LAHORE: Dairy farmers seek the government`s help to develop indigenous animal breeds in order to increase milk and meat productivity rather than importing exotic animals and semen.

Shaki Umar Gujjar, president of the Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association of Pakistan, stated in a letter to the Animal Husbandry Commissioner of the Ministry of National Food Security that the country is facing a meat and milk shortage despite having 100 million animals because local breeds of animals produce up to six liters of milk per day compared to 40 liters in other countries.

He blames the low output on a lack of research into improving the breedof local cows and buffaloes.

Precious foreign exchange is being spent on the import of dry milk powder to meet local requirements, while exotic animals are also imported by progressive dairy farmers to get better production, he adds.

He suggests that to overcome the problem, the quarters concerned must do research on improving local breeds of cows and animals, like in neighbouring India, where the government signed a technology transfer agreement with a foreign company and thus established Asia`s largest sexed semen production centre for domesticbreeds.

He believes that a committee led by the animal husbandry commissioner should be formed to transfer cutting-edge livestock technology to the country.