ISLAMABAD Mar 1: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday gave an approval to the new livestock development policy focussing on the utilization of full potential of livestock for reducing poverty and enhancing export through public and private sectors.
The prime minister, who chaired a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House here to review livestock development and overall performance of the department, was apprised of the pre-emptive steps taken by the federal and NWFP governments to check the spread of bird flue in Pakistan.
These steps, officials from the NWFP livestock department informed the prime minister, include disposing of the infected chickens in a scientific manner and conducting tests to ascertain the exact nature of the virus.
The minister for agriculture and livestock expressed the hope that the country would achieve the agriculture growth of four per cent and target for cotton production of over 12.7 million bales.
Production of rice increased by 8.5 per cent in Punjab, while production of Irri-6 in Sindh increased by 15 per cent.
The prime minister said enormous potential of livestock remained underutilized in the country. He said the government along with the provinces was taking a number of steps, including reorientation of public sector institutions, improvement of extension services, better R&D facilities for use of new technologies and techniques, provision of more resources, production of vaccines, improvement of infrastructure and provision of maximum incentives for the private sector.
These efforts, the premier observed, would help add value to the products, increase farm income and improve the standard of living in the rural areas.
The meeting was informed that livestock had significant potential for poverty reduction, growth and export if adequate support and incentives were provided to public and private sectors.
The new livestock development policy, the meeting was told, would focus on provision of safe and quality products at competitive prices, covering entire value chain with focus on marketing and poverty reduction.
“There is a need to move from subsistence farming to market-oriented and commercial farming,” the prime minister observed.
The share of agriculture in Pakistan’s GDP stands at 23.1 per cent, with livestock only at 10.8 per cent; hence efforts were initiated to develop this sector along with the agriculture to uplift the rural areas and alleviate poverty.
The prime minister claimed (making a reference to the recent social and living standard survey) that 8.2 pre cent reduction had been achieved in poverty, declining to 31.8 per cent from 39 per cent in 2001. Similarly, he claimed that 18 per cent decline had been recorded in urban poverty and overall poverty level was reduced to 32.1 per cent in 2005.
Giving an approval to the new livestock development policy, the prime minister emphasized the need for affective implementation of the policy and seamless coordination between federal, provincial and local governments.
The meeting was informed that the livestock contributed 8.5 per cent to the total exports and 6.5 million families were dependent on it.
The livestock policy covers every aspect of the development of the sector, with clearly fixing the responsibilities of implementation for federal, provincial and district governments.
Under the policy, while the federal government will be responsible for national policies, planning and economic coordination, import/export of animals and animal products, quarantine, research and international coordination, the provisional governments will work for livestock development, veterinary vaccine production, research etc.
The district governments will look after veterinary health services, breeding services and livestock markets. Substantial support will be made available to the private sector for the modernization of techniques, better marketing, training establishment of butcheries and slaughter houses.
