Pakistan’s two major provinces to develop their livestock
sector on sound lines
shoaib habib memonm
Foreign aid agencies of two developed countries are
assisting Pakistan’s two major provinces to develop their livestock sector on
sound lines.
These are Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). JICA has
signed an agreement with Sindh government to help revive its livestock
potential under a five-year project. The project marks the beginning of
implementation of a livestock development master plan jointly worked out by the
provincial government and Japanese experts. The plan will cover the period
until 2020, based on the scrutiny carried out from 2011 to 2012.
The USAID has helped the Punjab government by preparing a
draft of a new law called Punjab Animal Welfare Act, 2013, on behalf of the
livestock and dairy development department. It recently organised ‘a dialogue’
among the stakeholders on the pros and cons of the new law in Lahore. The
existing law, Animal Protection Act, promulgated by the British in 1822, has
become outdated.
Statistics show that Sindh has 6.92 million cattle, 7.34
million buffaloes, 3.96 million sheep, 1.26 million goats and 278,000 camels
while the accumulated livestock holdings of the province stands at 21 per cent
of the country. According to Japanese experts, the huge size of animal
population is in itself a significant sign of the great potential for the
livestock development in terms of high production capability. On country-wide
basis, the population of cattle was the largest at 38.3 million during 2012-13
— of buffaloes it was 33.7 million, of sheep 28.8 million and of goats 64.9
million.
Meanwhile, a land measuring 2,500 acres has already been
earmarked in district Thatta, about 230kms from Karachi, for setting up
Bhambhore dairy and meat processing zone by Sindh’s livestock department. Sindh
Board of Investment in collaboration with the department would undertake the
investment part of the project. The government has started giving some
attention to this sector but no big investment, much less from abroad, has been
seen in dairy, beef, mutton sub-sectors of livestock.
Most of the livestock production system in Pakistan is
age-old and subsistence oriented. Sire (bull) is being bred with low genetic
potential. The breed with best potential such as Sahiwal cow and Nili-Ravi
buffalo are rarely found on the farms of small and middle-class farmers who
contribute a bigger share of cattle-heads. These have, in fact, become
endangered species. There is need to save and exploit the genetic potential of
the high yielding breeds.
The Punjab government has allocated a sum of Rs7.2
billion for agriculture and livestock sectors in its ADP for 2013-14. Of this,
Rs1.7 billion has been allocated for livestock sector. The break-up shows that
Rs739 million has been set aside for new schemes in livestock sector and Rs261
million allocated for ongoing schemes.
The budget documents say that livestock is a newly
emerging economic sector with high potential in terms of profitability. Farmers
earn about 30 to 40 per cent of their income from livestock. Some government
initiatives planned in livestock sector are aimed at enhancing production and
marketing of livestock products in Layyah, Mianwali, Khushab and Bhakkar,
restructuring and re-organisation of breeding services and strengthening of
Buffalo Research Institute at Pattoki.
A by-product of the livestock sector is bio-gas and China
has set up 11 million biogas plants by using cattle’s manure. But Pakistan has
hardly 3,000 plants. Based on the size of cattle and other animal population,
Pakistan can have as many as a million biogas plants. Punjab’s chief minister
has, however, taken the initiative on this count. He has launched a project
aimed at developing economical biogas plants. Apart from clean fuel, these
plants also produce organic fertiliser as a by-product. Another by-product is
leather and leather products. Its exports earned $1.1billion during 2010-11
fiscal year which amounted to 4.4 per cent of the total exports.
Historically, livestock has been mostly pursued by small
farmers to meet their needs of milk, meat, eggs, food security and cash income
on daily basis. Some 30-35 million people in rural areas depend directly or
indirectly on livestock for their livelihood. Pakistan happens to be the
fifth-largest milk producer in the world but has yet to develop this sub-sector
as a large-scale industry and to make it one of the leading foreign exchange
earners. The milk production, however, increased by 3.2 per cent and meat 4.5
per cent during 2012-13 as compared to corresponding period last year.
Livestock contributed approximately 55.4 per cent to the agricultural
value and 11.9 per cent to the GDP during 2012-13, against almost similar
performance a year ago. Gross value addition of the livestock sector at
constant cost factor has increased from Rs735 billion (2011-12) to Rs756
billion (2012-13), showing an increase of 2.9 per cent as compared to previous
year.
In the wake of the passage of 18th constitutional
amendment, the federal ministry of livestock and dairy development was
abolished on April 5, 2010 and the subjects of animal health and production
were devolved to the provinces. The technical staff of the ministry was
initially attached with the commerce ministry and later with livestock wing of
the newly created ministry of national food security & research in February
2012. The ministry is redefining its role under its new mandate to serve as
catalyst in the development of livestock in the country.
The future plan of the ministry for livestock sector is
to achieve five per cent growth in meat and eight per cent in milk production,
which are currently around three per cent, by discouraging subsistence
livestock farming and encouraging market-oriented and commercial farming
covering the entire value chain from farm to plate.
Besides, the ministry plans to promote diversification of
livestock products, help the sector play a leading role in the global halal
food market and control trans-boundary animal diseases of trade and economic
importance.
Source-DAWN News
Regards
Shoaib Habib Memon
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