation. The district administration notifies flat prices, e.g. Rs.270 per kg beef, irrespective of the quality of animals, beef or preservation modes. Such a price capping discourages the young entrepreneurs producing quality beef at higher rates; and selling at higher prices.
A meeting was held at the University of Agriculture Peshawar to finalize the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Livestock Policy prepared by Prof Dr Muhammad Saleem Chaudhry on advise of the ruling party. The meeting was hosted by the Dairy Science Park, University of Agriculture Peshawar and participated by representatives of the Director Generals Livestock and Dairy Development Department (Extension and Research Wings), Dean FAHVS, The University of Agriculture Peshawar and the private sector represented by the Dairy Science Park. Issues of Livestock Sector in KP were reviewed being the neglect of the business potential of the livestock and poultry farming assets and the processing and marketing channels.
A consultative workshop was held between the experts of Dairy Science Park, Peshawar, Pakistan and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, USA. The meeting was held at Dubai, UAE, focused at development of Pakistan Biorisk Management Curriculum.
A road map was presented for entrepreneurship-based livestock development through establishment of University of Veterinary Innovations and Commercialization, Peshawar and DSP Board Peshawar. The two initiatives would need an extensive support in Biorisk Management through curriculum development and improvement in farming and value-addition practices to achieve self-employment for the youth and hygienic food production for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA in partnership with the United Nations SDGs as #SDGAction9671.
An inspection Team of DSP-UAP visited the factory of Farmers’ Sausages Company at Industrial Estate, Hayatabad Peshawar on request of the Chief Executive of the Company. The inspection team were shown facilities by Mr Bahram Khan, comprising premises for handling the incoming meat after arrival, cold room, weighing scale, mincing assembly, mixing and crushing machine, smoking chamber and boiling pots. The experts examined the quality of the facilities, discussed the deficiencies and advised the Company executives on improvement of the same. The Company’s executives were educated upon importance of hygienic practices and protocols in line with the national and international standards.
DSP-UAP have been utilizing the academic, research and development resources of the provincial government and the Dairy Science Park for supporting livestock based entrepreneurship backed up with briorisk management concepts.
The DSP management welcomes you to Istanbul to attend the fourth international workshop on Dairy Science Park, with the theme “Achieving Food Security through Entrepreneurship Development and Biorisk Management”.
Prof M Subhan Qureshi
Chief Patron