Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has facilitated investment worth Rs 400 million during the current fiscal year by establishing 13 modern dairy farms in the private sector, which are running successfully under “‘Environmentally Controlled Shed Systems’.
This was revealed at a media interaction arranged by SMEDA here on Friday with a delegation of international dairy experts; Karin Eriksson, Chairperson, Breeding committee of the cooperative AI stat and breeding Organization, ‘Skane Semin” from Sweden, Dr Ing. Reinoud van Gent, Director Veepro Holland. Practitioner Dairy cattle from Netherlands and Roelof van den Berg, Chairman, Export Net NV (Dutch Cattle Exporters Organization), Netherlands. SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Yousaf Naseem Khokhar briefed the dairy experts about SMEDA’s contribution in dairy development.
The international dairy experts expressed immense satisfaction over the operation of the SMEDA developed dairy farms. They certified that modern technologies with the cows imported from Sweden were being looked after as per international standards in these farms.
“We have visited about five model dairy farms around Lahore and are surprised to see that Swedish cows staying in Pakistan were giving results even better than seen in Sweden, they said and hoped that milk production on these farms could be increased further by giving more training to the farm management team. They suggested that SMEDA plan training programs for dairy farmers and the workers employed in modern dairy farms to work more efficiently in line with Climate Controlled Shed System.
Experts said that during their three-day stay at Lahore they had met over 100 dairy farmers and shared their knowledge and experience at a seminar organised by SMEDA the other day at Phoolnagar. They were impressed with the interest expressed by local farmers to learn modern knowledge of this industry.
Roelof van den Berg, Chairman, Export Net NV (Dutch Cattle Exporters Organization), Netherlands said that expansion of environmentally controlled shed systems in Pakistan is an indicator of dairy industry development. He said that Pakistan would be able to make a breakthrough in the production of processed milk in the coming years.
SMEDA General Manager Support Khurram Khan also spoke on this occasion and revealed that 13 model farms had been established in prominent districts of Punjab such as Lahore, Kasur, Jehlum, Chakwal, Chiniot and Gujrat. These farms were developed on the modern concept of the ‘Environmentally Controlled Shed Systems’ and comprised of Cows imported from Sweden with an average milk production capacity of 30 litres/day in contrast to the local cows with avg. 11 litres/ day.
Earlier, Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, CEO SMEDA, in a separate meeting with the visiting diary experts, said that Pakistan, a country of 180 million inhabitants is the 4th largest milk producer in the world and the sector provides immense opportunity for new investors to reap benefits from the growing market. He said that SMEDA had facilitated approximately Rs 1000 million investment by establishing new dairy farms as well as up-gradation of some older farms.
