Development of livestock in Pakistan linked to right animal production education? Dr. M. Aslam Mirza Professor of Animal Nutrition/

Development of livestock in Pakistan linked to right animal production education?

Dr. M. Aslam Mirza

Professor of Animal Nutrition/ Director, Institute of Animal and Dairy Sciences (Also working as Dean, FAH), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

,[email protected]

The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad has approved the institution of B.Sc. (Hons) Animal Sciences and B.Sc. (Hons) Dairy Science degrees under the auspices of Faculty of Animal Husbandry in its recent Academic Council meeting, a landmark decision that will consolidate the livestock production education and pave the way for livestock improvement in the country. It is a natural outcome of animal production and veterinary education being imparted in various institutions of higher education in Pakistan for last many decades. The decision will also complement the Prime Minister’s ambitious Ehsaas program in making the people skillful and help them start their own small businesses.

           Raising livestock is one of the oldest and very reverential professions. Domestication of farm animals was started way back before crop production skill learnt by human race. No civilization had ever flourished without farm animals that provided traction power to its work force and army besides supplying high quality animal protein required for the growth and vigor of human body. These animals do not compete human beings for their food and are fed on crop residues, fodders/ forages and inedible components of grains and seeds to convert them into protein-packed foods most individuals relish eating. In Indian Sub-continent, farm animal raising is very old profession. Indus valley holds the finest livestock breeds/strains. Unfortunately, none of these breeds/strains were put to an organized breed improvement program despite them having enormous capability to produce quality milk and meat.

The livestock sector is often wrongly linked to veterinary profession and education which has its own history. Veterinary occupation grew with the services provided to Army. Remount Veterinary Corps that is active since 1779 in Indian Sub-continent, initially raised as ‘Stud Department’. In World War I, British forces employed over one million horses and mules. Sick and wounded animals requiring lengthy treatment were passed to a veterinary evacuating station and recovered animals sent back to remount depots for reissue. After war, demobilization considerably reduced the war time establishment and many officers were discharged in the middle of their careers. Mechanization also replaced cavalry horse with fighting vehicle. The genesis of civil veterinary education can be also be traced back from the British era. Both civil and army veterinarians regarded equine medicine as the only respectable form of veterinary practice and never appreciated the wide scope of livestock production science that was generally overlooked.

The tremendous development seen in animal agriculture as a potential component of food supply chain in 60s and 70s unveiled new avenues for veterinarians especially those who went abroad for higher education. As a result, many changes in the organizational set up of the provincial departments of Animal Husbandry were made on the recommendations of Food and Agriculture Commission in 1960 which resulted in establishment of Directorate of Livestock Farms and Veterinary Research Institutes. Punjab Veterinary College also went through many trans-mutational changes. It was finally named College of Veterinary Science (CVS) in 1975 and affiliated with the West Pakistan Agriculture University, Lyallpur (now University of Agriculture, Faisalabad). Very soon, the importance of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science in their independent capacities was seriously realized in livestock sector. As a result of this, in 1962, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences (FVS) and Faculty of Animal Husbandry (FAH) were established as integral constituent of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The new FAH was set up to teach animal husbandry education distinct from veterinary education and thus B.Sc.(Hons) AH was initiated as a four years post Intermediate program. In 1962, similar system for animal production and veterinary education was pursued in newly created East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Agricultural University, Mymensingh. B.Sc. (AH) five years duration after matriculation was renamed as B.V.Sc and B.Sc. (AH) degree in 1965 and once again upgraded to DVM four years post Intermediate degree program in 1971. Later, two Faculties of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences were established one each at Sindh Agricultural University, Tandojam (1970), and at NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar (1981). Another College of Veterinary Science was established at Gomal University, D.I. Khan (Khyber Pakhtun Khawa Province) in 2000.

In 2001, CVS, Lahore was raised to the first University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Pakistan. Since then, numerous Veterinary and Animal Production faculties have been established in public sector Universities of the country. A few private sector institutes are also offering DVM degree in Pakistan. After constitution of Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council (PVMC), all the universities offering DVM four years post Intermediate program switched over to DVM degree five years. At present, DVM-five years is being offered by all the institutions of veterinary education in Pakistan. However, B.Sc. (Hons) Animal Sciences, B.Sc. (Hons) Dairy Science and B.Sc. (Hons) Poultry Science are offered as four years post Intermediate degrees as specialized Animal Production programs.

University of Agriculture, Faisalabad emerged as a premier institute of higher education in Pakistan in animal and crop sciences that played a pivotal role in national food security. Its landmark achievements in crop production sector have pushed back its role in livestock production science. Although, the gap was quickly filled by other universities imparting veterinary education but their graduates have so far failed to assume a character that reflects the need of the livestock sector. Since last few years, it was felt that the veterinary graduates undertaking animal production courses did not have enough knowledge of animal production disciplines and were unable to apprehend the animal husbandry issues at field level. Moreover, the wealth of knowledge has increased so tremendously that it has become difficult to convey purposeful instructions in these fields in a combined format. As a matter of fact, it cannot possibly be expected from a single individual to concurrently discharge both duties (Veterinary and Animal Husbandry) unless one field is left to suffer at the cost of other.

Animal production has shown a tremendous development in last 50 years all over the world. This was in response to a continuing challenge to improve the animal productivity. In this regard, science of genetics played a major role in improving the productive efficiency of animals and as a result, there had been very remarkable improvements in the ability of animals to convert feed into human food. This has resulted in surplus milk and meat in developed countries.

Pakistan accounts for a significant proportion of the world’s livestock population, yet its share, in terms of milk and meat is negligible. At present Pakistan is producing 3.9% of the global milk production. This contribution is very little when seen under the background of the total number of cattle and buffalo maintained in the country reflecting low producing stock. There has not been any improvement in the productivity of farm animals at any level in the absence of organized livestock breed improvement program. Regrettably, the task of dairy herd stewardship and genetic improvement of livestock has been given to those who were trained to treat the sick animals only. They lack the knowledge, training, experience and motivation for the work. They are trained to treat the sick animals (more precisely pets) and they are doing it very well. Attempts of adding animal production or extension duties to their heavily loaded obligations resulted in a decline in the quality of veterinary services. Their continued biased inductions against the posts of animal production, animal breeding and genetics and nutritional management of livestock and poultry resulted is considerable national loss of skillful human resources in almost all public departments of livestock and dairy development.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is the sole custodian of higher education in the Pakistan. This entails all kinds of scientific and technical educational programs, let alone animal production and veterinary education. For this HEC has set out broader outlines for various programs. Universities have to follow these guidelines notified by HEC time and again. Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council (PVMC), a professional body meant to regulate the veterinary practice often encroaches academic ranks of veterinary and animal science. PVMC has done good job for newly established public and private sector of veterinary education where things have improved under the jurisdiction of universities. For others, it has assumed a role, which is counter-productive and irksome.

So far, livestock farming revolves around subsistence farmers who know that farming is not profitable by any means. The survival of the provincial department (L&DD) is hooked to these farmers otherwise it has very limited mandate. Most livestock farms called Livestock Experiment Stations (18) under the provincial set-up have greatly been disrupted by previous regime. The major task of these LESs i.e., preservation of local breeds of livestock in purest shape was grossly desecrated. These farmers hardly worry about animals’ poor record in terms of delayed onset of maturity and low reproductive and productive performance. One calf born after 18 to 24 months would not disquiet the owners as he is not making any cost benefit ratio. He does not want to get stuck with poor growth or high degree of mortality of his calves. He would like to go forward with the milk which is his premium produce. These farmers are largely smallholder farmers who see their livestock as a financial safety net. When times are tough and household needs are great, surplus animals are sold for ready cash. This tradition in struggling farming communities goes on and will probably not be changing in near future with the present socio-economical set-up.

Though smallholder enterprises are vital to increasing the livestock production and to the rural economy that these could not be disregarded, however, the real improvement in livestock sector would come through modernized commercial farms built and run on scientific lines. The transformation has seen a very positive shift from traditional subsistence farming (small scale family farm which is part of the crop set-up or small family format without crop farming) to corporate dairy set-up with high-input system that has displayed viable business opportunity with tangible income. These farms need heavy investments, support mechanism and technically educated personnel to run the enterprise. Besides changing the mind-set, numerous business opportunities accrued to corporate dairy farming has thus brought in by this change. Many such modern farms are already visible like JK Dairy, Nishat, Fatima, Matrix, Saphire, Sharif Dairy Farms.

The local non-descriptive breeds of dairy cattle will not make these enterprises economically viable since they are inherently unable to support high level of milk production. Farms comprising of genetically improved purebreds, crossbred dairy cattle or high yielding exotics (Holstein Frisian, Jersey, Ayrshire, AMZ, Brown Swiss) can only be sustainable. This is a big investment that requires round the clock presence of workforce at the farm 24/7 and all year round for which a rigorous planner is to be prescribed. For a successful dairy farming business, many things are to plan well before time. The biggest cost component, off course, is animal feed that is required to be readied with minimum fright. Many companies have mushroomed that provide services in fodder cultivation, hay and silage preservation or that provide veterinary cover including artificial insemination or insurance services etc. On site, technically educated personnel are required to handle these commercial dairy farms which so far are in very negligible numbers in the country and thus most of these corporate farms are managed by foreign managers having veterinary background.

So, to cater the changing needs of the sector, purely animal production degree(s) with curriculum related to animal production are required with courses on aspects of management, genetics and animal breeding, nutrition and modern feeding practices. With this background, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad once again has played its leading role to introduce four year degree programs of B.Sc. (Hons) Animal Sciences and B.Sc. (Hons) Dairy Science. The students will study production courses viz., Animal Breeding and Genetics, Animal Nutrition, Livestock Management, Poultry Husbandry as major subjects; while in addition to these, supporting courses on Animal Reproduction, Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry and Medicines will also be studies. These graduates will also teach courses on Range Management, Fodder Production, Feed Storage, Food Technology, Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Marketing, Agricultural Economics, Farm Machinery and Power and Rural Sociology etc. This will certainly help boost up the production of livestock to supply the food needed for ever increasing human population of the country.