Livestock policy on the anvil

The government is formulating a national policy for developing livestock for poverty reduction, ensuring national food security and conserving natural environment, official sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday. They said that the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) has set up three committees to submit their recommendations in a fortnight for boosting production of milk, meat and poultry. These committees would are to be headed by Yawar Ali of Nestle, Dr M Sadiq of Sadiq Poultry and Mashooq Ali Bhutto from Sindh.
Livestock contributes 49 percent of the agriculture value-addition and 11.4 percent to the GDP. It is a net source of foreign exchange earnings contributing 8.5 percent of total exports. Five to 7 million rural families are involved in livestock raising , having holdings of 2-3 cattle, 3-4 sheep or goats per family and deriving 20 to 25 percent of their income from them.
Sources said that despite minimum government investment and subsidy in this sector, there has been steady growth of 4-5 percent during the last decade whereas crop sector has been fluctuating.
They said that industry, small business and agriculture sectors get soft loans on low interest rates whereas the livestock sector still gets loans on high commercial rates. They said that the government has decided to make these soft loans available to the livestock sector and it would direct the Khushali Bank, SME Bank and NRSP for improving livestock financing position.
Sources said that the promotion and development of market-oriented livestock, improvement of access to inputs and services , and evolution and promotion of high yielding varieties of fodder in irrigated and barani areas and an integrated action plan by various departments would be the highlights of the new national livestock policy.
Meanwhile, a livestock consultant of European Union, Guy Freeland, has said that the progress of 26 million euro strengthening of livestock services project in Pakistan has been satisfactory and result-oriented.
In an interview with Business Recorder Freeland said it is a challenge for the government of Pakistan to meet the domestic demands of livestock products. He said that Pakistan's population growth is very high and to meet its demands there should be at least 7 percent growth of livestock and its products per annum.
He said that what the government needs to concentrate on is to facilitate the small traditional farmers, who cannot enter market oriented production, and at the same time facilitate the development of small scale and large scale market-oriented production systems to meet the growing domestic consumer demand.