'Pakistan 5th largest milk producing country in world'

Pakistan is the 5th largest milk producing country in the world, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor, Professor Bashir Ahmad. He was addressing an international seminar organised by the Institute of Food Science and Technology at New Senate Hall on Thursday.
He said the role of livestock sector in rural economy of the country was critical as 35 million people had been deriving their livelihood through this sector. He said the total value of milk produce was higher than the value of two major crops, wheat and cotton in Pakistan. He said the total production of milk was 32 million tonnes during 2005/06.
Professor Bashir Ahmad said the dairy animals, included 28.4 million buffaloes, 25.5 million cows, 25.5 million sheep, 61.9 million goats and 0.7 million camels.
He said the livestock sector was the only source of income for the rural population of the country. He urged the need for efficient milk collection mechanism. Talking about the difference in rates, he said the milk was being sold for Rs 6 per litre in Cholistan while for Rs28 to Rs30 per litre in Lahore and Faisalabad.
Professor Bashir Ahmad lauded the efforts of the federal and provincial governments for promoting the livestock sector. He said the government was planning to establish chilling units at union council level. He said the country was facing shortage of trained manpower and this drawback was causing several problems to maintain the livestock in appropriate manner.
In his welcome address, IFST Director Professor Faqir Muhammad Anjum said the livestock sector contributes almost 50 percent to the value addition in the agriculture sector and 11 percent to Pakistan's GDP. He said the producers consume 50 percent of the total milk and 15-20 percent was lost due to improper handling, sanitary conditions and lack of cooling facilities.
Professor Anjum said there were 30 milk processing units in the country with installed capacity of 70,000 litre per year. He said the units were under utilised mainly due to non-availability of milk and qualified technical staff. He said the IFST had started degree programme in dairy technology.
Jean Francois Grongnet and Professor Frederic Gaucheron from Agrocampus Rennes, France, in their joint presentation, highlighted the situation of dairy sector in Europe, particularly in France. They said total dairy production in France was 30 billion litres in 1986.
He said France minimised its production at 22.5 billion litres due to the high cost of production in 2006. They said standardisation and quality control mechanism was foolproof in their country.
They said many companies were interested to invest in the dairy sector in Pakistan. Jean Francois and Professor Frederic said Pakistan had great potential to export the dairy products in the world market.