LAHORE: The Department of Dairy Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore, in collaboration with Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab (L&DD), arranged a brainstorming session for module development under the project titled “Capacity Building of Dairy Farmers and Industry Stakeholders on Milk Value Chain”, at City Campus Lahore on Friday.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad presided over the meeting and asked for developing the module both in English and Urdu for understanding of wider audience. He sought suggestions and technical input from the stakeholders for training modules.
Representatives of dairy industry including Pakistan Dairy Association, Corporate Dairy Farmer Association, Additional Secretary (Planning) Livestock Department Chaudhry Muhammad Khalid, Dean Faculty of Animal Production and Technology Prof Dr Anjum Khalique, and a number of professionals from public and private dairy Industries, academia and UVAS faculty members attended.
Earlier, Project Director Dr Muhammad Junaid gave a detailed presentation on concept, innovations, target audience, selection criteria, implementation plan and focus areas of the project. Dr Anjum Khalique said we need to focus on practical skill enhancement.
An open discussion was held where all the participants put forward various suggestions to make this project successful for the capacity building of dairy farmers. The participants emphasized on starting a social media campaign by making 5 – mint video clips for consumer education and milk supply chain standards.
They also recommended global certification training, pre-milking practices regarding health management (udder health, breeding, feeding, silage making) to disease control, milk transportation and storage. Some participants talked about enhancing linkages with milk processors about dairy milk products development. They also suggested somatic cell count and less use of antibiotic for enhancing production of quality milk.
The intensive training programme is aimed to train veterinary professionals, dairy farmers and industry stakeholders on manufacturing and analysis of different milk products. In collaboration with the industry, UVAS infrastructure will be used for providing training and research opportunities in a real-time business situation.