USDA Foreign Agricultural Service staff listen to R.S.N. Janjua report on how ASA WISHH’s FEEDing Pakistan project has built demand for U.S. soy and led to growth in Pakistan’s soy-based feed and aquaculture industries.

The American Soybean Association’s (ASA) World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) recently briefed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) on how the FEEDing Pakistan project increased demand for U.S. soy at the same time it developed the aquaculture and soy-based feed industries in Pakistan.

R.S.N. Janjua, PhD, has led WISHH’s FEEDing Pakistan project since USDA first supported it in 2011. On Feb. 24, Janjua briefed 18 FAS representatives who gathered at USDA to learn about the success of the innovative project, which has triggered important long-term Pakistani investments in the feed and aquaculture sector.

Pakistan--an Asian export market that WISHH graduated to U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) management--imported 166,368 MT of whole soybeans in 2016.

WISHH won continued USDA funding ($325,000) for 2017 to build on the landmark aquaculture feed project. FEEDing Pakistan’s demonstrations and training led two Pakistani companies to purchase and install extruders to make soy-based floating fish feed while numerous individuals, such as three Tata vehicle distributors, are building fish ponds.

Pakistan’s government is opening a fish hatchery. FEEDing Pakistan also trained numerous people about the value of soy-based floating fish feed. As a result, multiple trainees have earned government leadership roles and private-sector jobs based on their expertise in Pakistan’s growing aquaculture industry.