Giving a new flavour to diplomatic relations, Morocco has donated bovine semen to Mali for breeders in the West African nation.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco made the donation granted by Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development in Mali's capital Bamako Friday, the Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported.
King Mohammed VI was accompanied by Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita when the former made the donation comprising 125,000 doses of bovine semen as well as five boxes for artificial insemination and five containers for semen storage with six canisters.
The equipment also included five storage containers for liquid nitrogen, 200,000 palpation gloves and 100,000 insemination ducts. The setting up of this artificial insemination programme will be ensured by a Moroccan technical assistance team.
The Moroccan-Malian cooperation to develop the bovine sector in Mali is based on three elements -- the training of inseminator technicians in Morocco, the creation of five artificial insemination centres near breeders' groupings and the support for professional organisations for the management of the artificial insemination programme.
During Friday's event, the Moroccan ruler was greeted by Malian Prime Minister Oumar Tatam Ly and Mustapha Terrab, president delegate of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development.
King Mohammed VI is currently on a tour of sub-Saharan and West Africa amid talk that this was part of Moroccan diplomacy to lobby for its return to the African Union which it left in 1984 in protest against the admission of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
