As many as 129 artificial insemination technicians were given motorbikes here on Tuesday on completing a five-week artificial insemination training programme held by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Dairy Project.
The ceremony was presided over by Mission Director for Pakistan Jock Conly.
According to a USAID press release, the technicians work with farmers to improve the quality of the breed. It said artificial insemination technicians needed to travel frequently. The motorbikes given to them will help them reach far flung dairy farmers on time, it said.
Conly said that the USAID dairy project had helped some 3,000 young people in the rural Punjab get jobs. He said 340 motorbikes were previously given to artificial insemination technicians in South Punjab.
Dairy Project Director Jack Moser said that the training programmes will generate new jobs for unemployed youth and enable them to be entrepreneurs who could offer their skills to dairy farmers who wanted stronger, healthier cattle.
He said the USAID would increase employment and incomes for 250,000 farm households (2 million people) by 2015 through its economic growth programmes. This three-year $14 million project, he said, would improve the lives of 9,000 farmers by enhancing their productivity and resulting in at least 10 per cent increase in their incomes.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2013.