With the every passing day, dairy products are becoming costlier because live stock farming has not scientifically grown with the increase in population and also it did not match with the pace of urbanisation.
Recently, milk prices in Karachi increased without any reason. In a short time of two years, milk prices have gone up from Rs 20 per liter to Rs 25, showing a 25 percent increase. Moreover, meat prices have also risen to about 25 percent in the last six months.
In such a situation, the only way to control prices is to develop the dairy industry on scientific lines, which will not only provide meat and milk in abundant quantities to the domestic consumers but extra quantities can also be exported.
In spite of having a large population of livestock, the country is spending some $40 million annually on the import of formula milk only, which is the highest amount spent by any country in the world on this particular commodity.
Currently, there are some 160 varieties of infant formula milk available in the markets. While breast milk is the best a mother can give her infant in terms of a balanced and healthy diet.
Livestock is an important sector of agriculture in Pakistan. It accounts for 39 percent of agricultural value added and about 9.4 percent of the GDP. Its net foreign exchange earnings, in 2001-02, were Its 51.5 billion, which was 12.3 percent of the overall export earnings of the country.
The role of livestock can be judged from the fact that about 35 million people are engaged in raising 2 to 3 cattle/buffaloes and 5 to 6 sheeps/goats in their backyards and are deriving 20 to 25 percent income from it.
The livestock, include cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, camels, horses, asses and mules. During the last five years, the combined population of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat increased from 113 million, 1998-99, to 125 million, 2002-03, depicting a total increase of 12 million or 24 lac heads per annum.
In the year 2002-03, the domestic live stock population was estimated at 23.3 million cattle, 24.8 million buffalo, 24.6 million sheep and 52.8 million goats. During 1998-03, maximum increase was in the population of goats, showing an increase of 70 lac heads or 14 lac heads per annum.
During this period, production of beef increased from 963 to 1060 thousand tons and mutton from 633 to702 thousand tonnes.
This shows that the total increase in beef production was 97,000 tonnes or 15.4 thousand tonnes p.a., and mutton 69,000 tonnes or 14,000 tonnes.
TABLE - 1:
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Production of Livestock Products
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Product 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03
Milk 24,877 25,566 26,284 27,031 27,811
Beef 963 986 1010 1034 1060
Mutton 633 649 666 683 702
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The per capita availability of milk was 150 litre and meat 19kg per annum in 2000-01, which comes to 0.41 litre milk per day and 5.2 grams meat per day.
To meet the domestic demand of milk and meat, the rate of growth must be at least 5 to 7 percent per annum.
Despite an increase in milk and meat production, the prices have moved upward abnormally.
The recent increase in meat prices is attributed to the export of live animals or meat to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
There was a time when animals used to be imported or smuggled from Afghanistan into Pakistan but after 9/11 the situation suddenly took a 'U' turn. In Afghanistan, the war has seriously affected the livestock sector.
Thus Pakistan started exporting instead of importing livestock from Afghanistan.
According to official figures during July-August, 2002, animals worth Rs 30 million made their way to Afghanistan. Besides, the smuggling of livestock from Pakistan to Afghanistan has also started in a big way to meet their domestic shortage of animals.
The country, though rich in livestock, rarely got a chance to export meat or meat products to earn foreign exchange. It was offered an opportunity when various Middle East states stopped importing meat from European countries due to the incidence of the mad cow disease.
Meat export from Lahore started in the beginning of the year 2000 when carcasses of goats and large animals were airlifted.
The meat was processed under a special arrangement between the exporters and the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore, which runs four abattoirs in the city.
The exports of livestock - cow, buffalo, sheep and goat - are finding their way to the Gulf States, Iran and Afghanistan where there is a shortage of good quality meat and, therefore, it commands a high price.
Traditionally, Europe was the biggest exporter of meat and meat by-products and livestock and had been a major source of foreign exchange for several European countries.
Technically, meat from South Asia has a superior quality, due to grazing and vegetable concentrates as the main source of livestock feed here, against bone and meat meal in Europe.
According to official figures, the export of livestock, during 2001-02, registered an abnormal growth of 51 percent to a value of Rs 221 million as compared to 2000-01, when exports of meat stood at Rs 146 million.
The estimated export of these four categories of livestock is estimated to be more than Rs 275 million during the fiscal year of 2002-03.
A rising trend in livestock export was also sustained during the first two months of current fiscal year as exports of animals worth Rs 43 million were reported to have been achieved.
There is a greater possibility that this trend would go unbridled if the government does not take corrective measures to ensure a steady supply of animals in the domestic market.
As a result of this, the value-added leather industry, including leather garment manufacturers who mostly use raw hides and skins obtained from cows, buffaloes, sheeps and goats are faced with a shortage of raw material.
Therefore, the Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PLGMEA) chairman Fawad Ijaz and the Pakistan Tanners Association chairman S.M Naseem has urged the government to immediately impose a ban on export of livestock.
If Pakistan wants to continue meat and live animal export, besides meeting domestic demand, modern meat processing plants and livestock farms should be set up all over the country.
Here we are giving some details of new to set up a unit to raise 50 animals on commercial basis, for more details Smeda can be contacted.
DAIRY FARM OF 50 ANIMALS PROJECT BRIEF: Dairy farming is an agro-based activity, buffaloes and cows can be raised for milk production in an organised manner for commercial purpose.
For this project, animals can be purchased from the animal markets or breeders in Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad.
More than 70 percent farmers hold less than 5 acres of land. Dairy farming may prove a profitable business for small landholders.
They can also grow fodder on their land to feed dairy animals, without disturbing the main crop.
Dairy farming is one of the best projects if professionally done on small land holdings. The return of the land used for feeding animals is higher as compared to land used for traditional cropping.
The economical size of the herd is 50 animals, which will grow into 180 animals within a few years. Cows are also proposed in the herd, as they are high yields and efficient converters of feed into milk.
This herd would consist of 75 percent buffaloes and 25 percent cows. A cow, on average, yields 14 litres milk a day over a lactation period of 305 days whereas the buffalo, on an average, yields 10 litres a day over a lactation period of 280 days.
The lactation period is the period during which the animals provide milk. These animals are called wet animals. Generally the lactation days of cows are 305 days and that of buffaloes is 280 days.
For calculation, 77 percent of the total number of cows has been taken as wet cows and 67 percent of the total number of buffaloes as wet buffaloes.
The calving interval in a buffalo is about 18 to 20 months, while a cow has 15 to 16 months.
On an average, cows are productive for 7 to 8 years, while buffaloes are productive for 8 to 9 years. Male calves will be sold at the end of year or can also be reared separately for beef production.
Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world. Milk production is 28 million tonnes from 125 million heads. Milk is used for drinking, tea, desi ghee, yogurt and butter making.
Milk is also used to make Khoya and different types of sweets. Milk processing companies use milk as a raw material to formulate different types of milk ie pasteurised milk, UHT milk, condensed milk, skimmed milk, milk powder, etc Different value added products like yogurt, ice cream, butter and cheese are also produced from the raw milk.
The daily consumption of milk in Lahore is 2 to 3 million litres and that of Karachi is 4 million litres.
The demand for processed milk has increased its share in quality conscious consumers. During the last two decades, processed milk has achieved 4 percent share in the milk market of Lahore, which is growing to about 4.5 percent per annum. Therefore, metropolitan cities are the major markets for the sale of milk.
The capital cost will be budgeted for 4 years; therefore the initial infrastructure cost has been calculated on the basis of a 4th year infrastructure requirement.
The total cost of the project is estimated, by Smeda, to be about Rs 2.94 million, out of which the capital cost of the project is Rs 2.67 million. Total infrastructure cost of 13 thousand sq ft would be about Rs 842,388.
Besides hiring a tractor for fodder sowing, only a few simple farm equipment's like a fodder chopper, water pumps, milk utensils will be purchased.
With the green fodder, to increase animal productivity, the ration feed will be given, which includes cotton seed cakes, corn gluten, wheat bran, molasses, and choker. About 1 kg of concentrate is required for the production of 3 litres of milk.
There is no fixed fodder requirement for the animals but a rule of thumb says that an animal needs daily fodder equal to 9 to 10 percent of its body weight. According to estimates, buffalo consumes 40-55 kg fodder daily while cow consumes about 30-40 kg. For a high yield the animals would be fed on a high protein diet concentrate.
For this dairy project, manpower requirement is 7 for performing different activities like feeding, milking, etc, which may cost about Rs 240,000.
Animals are prone to some sort of disease, at any stage of their life. Disease like foot and mouth, diarrhea and digestive disorders are very common in animals, which affect the productivity of the livestock.
Only proper vaccination can keep the animals healthy. Healthy and high yielding milk animals are the key to the success of a farm.
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