BEIJING: Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) will sign an agreement with China’s Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute for transfer of technology to set up a plant in Islamabad for production of a vaccine to control mouth and food disease in animals.
“Initially, we will sign a memorandum of interest and later, the concerned ministries of the governments of China and Pakistan will convert it into a memorandum of understanding,” PARC Member Animal Science Dr Johar Ali said on the sidelines of the third Silk Road International Cultural Expo held at Dunhuang located in China’s northwest Gansu province.
“We need to produce up to 400 million doses annually for vaccination of around 188 million animals across the country, he added.
He said the locally produced vaccine would not only save the precious foreign exchange but it would also create job opportunities.
He said the vaccine would be produced keeping in view our environment and requirement and it could be easily transported to the remote areas.
Dr Johar Ali said that China imports meat from the USA, Brazil and several other countries and the Pakistani meat could capture Chinese market if we are able to make it free from the mouth and foot disease.
As Pakistan is China’s neighbouring country, it’s meat would be more economical due to the low price and low transportation cost as compared to the world market.
While pointing out the potential of the agriculture sector, he said the concerned departments should make all-out efforts to double agriculture production which could contribute up to 11 per cent to the GDP.
He, however, acknowledged the efforts being made to increase agriculture production but said we are still far behind as compared to the regional countries as well as the world.
He proposed that more resources should be allocated for technology, research, and education in the agriculture sector.
About value addition in the agriculture products, he said, it would enhance revenues and create more jobs, adding we can also bridge the gap between import and export.
He said that the Chinese government could also extend a helping hand to increase our fish production by providing technology, equipment, and training to our farmers.
