PESHAWAR: The Punjab government has established the first ever “donkey breeding farm” of the country in Okara to raise some best breeds of donkeys in response to rising demands for donkeys in China and other countries.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government had started the donkey export project titled ‘Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa-China Sustainable Donkey Development Program’ in 2017. The province was ready to sign the MoU with a Chinese firm, but the project could not see the light of the day. The KP government had a plan to export at least 80,000 donkeys per year to China where its hides are use in producing different herbal medicines. Under the project the KP government was suppose to work as controlling authority, to facilitate and provide technical support to farmers. The KP livestock department, with the financial support of Chinese investors, was to provide infrastructure and other technical support farm owners.
Zafar Khattak, an investor, told Mashriq TV that Chines investors were much serious in the project and had conducted surveys but unfortunately the KP government and civil bureaucracy were major hurdles in the ways of the project. “Chinese officials had visited the province for three years but civil bureaucracy was creating various hurdles,” Khattak alleged, adding that the Chines and KP government were about to sign the MoU [memorandum of understanding] but the bureaucrats considered it a “shame” to export donkeys.
Khattak informed that the Chinese were demanding 200,000 donkeys per year but livestock department expressed the agreement to export 80,000 with the aim to avoid shortage in the local market. He added that the investors wanted to invest in other sectors of livestock, including the Halal meat export but then the project was specified to only donkeys.
The Chines investors were planning to invest Rs5 billion in five years to encourage the people to establish donkey forms and create a competitive environment. Besides this, they were also ready to invest in infrastructure development, such as establishing hospitals for livestock and other basic requirements.
Though the KP government has shut down the project, Khattak is still hopeful that after establishing the donkey farm in Punjab, it will also encourage Khyber Pakhtunkhwa farmers to invest in this sector. Khattak said that the major hurdle was the lack of protocol between the China and Pakistan for exporting live animals, now after signing the deal, KP’s private sector will invest in donkey farming.