ALL official statistics are distrusted by design and premeditated approach. But some of ‘facts and figures’ so brazenly contradict incontrovertible facts or make crude deliberate efforts to ignore what does not suit official sights that the entire range of government produced statistics loose their credibility. Pakistan’s milk production figures are a glaring example of these methods for working out output and status of the sector.
The government places Pakistan’s annual milk production at around 25 million liters and claims that the yield makes the country fifth highest producer of milk in the world. That should be pleasing and gratifying. But can the output figure and claim of distinction in the international field stand the test of scrutiny and analyses? Doubtful, to say the least.
The country has 15.2 million livestock owning households with a stock of 45 million heads. A large number of owners comprise landless families with herds of one to three animals. They thus lack access to fodder crops to feed stock. Another segment is tenants who focus on cash crops; fodder, even though they own milk and meat animals, is not their priority because of pressing economic reasons. Owners unable to properly feed their animals are unlikely to have highly productive stock. This boils down to low milk yield from a majority of the livestock in the country.
Then there are big landowners owning large herds and can certainly afford to properly feed animals they maintain and usually they do that but livestock is kept for reasons of social prestige; this is not a field of professional interest to such landowners. But milk sector is not a priority with them and their contribution has no reportable bearing on totals milk yield in the country.
Stock owners are almost entirely located in rural areas; they live in small villages that have, generally speaking, a livestock population of less than one hundred animals. This is the situation in villages densely populated by milk animals. Most villages, particularly in the smaller provinces are much smaller units. The total number of animals in a village is fewer.
Collection of milk from these small and widely scattered production centers is extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Some milk companies have become active in recent times but they count for very little, for almost naught. The bulk of milk is supplied to citizens by milkmen, known as gawalas. They either collect the commodity themselves or receive supplies from dhodis, middlemen of the milk sector. Their contribution adds up to over 95 percent of the total milk supplied in the country.
The supplies have to be transported to consumers in cities. But fresh milk is a quickly perishable item and bringing the commodity to consumers takes hours. There was a time when milk supplies were available within cities. Environmental needs and continuously rising population of urban centres forced the authorities to establish livestock colonies at some distance from urban habitats.
The quality of milk was excellent when milk animals were maintained near residential areas; milk was fresh too. That has not been possible after shifting livestock to colonies for livestock and their owners at some distance from major urban centres. This has led to two developments. One: milk by the gawala has become a late delivery item and two: there are increasing complaints of adulterated supplies, which is, mixing water with milk.
The accusation against milkmen resorting to this practice out of greed is largely unfounded. This may be the case with a minority of the community but the majority, one believes, still takes pride in providing quality supplies. This, however, is not possible any more because of the time lag between milking of animals and taking milk to often distant destinations. They are constrained to chill milk with ice to protect against perishing of the commodity.
Milk companies also chill milk with ice during transportation from collection points to factories. Later, they however evaporate water of ice through processing. The gawala has no such facility available to him and in any case, he has to sustain the protective system till the distribution of all supplies with him. In the end, the milk reaching consumers comprises about fifty percent of water. There is no method for ascertaining the exact percentage water in milk and water but there is no denying of the fact that 96 per cent of milk available in the country has the some quantity of water in it.
Government statistics are based on the quantity reaching the consumer. In a manner of speaking, the statistics are correct but they represent total supplies which contain a substantial percentage of water. One presumes officials dealing with sector would be aware of this practice; they would be exceptionally naive if they are ignorant of ground conditions. Or they would fall in the category of gifted incompetent.
What exactly is the milk production of Pakistan is an unknown area. But the government’s claims are wish based and not authenticated by obvious facts. Then there are other conditions that suggest that a lot needs to be done for the sector to make it genuinely productive and live up to its potential which is tremendous. Two basic requirements of the sector need to be fulfilled before the present claim of being the fifth ranking milk producer in the world.
The first is fodder. Herds of small owners receive less than half of their feed needs. While there are agriculture and livestock departments in provinces and there are federal ministries overseeing the two areas, no one is responsible for fodder crops. Provincial departments do not own fodder production and it is the same with the federal ministries.
In Punjab, the biggest livestock population province, the Rs2.8 billion annual development programme for the Livestock Department has plans for developing and strengthening infrastructure, providing veterinary services, artificial insemination, provision of bulls, setting up diagnostic centres and whatever one can think of but has just one project for fodder crops. Incidentally, that is yet to be approved. The province has one Fodder Research Centre in Multan, a city better known for cotton and mangoes than livestock. One hasn’t seen its contribution for increasing quantity and quality of fodder but in any case, what can research achieve when land is not available for cultivation?
Farmers do not cultivate fodder because it does not offer them instant cash mileage and there is no incentive from the government for fodder cultivation. The government has not even thought about it. Punjab chief minister realizes the importance of livestock and has persuaded banks to provide loans to people willing to set up livestock farms; the banks are expected to offer loans worth more than Rs3 billion.. But nowhere in the scheme of things is fodder mentioned.
SMEDA is similarly extending facilities for breeding and setting up livestock farms but fodder does not feature in its priorities either. There can just be no hope of higher yield without giving animals proper feed. Fodder plus feed factories accessible to breeders/ owners selling feed at rates viable for breeders is the way out.
Next comes the question of chilling to ensure the supply of quality milk and eliminating possibilities of adulteration or mixing ice with milk because of unavoidable constraints. As long as small quantities of milk are collected from points located at a distance from each other, there can be little hope of maintaining purity of supplies.
There is often discussion of providing chilling equipment at various levels of district government but this has to be done in a carefully planned and organized manner to ensure that chilling service covers age area and maximum number of owners and their herds in that area.
However, till feed for livestock is improved in both quantity and quality and bulk of milk yield can be chilled without resorting to mixing ice with milk, the total output of milk in the country can not be authentically measured.The present official figure of milk out put is totally unreliable because it does not take basic facts in to consideration.
