Agriculture and Livestock – Mutual support and cooperation between Argentina and Pakistan

A team of experts on Agriculture, Livestock and Veterinary from Argentina was on the visit to Pakistan recently. The experts were the part of the National Institute of Agriculture Technology (INTA) and have come to Pakistan as a follow up to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between INTA and the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC). The two areas of cooperation that have been identified includes enhancement of beef production in Pakistan and eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) which severely affects the cattle.
 
The team members includes; Dr. Virginia Barros, Virologist & Expert on FMD eradication, Eng. Javier Carabajal, Expert on Citrus Export Certification, Dr. Osvaldo Balbuena, Veterinary Doctor & Expert in Tropical Cattle Breeding and Dr. Ernesto Domingo Mendizabal, Veterinary Doctor, Expert in Small Ruminants Production).
 
H.E. Rodolfo J. Martin-Saravia, Ambassador of Argentine Embassy jointly chaired the first meeting of the delegation with Dr. Zafar Altaf, Chairman of PARC in which the objectives of the visit were discussed. An intense schedule was developed including visits to three of the five provinces of Pakistan, namely Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The intention is to extend technical cooperation to Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan. It was fundamental to the success of the delegation to interact with the Livestock Departments of the provincial governments.
 
The most important research stations of the country were visited including Livestock Production Research Institute in Bahadarnagar, Punjab; Red Sindhi Cattle Farm in Karachi, Sindh; and the Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm in Harinchand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There the actual conditions of production and cross-breeding could be appraised, together with the excellent level of these provincial livestock
research centers. The particular characteristics of local breeds –such as Red Sindhi, Cholistan, Thari, Bagnhari or Achay- was reviewed, together with their possible suitability for cross breeding with beef breeds. Argentina has offered Pakistan to profit from our experience on the introduction of exogenous cattle crossbreeds in the tropical and dry zones of our country.
 
The delegates also met with the private sectors including modern slaughterhouse (Tazij) and B-F Biosciences. The CEO of B-F Biosciences, Osman Waheed on the occasion expressed the interest of his group to invest and develop the facilities needed for the mass production of FMD vaccines. Pakistan produces only 1.5 million doses annually of the FMD vaccine through the Veterinary Research Institute of Lahore and imports a similar amount from abroad. For an effective action against the Foot and Mouth Disease, about 200 million doses per year would be required and B-F Biosciences is  committed to develop a taylor-made vaccine against the locally prevalent strains of the disease and to manufacture it in Pakistan.
 
To mark the success of the first step in bilateral cooperation, the Argentine Ambassador offered a working lunch with the presence of the Federal Secretary of Food and Agriculture, Junaid Iqbal Chaudhry, the Federal Secretary of Livestock & Dairy Development, K.M. Sidiq Akbar, and the Chairman of the PARC, Dr. Zafar Altaf. It was During this working lunch that the following actions were discussed and the possibility of interchange of University professors was tabled.
 
The ongoing cooperation project was financed by the FO-AR, the Technical Cooperation Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina which has been set up to finance the horizontal cooperation between developing nations.