PM directs early plan to restructure Livestock and Dairy Development Board

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed that the plan to restructure the Livestock and Dairy Development Board be presented at the earliest. He said the private sector should come forward for the development of the livestock sector.

The federal government will set up a national-level plant for the production of modern and effective vaccines for livestock from its own resources. The prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on the ongoing reforms in the livestock sector.

Restructuring of the board

The Livestock and Dairy Development Board was established in 2007 to improve livestock breeding in Pakistan, increase milk and meat production and develop the livestock sector.

The prime minister said private-sector experts should be included in the board and it should be turned into an effective and active institution.

He directed that imported livestock brought into special bonded warehouses for livestock be put through value addition. He said meat and dairy products (Meat and Dairy Products) made through value addition from imported livestock should be exported.

The prime minister directed that a strategy for setting up a livestock vaccine plant at the National Agricultural Research Centre be presented within a week.

Briefing at the meeting

The meeting briefed the prime minister on the progress of reforms in the livestock sector and of measures to increase exports linked to the sector.

It was told that the third-party audit of slaughterhouses has begun. The livestock vaccines available in Pakistan are not approved by DRAP, so steps are being taken to produce purified vaccines for livestock in the country. Steps are also under way to set up special bonded warehouses for imported livestock.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers Rana Tanveer Hussain, Ahsan Iqbal, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Dr Musaddik Masood Malik, Ahad Khan Cheema and Jam Kamal Khan, Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani, and senior officials of the departments concerned.