PESHAWAR – The collaboration of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) and KP’s Livestock and Dairy Development Department has resulted in bringing investment of Rs.945 million and capacity-building of dairy farmers.
Both organisations have jointly been running well coordinated and focusing awareness campaigns, including trainings on breed improvement, feed management, productivity enhancement, efficient technologies and new fodder varieties.
This experience sharing has resulted in the adoption of best management practices by the dairy farmers. The farmers have mobilised investment in innovative projects, like, silage processing, milking parlors, and controlled atmosphere dairy sheds. Talking to this scribe, General Manager Out-Reach (GMOR) SMEDA , Javed Iqbal Khattak said that private sector can highly benefit from the synergetic efforts of various public sector departments, adding that he strongly believe in coordination rather than reinvention of wheel. “The competent team of the Livestock Dairy Development Department has proven it to be our best partner for several joint interventions,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Smeda and the Livestock and Dairy Development Department had made big achievement through training and exposure visits of dairy farmers for modernising their dairy farms. As a result of these efforts, initially M/s Bakht Dairy (Lakki Marwat), M/s Kashif Dairy (Peshawar), M/s Peerano Dairy (Peshawar), and M/s Ummah Welfare Trust are going to adopt the Modern Dairy Practices.
These farms will not only modernise their sheds but also import A-2 Milk Cows for enhancement of milk quality and production as well as drastic reduction in operational costs. The expected investment in the controlled atmosphere sheds alone during the current year is estimated to be around Rs945 million.
Especially talking about the southern KP, the establishment of such dairy farm will be the best model and source of high quality cow breeds introduction. While appreciating the approach of the Ummah Welfare Academy, Saeed of Bakht Dairies expressed his interest in establishing modern dairy sheds.
He said, “Apart from ensuring best practices in dairy farming, we aim value-addition to dairy products as well as proving to be a source of cost effective best quality cow breeds for the farmers of the province.
Source The Nation