Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Dr. Yusuf Zafar has said that fastest converter of crude nutrients into high quality of animal proteins offers a rapid way to overcome Pakistan’s shortage of protein of animal origin.
PARC chief made these remarks while addressing a seminar on “Development of a dual purpose chicken breed for rural poultry sector of Pakistan†at National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) here on Monday. He said that poultry production was the most efficient and economical system of animal protein production.
“From the start of poultry industry in Pakistan, a number of exotic strains have been imported mainly from the temperate countriesâ€, he said adding that development and conservation of local Naked Neck breed and hybridizing with Rhode Island Red and Black Australorp will help us to develop high producing dual purpose breed for rural areas.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Johar Ali, Member (ASD) said, “Our indigenous poultry possesses bright prospects for future development in view of easy and abundant availability of all the requisite inputs such as land, labor and feed resources in rural areas and lower cost of production as compared to commercial poultryâ€. He was of the view that indigenous chickens have the advantage of being well adapted to the local environmental conditions (hot, cold, humid, dry and rainy weather). These chickens he said were scavengers by nature and scavenge for their own feed from morning to evening around houses and fields.
Dr. Fatheh Ullah Sr. Director (ASI) said “Another advantage of the naked neck chicken is the good taste & flavor of both eggs and meat as claimed by the common consumerâ€. In order to enhance the rural poultry egg and meat production, he said that it was desirable to develop breeds with better egg & meat production and suitable to the local environment. “Selection, development and conservation of indigenous poultry breeds and hybridizing with high producing exotic breeds will help us to develop high producing dual purpose breed for rural areas. These hybridized local genetic resources can be further utilized to develop our own dual purpose rural chickens, adjustable to the local environmental conditionsâ€.
Dr. Abdul Ghaffar, Director (LRS) said that during the first year 1530 eggs of NN were set in a private hatchery in 10 batches. He said that the average day old chick weight was 37.9 grams which increased to 50.4_+ 8.7 in first week. “At the end of brooding phase birds attained average body weight 284.6 _+ 62.6 gramsâ€, he said adding that currently more than 200 NN birds are laying eggs at the Poultry Section.
At end of session, Dr. M. Azeem Khan, DG NARC paid vote of thanks to all participants and said that with the genetic improvement of selected indigenous naked neck by crossing with exotic poultry breeds of Rhode Island Red and Black Australorp will effect positively over poultry production in country.
