Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Alhaj Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that the new livestock policy envisaged the production targets at 3,425 thousand tonnes for meat and 47.465 million tonnes for milk with the growth rate of 10 and 8.5 percent, respectively by the year 2010.
Talking to newsmen here on phone the minister said that the government is well aware of the poor condition of livestock sector therefore the targets envisaged in new livestock policy that the prime minister approved recently are fixed at high rank.
He was optimistic on implementation of suggestion and projects given in new livestock policy for which the finance has already been arranged. Briefing to journalists about current position of livestock sector, Sikandar Hayat said at present, the annual meat production stands at 2,278 thousand tonnes while a country produces 29.47 million tonnes milk with the growth rate of 2.7 and 3 percent, respectively.
He referred to an animal census by Economic Survey of Pakistan that present following picture: cattle 24.2 million heads, buffalo 26.3 million heads, sheep 24.9 million heads, goat 56.7 million heads and camel 0.8 million heads.
The livestock sector share in country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in FY 2004-05 was 10.8 per cent while the livestock share in agriculture GDP was 46.8 per cent that shows that the sector has enough potential to grow, he added.
Moreover, according to Economic Survey of Pakistan, 6.5 million families are dependent on livestock sector.
To achieve these production targets that were envisaged in new livestock policy, about 1000 model dairy farms would be established across the country by the end of 2006 and the number of model dairy farms would be increased to 11,200 by the year 2015.
He said the policy focuses on the utilisation of advance technologies and treatment in the sector of dairy farming so that the export of dairy value added products could be increased to its full potential, by adding that the Central Asian States could be the good buyer of our milk and meet products.
The minister said that after negotiations with a few banks, names of five banks have been enlisted in the new livestock policy that will offer soft loans for setting up of dairy farms on suitable ratio of profits.
These five banks are Habib Bank Limited, Allied Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, Askari Bank and Bank of Punjab, he added.
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