The government is spending huge amounts and exploring a variety of possibilities to reduce poverty that seems reluctant to get off an escalating streak. However, the area that holds the key to countering poverty remains largely neglected.

The surest prescription for improving the lot of the deprived lay in the livestock sector that comprises a large percentage of the population, including the poorest of the poor, the land less population of Pakistan's villages.

Of late, there appears some realization of the importance of the sector in the federal government as the prime minister has directed the Zarai Tarraqiati Bank (ZTBL) to issue soft loans to farmers for the promotion of the sector. But mere instructions are not enough; a comprehensive plan that takes the limitations of the most deprived segment in the rural areas in to account.

Loans by financial institutions involve collaterals and the people who own nothing except one or two goats or at best an equal number of buffaloes or cows are usually without even the semblance of a shelter; they cannot offer any possession to a bank as security. They are in no position to take advantage of loaning facilities from any institution.

Unless mechanism for reaching and benefiting them is evolved, loans for breeders would become another means of rewarding the already privileged members of the sector or an opportunity for relatively less endowed but reasonably well placed members of rural population.

According to statistics, approximately seven million families are engaged in breeding livestock. Majority of them consists of owners of small herds. The total of such breeders/owners is 84 per cent of breeders in the country while those falling in this category in Punjab are about 88 per cent of the total number of milk and meat animals in the province.

Owners of herds of one or two animals are 43 per cent in Pakistan and 47 per cent in Punjab. People owning herds of 3-4 animals are 28 per cent and 29 per cent and those with herds of the size of 5-6 count for 13 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, in Pakistan and Punjab. Many of them do not own any land or property other than livestock that can even be sheep and goat that are far cheaper than buffaloes and cows.

About five million families counting for 28.50 million population of Punjab is dependent on livestock for its livelihood. One can imagine the conditions in which 88 per cent of these people must be living. Genuine, grass roots level support for the sector is certain to make a substantial contribution towards alleviation of poverty.

This is one aspect of the livestock sector. Another is its role in the national economy and exports. Its share in the GDP comes to around 11.4 per cent and over 8 per cent in the total foreign exchange earnings. Despite being a badly neglected area it has shown remarkable growth and resilience.

The reason is assistance it provides to agriculturists, particularly small landowners who are finding purely sowing and harvesting activity increasingly non-viable due to escalating cost of inputs. At one stage, the animals that small growers breed are their only friends.

Agriculture has indeed become a losing proposition for small farmers because they cannot afford to make the requisite investment in land for increasing yields and have no means for countering the exploitative practices of a market that squeezes them to sell at the lowest rates.

Farmers are forced to submit to the manipulators in the market because they need cash to cultivate the next crop. To begin with, they need money to buy seed and later for fertilizer and pesticides Caught in the vicious circle of resource constraint, they are reduced to becoming in a pawn to survive. Livestock bails them out as it provides not only additional income but food for the families, too.

Although, there has been no investment worth the name in the sector, it has shown growth in milk and meat yields. The milk yield from a buffalo has been placed at 1,200 litres a year for 1995-96 in official statistics while it increased to 1,800 litres for the same period by 2000-01. This is a remarkable achievement.

There, however, is negative growth too. During 1986-96 the last livestock census was held. The strength of buffaloes increased from 11.5 million to 13.1m; this comes to an increase of 17.49 per cent increase in their population.

In this period, the number of cows went up from 8.82 m to 9.38 or by 6.35 per cent. The only consolation was that the increase in milk animals was 16.2 for buffaloes and 35.7 per cent for cows.

Similarly, the population of goats showed an increase of 42.3 per cent though sheep registered a decline of about 8.22 per cent in this period. This was so because meat from goats is more extensively consumed than sheep meat.

The negative side is that the increased population of livestock, although it provides nourishment to human beings, competes with human beings for land, water and food resources that are already proving insufficient for the people of Pakistan. The country would be in a deep mess if populations of both man and animal continued rising at the explosive present rate.

The answer is more yields from fewer animals through greater veterinary care, breed improvement and more nourishing feed for livestock. A terribly neglected area is fodder. It is not sown in an organized manner. Land needs to be earmarked for this purpose and research should be conducted to identify high yields fodder crops and their cultivation should be promoted.

Statistics inform of the capacity of animals to produce more milk; it is presumably the same for meat yield tough as far as one knows breeders do not look at beef yield as important.

The gains breeders have made on their own can not only be consolidated but built further. But that would not happen without committed, positive intervention from the administration.

Another advantage in supporting livestock is arresting the trend of rural migration. The poor of rural areas are forced to shift to urban centres in the hope of better prospects.

They leave homes and hearths because they cannot meet ends in villages where they are pitched in unequal competition with breeders with better resources. With official help, they can survive in rural areas. That help has not been available so far.

Not only can the livestock sector be used for reducing poverty, it can indeed be harnessed for boosting economy in a big way because a variety of livestock products can be added to the sector's export list or the quantity of current exports can be significantly raised.

Meat and animals are already exported. A known demand for beef and mutton from Pakistan exists in many countries, particularly in the nearby Gulf and Middle East states. Steps should be undertaken to meet that demand on an organized basis.

Pakistan imports quite a quantity of milk which is criminal because local needs can be met by the milk sector has demonstrated considerable improvement in its performance. One cooperative organization and some private sector companies have profitably explored the sector.

Breeders have benefited to the extent that they are receiving higher price for milk. But that is at the cost of consumers. Higher yields from animals would help control prices without affecting the interests of breeders.

The private sector can help the breeder and the sector better by emulating the example of the cooperative that provides veterinary services to breeders and lays down social sector facilities too.

The livestock sector has immense potential. It needs to be harnessed for the benefit of the populace, for countering poverty, for protecting urban centres from continuously increasing populations and for providing boost to the economy. It is an area ready to produce a miracle. All it needs is the government's attention. Would the government rise up to the challenge?