Despite being the fifth-largest milk producing country of world, Pakistan's import bill has increased from Rs0.34 million to Rs770 million during the decade ending in 2003.

Meanwhile, milk production increased from 18 million to 27.8 million tons in this period which in 2004 was further surged to 32.9 million tons. But it is still far below the national potential.

The average yield of Nili-Ravi buffalo is 2,000-2,005 litres per lactation period of 305 days, and that of Sahiwal cow 1,800-2,000 litres. If modern livestock and dairy management technology is followed, this can go beyond 5,000 litres.

The livestock as an agriculture's sub-sector contributed 49 per cent to the GDP during 2004. The overall population of milch animal is 125.5 million with cattle, buffaloes, goat and sheep population standing at 18.9, 19.7, 40, and 19.7 per cent, respectively. In milk yield, the share of buffaloes is 66 per cent cows 32 per cent, sheep and goats two per cent respectively.

Camel is another important milk source for desert dwellers. Under harsh desert environment its average yield varies from 9-16 litres per day, while under normal pastoral conditions it is 20-40 litres.

The average lactation period varies from 8-18 months depending on environment, breed, management and feed. Camel's milk can be kept wholesome under refrigeration for up to two years.

The dromedary's conversion efficiency also exceeds that of a cow. It requires 2kg of dry vegetation to produce a litre of milk, while a desert cow will need more than 9kg to produce the same quantity. Despite this, it is a neglected animal whose yield is not included in the official statistics.

Livestock, especially milk animals, is a major economic activity of small and land less farmers. Overall 6.5 million families are involved in raising the dairy animals among which more than 30-40 million rural people are involved in raising a herd of one to two and two to three cattle/buffaloes per family thus contributing around 30-40 per cent in the household income.

Traditional marketing systems are of two types. The first category is of the owners of milch animals. They, due to marketing problems such as the transportation problem, distance to cities, failure to get fair price, fleecing of the middleman and above all short span of dairy products either concentrate on domestic consumption or sell it to neighbours within the village vicinity.

The second category is of Gowalas/dodhies who purchase milk from the villages and after mixing around 50 per cent water take it to urban and semi-urban areas on bullock carts, horse-driven carriages, cycles and motor-cycles.

They sell the milk to middlemen, shopkeepers or supply at the doorsteps of city consumers. The doorstep selling of adulterated and hygienically unsafe milk is still in practice because of it being cheaper than the processed and packed ones. Similarly, shopkeepers either sell it as milk, khoya, sweets, curd, butter, or lassi etc.

The first milk processing plant was started in 1960s but it faced a lot of problems such as the quality of raw milk, timely unavailability, high processing cost, and shortage.

Due to the adjustment to taste majority of consumers preferred unprocessed milk, thereby resulting in the closure of the plant. Similarly, between 1969 and mid-70s, some 23 pasteurizing and sterilizing plants were established around Karachi, Lahore etc., by the private sector but these too, could not survive except the one in Lahore.

The second gene ration machinery is the Ultra High Temperature (UHT) treatment plant. It was first set up in 1977. In the UHT plant, the cream is either separated or milk is diluted with mixing water to heat it at 130-150 degree Celsius for two to three seconds.

Then it is chilled rapidly at four to seven degrees Celsius and packed in pre-sterilized containers, and finally, sealed. Since bacteria cannot enter the UHT, these have the shelf-life of up to three months without refrigeration.

This milk is standardized at 3.5 per cent butter fat and 8.9 per cent solid not fat (SNF). As a result this gained popularity with setting up of 23 plants across the country.

Around 300 dairy farms of varying sizes from 50 to over 3,000 milch animals are located countrywide. Landhi's cattle colony in Karachi is perhaps the largest of its kind under the peri-urban system.

The dairy industry still is facing a lot of problems such as the lack of high yielding milch animals, healthcare, inadequate feed and fodder, adulterated or poor quality milk supplied from the villages.

Nature has gifted Pakistan with high yielding breeds of buffaloes such as Nili-Ravi and Kunndi which can be rightly called as the black gold and has the potential of giving over 5,000 litre of milk per lactation through efficient breeding, feeding and healthcare programme. Similarly, milk yield of Sahiwal and Red Sidhi cows can be significantly increased, thus considerably enhancing the production.

There is a need to analyse our existing dairy production system and remove various constraints. For example the Department of Livestock and Dairy Development is doing commendable efforts to improve milch breeds at village level without tangible results as is evident from the increasing import of milk and milk-products. The problems faced by the department should be removed to make it more effective in all four provinces.

Major emphasis should be laid on producing high progeny tested bulls of milch buffaloes and cows and for their distribution in the villages supplemented with the increased facilities for artificial insemination (AI).

The non-descript bulls or bullocks be castrated. Similarly, non-descript cattle breeds should be improved by cross-breeding with qualified Sahiwal bulls and a part could be cross-bred with exotic species to produce properly identified and registered F1 cross-bred cows.

All male calves born out from the cross-breeding be castrated at young ages and raised for beef. The government-run buffaloes and cattle farms could be exclusively made responsible to produce elite buffaloes and cattle bulls for the AI.

Another area which needs attention is to improve and extend veterinary services to village-level. Production of green fodder should be increased by growing high yielding varieties and following improved agronomic practices.

The animal herders at village level should be educated to use urea and molasses with roughages for improved nutritive value. The depleted range lands in desert, arid and semi-arid regions should be improved by adopting well-established technology for each region.

Scattered livestock herders should be organized on community basis. Arrangements should be made to collect and take milk to the nearest centre for chilling before transporting the same to a processing plant.

The village organizations should be provided advisory services and training for better management of their animals by improving their breeds, feed, and health. Necessary veterinary services should be provided at grassroots level, besides improving their marketing system.

The Idara-e-Kissan is one such example. This non-government Organization (NGO) was established in 1983 under the bilateral agreement between the government of Pakistan and the Federal Republic of Germany.

In the beginning about 45 villages and 15,000 farming and land less household were selected near Pattoki in District Kasur of Punjab. Later on, the number of villages increased to about 100 in Kasur and Okara. To help farmers in marketing their produce, an extensive system of milk collection, processing and marketing has been evolved by the Idara-e-Kissan.

The milk is collected from the concerned villages and sent to Pattoki plant for processing and marketing through extensive distribution system. These commercial activities have not only helped the land less and small farmers to improve their income but have made Idara-e-Kissan, financially sustainable. As a result it is extending its activities to other important places in Punjab such as Sargodha, Arifwala and Layya.

The policy makers should learn a lesson from the Idara-e-Kissan and extend such services to other provinces too, especially in villages having good milk potentials.