Despite its importance in terms of income, trade, employment, livelihood and nutrition and share in agriculture GDP, livestock sector has not received the attention it deserves. In order to harness, livestock potential and development in Pakistan meaningful collaborations between organizations are required. Taking a step in this direction Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Pakistan and the Ministry of National Food Security & Research, Government of Pakistan have initiated a Project under Technical Cooperation Program (TCP) to improve the animal disease surveillance system and establish a real-time animal disease reporting system in Pakistan. The announcement was made at a two-day inception workshop held at a local hotel in Islamabad.

In his welcome address, Dr. M. Akram, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Ministry of National Food Security and Research Government of Pakistan (MoNFSR) said that this collaboration with FAO under TCP is a welcoming step. It is hoped that the feasibility study will be completed in the next six to nine months to establish animal diseases surveillance system in Pakistan. The inception workshop will be the first milestone, as it will allow deliberations from the experts, learn about the existing disease surveillance systems in various provinces, best practices and lessons learned. The valuable suggestions from the participants will steer the feasibility study in the right direction.

Dr. M. Afzal, Livestock expert at FAO presented the salient features of the feasibility study and shared that the project aims at improvement of animal disease surveillance in Pakistan. The ultimate objective is to draft an animal surveillance system that is suitable to Pakistan and develop an IT infrastructure for a robust animal diseases surveillance system for real time reporting.

Ms. Florence Rolle, FAO Representative in Pakistan thanked all the participants for attending the workshop and said that it is unfortunate that livestock does not get its share in what it contributes in agriculture GDP of Pakistan. To look into this issue is extremely important for FAO so that the potential livestock has in Pakistan could be utilized fully.

Concluding the inaugural session, chief guest Capt. (Retd.) M. Asif, Additional Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security and Research said that livestock contributes a lot in the GDP but there are some policy gaps that need to be addressed. The most important thing at the policy level is that our thinking should be based on well informed, scientific knowledge based and system from where we could get timely and reliable information. Based on that information we can have our policy interventions to address these gaps and issues. Once we have an efficient, reliable and responsive surveillance system, only then we can compete in the international markets and have sustainable livestock for our farmers.

Workshop brought together veterinary and livestock experts from all over the Pakistan.