The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) began training some 3,000 farmers from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at the beginning of October to build quake-resistant animal shelters ahead of the oncoming winter, the organisation said on Tuesday.
“During the training, running until December, the farmers will be trained in quake-resistant animal shelter construction techniques, using locally available material. Afterwards, the FAO will help them in building their own cattle sheds,” FAO spokeswoman Sabina Ahmed said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
More than 75,000 people died and another 3.5 million were rendered homeless when the devastating earthquake ripped through parts of northern Pakistan on 8 October last year.
Farmers lost an estimated US $100 million worth of livestock across 30,000 sq km damaged by the quake in NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
“The animal shelter is based on local materials like mud, straw and branches, which are used as insulators to help keep temperatures compatible with warm or cool weather. Also, it is relatively stronger than traditional structures,” Dr Sadaqat Hanjra, the FAO’s livestock specialist, said in Islamabad.
Currently, the UN agricultural agency is in the process of distributing wheat seeds to some 82,000 households in seven quake-affected districts of NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, to prepare them for the winter harvest.
In April, the British Red Cross together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) distributed agricultural tools and onion, carrot, tomato and maize seeds by helicopter and by road to some 30,000 quake-affected households.
The ICRC together with the German Red Cross and local authorities, has recently launched a livestock distribution project in over 100 villages in the quake-hit Neelum Valley in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Under the programme, some 1,500 dairy cows will be given to the most vulnerable families by the end of 2006.
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“During the training, running until December, the farmers will be trained in quake-resistant animal shelter construction techniques, using locally available material. Afterwards, the FAO will help them in building their own cattle sheds,” FAO spokeswoman Sabina Ahmed said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
More than 75,000 people died and another 3.5 million were rendered homeless when the devastating earthquake ripped through parts of northern Pakistan on 8 October last year.
Farmers lost an estimated US $100 million worth of livestock across 30,000 sq km damaged by the quake in NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
“The animal shelter is based on local materials like mud, straw and branches, which are used as insulators to help keep temperatures compatible with warm or cool weather. Also, it is relatively stronger than traditional structures,” Dr Sadaqat Hanjra, the FAO’s livestock specialist, said in Islamabad.
Currently, the UN agricultural agency is in the process of distributing wheat seeds to some 82,000 households in seven quake-affected districts of NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, to prepare them for the winter harvest.
In April, the British Red Cross together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) distributed agricultural tools and onion, carrot, tomato and maize seeds by helicopter and by road to some 30,000 quake-affected households.
The ICRC together with the German Red Cross and local authorities, has recently launched a livestock distribution project in over 100 villages in the quake-hit Neelum Valley in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Under the programme, some 1,500 dairy cows will be given to the most vulnerable families by the end of 2006.
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