Pakistan’s Dairy and Livestock sector
overview
overview
Pakistan has tremendous potential to vigorously exploit the dairy sector. In the past the successive governments ignored this vital sector of the economy. With its lowest milk yield per cow and buffalo Pakistan is estimated to be currently producing substantial quantity of milk to the tune of an estimated 43 million tones annually. This is sufficient to satisfy the massive population of 165 million whose per year consumption of milk is approximately to be 35 million tones. Due to dearth of efficient planning, transportation, refrigeration, collection and distribution facilities the bulk of the milk is consumed in the remote areas of Pakistan. As a result of these factors Pakistan is importing both inferior and quality milk powder from abroad worth million of dollars which is a huge drain on its precious foreign exchange earnings.
Pakistan being the fourth largest producer of milk in general and second largest buffalo milk producer can export the milk, provided the government gives utmost attention to this important sector with sincerity and devotion. There is a large scale demand of powdered and packed milk from countries like Iran, Afghanistan, UAE, Central Asian Countries, Malaysia and Philippines.
In Pakistan milk is the major output of livestock sector. The value of milk alone exceeds the combined value of wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane. It accounts for 5.3 per cent value addition to GDP, 25.5 per cent to agriculture and 49 per cent to livestock. Milk contribution is the highest in livestock followed by net sales 25 per cent, meat and others 11 per cent, poultry products 8 per cent and natural growth 7 per cent. About 75 per cent of the total raw production of raw milk is produced in Punjab, 14 per cent in Sind, 10 per cent in NWFP and only 1 per cent in Baluchistan.
An approximate of 9 million families raises cattle buffaloes for milk production in the country. The small holders constitute 92 per cent of total families raising cattle and buffaloes. More than 70 per cent farmers hold less than 5 acres of land. Large herd 30 milking animals per farm constitute roughly 0.3 per cent of holdup. The remaining is marketed through different channels. Currently, only about 22 per cent of milk production is processed, about 58 per cent is supplied to urban areas in the raw form in most unhealthy condition. The daily consumption of milk in Lahore is 3 million liter and that of Karachi is 4 million liter or more than that.
There are hardly 15 milk processing plant (mainly UHT fluid milk, milk powder and yogurt in Pakistan). There is only one Dairy Technology Department available to facilitate private and public sector in all aspects of modern production of milk. Sind Agriculture University Tandojam having expertise in modern technology in milk production is barely known. There services can be utilized for better milk production in the country.
Pakistan being the fourth largest producer of milk in general and second largest buffalo milk producer can export the milk, provided the government gives utmost attention to this important sector with sincerity and devotion. There is a large scale demand of powdered and packed milk from countries like Iran, Afghanistan, UAE, Central Asian Countries, Malaysia and Philippines.
In Pakistan milk is the major output of livestock sector. The value of milk alone exceeds the combined value of wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane. It accounts for 5.3 per cent value addition to GDP, 25.5 per cent to agriculture and 49 per cent to livestock. Milk contribution is the highest in livestock followed by net sales 25 per cent, meat and others 11 per cent, poultry products 8 per cent and natural growth 7 per cent. About 75 per cent of the total raw production of raw milk is produced in Punjab, 14 per cent in Sind, 10 per cent in NWFP and only 1 per cent in Baluchistan.
An approximate of 9 million families raises cattle buffaloes for milk production in the country. The small holders constitute 92 per cent of total families raising cattle and buffaloes. More than 70 per cent farmers hold less than 5 acres of land. Large herd 30 milking animals per farm constitute roughly 0.3 per cent of holdup. The remaining is marketed through different channels. Currently, only about 22 per cent of milk production is processed, about 58 per cent is supplied to urban areas in the raw form in most unhealthy condition. The daily consumption of milk in Lahore is 3 million liter and that of Karachi is 4 million liter or more than that.
There are hardly 15 milk processing plant (mainly UHT fluid milk, milk powder and yogurt in Pakistan). There is only one Dairy Technology Department available to facilitate private and public sector in all aspects of modern production of milk. Sind Agriculture University Tandojam having expertise in modern technology in milk production is barely known. There services can be utilized for better milk production in the country.
Pakistan has per capita milk production of around 230 kg per year, which is more than twice that of India and about 70 per cent that of USA. Milk production is primarily due to increase in animals rather than by milk yield improvement. The country has three times the number of cattle as Germany. One New Zealand dairy animal produces as much as milk as three dairy animals in Pakistan; while one American cow produces as much as milk as seven Pakistani cows.
India, the second largest producer of milk and the first position holder of buffalo milk production in the world has made great strides in the milk production. Its annual milk production has more than trebled from 21 million tones in 1968 to 85 million tones in 2001-02.
In 2005-06 India's milk production, which include cow and buffalo stood at 101 million tones and accounted for approximately 15 per cent of world milk production. It showed the production of milk in 2007-08 at 103 million tones. Milk production was 105 million tones in 2008-09. By 2011 India's milk output to reach 111 million tones.
Until 1991 India's dairy was highly regulated and protected. High import duties, non-tariff barriers restriction on imports and exports, stringent licensing provisions impeded the growth of dairy farming. The growth was achieved through government's direct role as well as increased demand from the increased population, higher incomes and rapid urbanizations. Moreover, Israeli expertise as well as the cooperative societies in India has helped greatly in developing the dairy sector.
The dairy industry in Pakistan is confronted with numerous problems such as low credit facilities to the small farmers, low investment by government in this sector, poor market infrastructure facilities, inadequate feed resources and epidemics of infectious diseases. Losses faced by dairy farmers in the form of treatment of diseases, death of animals and low production have been estimated at Rs79 billion.
Prices of dairy products are rising day-by-day and the huge quantities of dairy products are imported to meet the increasing demand of the population. Due to this condition the consumers are already paying Rs48 to Rs52 per liter for fresh milk and Rs66 to Rs70 per kg for yogurt in Karachi. A leading powdered milk packer Nestle has increased by Rs30. Everyday tea whitener has increased to Rs380 from Rs350. Packers of various powdered and tetra milk have pushed their rates up owing to vigorous media campaign that loose milk is highly sub-standard and un-hygienic and tetra is safe for health.
Pakistan has established the largest milk processing plant. Swiss dairy giant Nestle has made Pakistan the home of worlds largest ever milk production plant. It has done a tremendous work in the field of milk collection UHT processing on most modern and state art machine and quality packing. Presently Nestle collect milk from 14,000 farmers over an area 100,000 sq km in Punjab. Engro Foods Ltd a local company has one of the largest nation-wide distribution networks delivering high quality products even in the far flung areas.
The UHT process though expensive has proved to be a success in Pakistan. Pasteurization is much cheaper comparatively as the process is much simple and packing material is much cheaper. Small pasteurization plants established can play a vital role to meet the demand of cities and towns. Considering the fact that milk production is obtained from very small farms it is necessary to lower farm production costs, increase productivity and provide a larger farmers' share in consumer milk prices. Huge losses incurred by farmers on treatment of disease and death of animals can be prevented by providing community based health delivery services through community based health workers.
In order to bring in line with dairy industries of Australia and New Zealand or even with neighboring country India, this industry which is highly untapped require technical and expertise support from international donor agencies and friendly countries.
In this context, government's initiative is imperative to take all measures to harness the tremendous potential of dairy farming industry for the betterment of national economy.
Dairying is by far the largest livestock sector in Pakistan, valued in at Rp360 billion PA. Supply has increased by >5% pa over the past 15 years, but demand is anticipated to more than treble by 2020, requiring an even faster boost in production. Government of Pakistan (GoP) national plans are to increase production, raise the level of processed milk in the market to >30% from the current level of <5% (to improve product quality) and to improve the profitability to smallholder farmers (who produce over 80% of the milk) through streamlining marketing and increasing milk production per animal. Accordingly, the GoP identified the dairy sector as one of the key focal points.
About 50-60% of buffalo and cattle are in rural subsistence farms, with most of the rest in rural market-oriented farms; this group continues to grow as their access to markets improves. Over 70% of buffalo and cattle are in herds of less than 10 animals; about 70% of households with milking animals have herds of less than 5 animals, while a further 20 to 25% of households have 5 to 10 animals. In all but the peri-urban systems the livestock are a component of crop-livestock systems, integrated with wheat, maize and cotton production, in both irrigated and dryland farming systems. Milk production per lactation for both buffalo and cattle is well below the genetic potential of the breeds used, ranging from 500kg to 2400kg per annum. Typically the subsistence and market-oriented rural farmers achieve production levels of 500-1200kg/annum, with production primarily limited by poor nutrition. In both cases improved production levels and profitability will require interventions that affect the whole systems, and not just the livestock component.
