Vision of Livestock and Dairy Sector of Pakistan Dr. Muhammad Sarwar, TI Professor of Nutrition Emeritus University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

Vision of Livestock and Dairy Sector of Pakistan 

Dr. Muhammad Sarwar, TI

Professor of Nutrition Emeritus

University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

Livestock is a subsector of Agriculture, contributing approximately 58% of value addition in Agriculture and nearly 11% to the gross domestic product. The livestock production makes a major contribution to Agriculture value added services; however, this contribution can further be increased through enhanced animal productivity as in recent years, substantial achievements in science and technology combined with demand for food from a growing human population has supported the intensification, and efficiency of production in many countries. Such growth is primarily achieved through developments in market infrastructure, animal breeding, animal nutrition, feed efficiency, animal health, housing, finance provision, effective extension services and use of efficient water usage technologies, automation and supporting policies, strategies and organizations. Expansion of dairy and livestock not only help improved the food supply in many countries but also promoted commercialization and entrepreneurship opportunities in rural communities. However, expansion of livestock and dairy farming is facing many challenges including emission of Green House Gases (GHG), animal welfare, erosion of biodiversity and land use. 

In Pakistan, demand of milk and meat is increasing day by day and the gap between them is widening due to population explosion. More than 60 million litres of milk is required daily to fill a cup of tea or a baby feeder for each Pakistani. The gap between milk and meat supply is being filled through adulteration or alternatives invented by the dishonest people for both of these products. For example, sale of donkey meat in meat market, and ‘artificial milk’ prepared from chemicals. Pakistan is considered as one of the highest food-insecure country of the world. International reports reveal that our progress to improve food security remains low compared to other South Asian countries.

  This is a consequence of some of the following factors.

·      Extremely low animal productivity

·      Absence of market-oriented livestock industry and  lack of mechanization usage

·      Provincial Livestock Development Departments are being run through a 150-year-old model where only the opinions of animal health specialists are prevailing, without having opinions incorporated of animal production specialists, food technologists and agrarians.

·      Thousands hectares of land of provincial livestock farms and experimental stations is being wasted under an old operative model.

·      Billions of rupees are being injected annually under veterinary and livestock extension cover, ending in smoke with no benefits to farming community.  

·      Pakistan has the worst supply chain system for livestock and dairy products.

·      As a country, we are wasting genetics resources of our indigenous animals, without knowing their potentials, and their product value in international markets.

·      Research institutions in the country lack enough innovation to lead livestock and dairy sector.

 Enhancing livestock productivity

The horizontal expansion of livestock sector not only struggling with inefficiencies but also contributing to GHG emissions. It is imperative to act now to develop and implement policies those promote innovation, sustainable development, entrepreneurship and commercialization of dairy and livestock sectors. The issues including lack of market orientation, poor genetic merit of animals, patchy feed availability, occurrence of metabolic disorders, epidemics and reproductive failures requires attention as under:

·      Trained manpower in Animal Production can lead to improved productivity of livestock and their products. High productivity, however, is not always linked with high profitability. Low producing animals could be profitable if input cost is lower than the sale price of their products. Similarly, High producing animals could run into loss if their products are not sold beyond their per unit production cost. Thus, for the development of livestock sector in the country, providing marketing outlets in and outside the country is equally important to investing in research and development for increased productivity of livestock. If farmers are assured for the marketing of their livestock and their products, there is an incentive for them to have productive animals. Producing milk and milk without any sale outlet will not be a sustainable system for livestock sector development. So when focusing on livestock development and improvement in the country, marketing must be given number one priority in the whole supply chain system of livestock and their products. Outdated inefficient livestock markets must be replaced with modern livestock market infrastructure, promoting market-oriented livestock industry in the country.

·      Improving genetic potential of farm animals is the prime step toward industrialization and commercialization of livestock. Use of genomics tools combined with advanced reproductive technologies could gear up improvements in the genetics potential of our local breeds. By investing in genetics and breeding of farm animals we can identify traits those could be used to produce animals and commercialize breeds with ability to thrive under expected hot global environment.

·      Feeds and feeding accounts more than 70 percent operational cost of the livestock and dairy operation. Development of forage and feed technologies is required to fill the feed deficits, promote animal production and efficiency of farm animals. Genomics and other advancement in plant breeding could be used to produce drought resistant, persistent and high yielding grasses and legumes to fill the feed gap. Feed technology and biotechnology tools to improve the nutritional worth poor quality agricultural and food waste, ensiling and hay making of fodders during abundant availability periods could improve the nutrient supply to animals. Feed formulation using un-conventional locally available feed resources could perk up the existing situation and promote the bio-circular-economy to have more economic benefits out of animals.

·      Livestock is the biggest contributors of GHG emissions; we should start developing our national inventories of GHG and start research and international collaborations to mitigate GHG.

·      Initiatives like one health with emphasize on vaccine production, disease prevention, disease surveillance and irradiation programs, development of animal identification, product tracing and husbandry practices to promote animal welfare will help improve production, efficiency and sustainability of livestock and dairy sectors   

·      We have the worst supply chain system for livestock and dairy products. We must establish product standards, processing techniques, distribution networks and their surveillance to improve our supply chain system for livestock products. 

Establishing profitable livestock and dairy production hubs

Thousands of hectares of public sector land is under use by provincial livestock and dairy farms and experiment stations. These farms and experiment stations have the mandate to maintain and improve the productivity of indigenous livestock. Unfortunately, these farms and their resources are underutilized because of poor governance. These land resources need to be converted into viable livestock commercial and extension hubs to achieve the following:

1.    Conversion of provincial farms into commercial dairy, beef, sheep and goat hubs

2.    Linkage of these farms with universities to improve innovation, education and extension

3.    Use of these farms as a viable animal genetic resource and breeding centres

4.    Initiation of community and school engagement programs (e.g. farm to school) 

5.    Use of these farms as extension and demonstration hubs for farmers

Changing the role of livestock extension departments

Provincial Livestock and Dairy Development Departments are “white elephants” for the country. Focus of livestock extension departments in in all other provinces is on curing rather than preventing animal disease. Hence, thousands of veterinarians, Para-Veterinarian staff, buildings, and vehicles are being maintained with the investment of billions of rupees.. Many veterinarians and their staff run their private veterinary clinics. Quakes are making billions of rupees from the poor farmers. Further, their malpractices are also linked to human health issues. In developed world, veterinary practice is a private enterprise which needs to be implemented in the country restructuring the current public funded veterinary practice system into competitive private veterinary practices. The public sector should change focus and invest to support livestock development, improve animal genetics, vaccine production, biosecurity and disease surveillance, supply chain management, animal welfare, environmental protection and farmer’s training.

Developing export and niche markets for livestock and dairy products

Our policy and efforts should be focused on the commercialization of livestock and dairy sector. Here is an example of the development and commercialization of dairy sheep or dairy goat sectors in Pakistan to export high-value products. However, we can plan, resource and implement many region-specific initiatives for various livestock-based enterprises.

The price of milk powder of sheep and goat is between USD 20-25 per kg in international and Chinese market. If we commercialize 1 million sheep out of 30 million head available in Pakistan, then we can create an export market of half a billion dollars annually. With an expansion to 3 million dairy sheep, this industry would generate more dollars annually than we were receiving in coalition support funds from the US. Such an initiative will bring prosperity to rural communities and engage thousands of our youth into work. Further, success with such programs and branding our products (like Himalayan Milk or Indus Valley Meat) could initiate a huge foreign exchange and attract foreign investment in the dairy and livestock sectors.  

Strengthening dairy and livestock research, extension and education

There is huge gap in trained manpower required to develop and improve the livestock and dairy sectors in Pakistan. In a politically motivated and ill-fated decision back in 2003, the undergraduate degree programs in animal production were merged with a veterinary education. This has created a huge gap in trained manpower required to develop and improve the livestock and dairy sectors in Pakistan. Therefore, a government initiative is required to bring various universities, producers and other stakeholders to redefine the objectives of veterinary and animal science education. Following recommendation may strengthen animal and veterinary science to support livestock industry.

1.    Re-instituting specialized degree programs in animal science where the students are trained in how to improve animal breeds, feeding and reproduction, farm management solutions, processing and value-added products, supply chain management, marketing, and livestock extension.

2.    Strengthening veterinarian education by improving curriculum with advances in immunology, molecular biology, and biosecurity and food safety.

3.    Institution of indigenous and foreign scholarships to at least 100 PhD candidates over five years to fill the current trained manpower gap in animal production related research.

4.    Research institutes working under provincial Livestock and Dairy Development Departments should be brought under one umbrella “Livestock and Dairy Research Institute (LDRI)” with a mandate to develop technologies, products, services and policy required to transform our primary livestock production, bio-security, food safety and food security.

5.    The universities should be encouraged to co-develop their research programs with LDRI to support rural society and farming communities.