'Backyard Poultry Production Program' initiated in Gilgit Baltistan

In Gilgit-Baltistan, the government has initiated the ‘Backyard Poultry Production program’ under the Prime Minister’s initiative to enhance the socio-economic status of poor families.

A spokesman of Livestock department told on Sunday that 150 thousand birds would be distributed in Gilgit-Baltistan during a 4-year time period, Radio Pakistan reported.

Ministry of Food has allocated over 77 million rupees for the project under which capacity building of twenty-five thousand female community workers and provision of medicine and vaccine to the distributed birds’ units would be ensured.

In line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s announcement to provide chickens to people in rural areas to boost the local poultry industry and fight poverty, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan inaugurated the program on September 2.

The project is designed to provide five million pre-vaccinated ‘high laying chickens’ across the country, including the federal capital, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

The total cost of the project has been estimated at Rs1, 635.471 million, of which 30 percent would be borne by the federal and provincial governments whereas 70 percent by the beneficiaries of the project.