The soft launching of the Sindh Livestock Expo 2021 was organised at a local marquee in Karachi on Saturday.
The expo’s second edition will be organised on the Hatri bypass in Hyderabad from March 13 to 15 by the Sindh livestock department in collaboration with the tourism, agriculture, sports and information departments.
Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah was the guest of honour at the launch ceremony, which was also attended by Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahu, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Abdul Bari Pitafi, Tourism Director General Aleem Lashari, Livestock Secretary Qazi Aijaz Mahessar, the consul general Of Thailand in Karachi, and representatives of dairy associations and livestock companies.
Addressing the ceremony, the information minister said the first edition of the livestock expo in 2020 was a successful event and one of the complete expos after the world-famous
California exhibition.
“I congratulate Engineer Abdul Bari Pitafi and his team who had made it possible and hope that its 2nd edition would provide great opportunities to farmers and livestock sector businesses to enhance their businesses by using latest technology and modern methods of farming,” Shah said.
He added that the Sindh government was actualising the vision of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari as improvements had been made in all the sectors.
The agriculture minister stated that the exhibition had brought forth the issues of the livestock sector, which was one of the major sectors in our economy but was unfortunately ignored.
He said the population of arid zones solely depended on the livestock and the public and private sector should make joint efforts for the promotion of the livestock sector as it would not only boost the economy of the country but also improve the quality of lives of millions of people.
Pitafi told the ceremony that the aim of organising the soft launch of the Livestock Expo 2021 in Karachi was to attract the livestock sector business companies and foreign diplomatic missions for investment in the sector.
He explained that the livestock expo would serve as a bridge for connecting farmers, progressive growers, companies, livestock sector, business owners and foreign missions. He added that 44 per cent of our population fully depended on the livestock and if we were able to modernise our old farming methods, that 44 per cent of our population could become prosperous.
According to the livestock minister, during the last 72 years, only the industrial sector was our focus but the livestock stock or agriculture sector that provided raw materials for the industrial sector were ignored.
He added that indigenous breed of livestock had great potential as they were featuring 40 breeds of goat and 12 breeds of buffaloes and cows at the upcoming edition of expo.
He said the organisers had learnt a great deal after the first edition of the expo. The Sindh government signed a memorandum of understanding with the province of Punjab for the vaccination of livestock before crossing the border of the provinces, he explained, adding that Sindh was also working with the Arid Zone University, Rawalpindi, on different breeds of livestock.
The Sindh government has allocated funds for developing an enterprise in the livestock sector, Pitafi said. He stated that after the success of the 2020 expo, Muslim countries like Malaysia were reconsidering their agreement with India in order to import meat from Pakistan.
Earlier, the provincial livestock secretary welcomed the guests and briefed them about the aims and objectives of the second edition of the livestock expo. At the end of the ceremony, souvenirs and shields were distributed among farmers and sponsors of the event.
