The Daily Times of Pakistan reported on a recently held workshop on livestock development that took place in Islamabad, Pakistan on 11-12 May 2015.

The ‘Stakeholders’ consultation on findings of small ruminant rapid assessment studies’ workshop was co-organized by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), under the auspices of the Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, PARC’s chairman, said there’s need for livestock development projects in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to help improve the livelihoods of poor livestock farmers in these areas.

A farmer herding a flock of Makhi Cheeni goats in Pakistan (photo credit: ILRI/M Sajjad Khan) 

In particular, the chairman stressed the importance of providing more trainings on innovative technologies to smallholder farmers to help them to manage livestock better. These relevant trainings are in the areas of livestock rearing, fodder management and wool shearing.

Some of the participants of the two-day workshop said they hoped that the outcome of the meeting and the innovations to follow will help boost capacity of the smallholder farmers and enable them to improve management of their small ruminants.

Read the media coverage of the workshop on Pakistan’s Daily Times.
See a related article on livestock-related research and training in Pakistan.