August 20, 2007	Monday	Sha’aban 6, 1428

LIVESTOCK is an important sector of the country’s agriculture. The livestock sub-sector plays a dominant role in the development of agriculture by providing major food items (milks, meat and egg) and other products including power and manure.

Agriculture sector shares about 23 per cent of the GDP, while 49 per cent of its share comes from livestock. But the total allocation for the agriculture sector including livestock in the total budget .remains inadequate.

The best dairy animals of the tropical areas like Nili Ravi and Kundi buffaloes and Sahiwal, Cholistani and Red Sindhi cattle are available in the country with a good genetic potential for dairy development. Buffalo, being the main source of milk, produces about 66 per cent (24.2 million tones), while cows contribute 32 per cent, and goats and sheep two per cent.

The dairy industry of the country continues to face challenges and ambiguity.. With every passing day, dairy products are becoming costlier as livestock farming has not systematically grown with the increasing population and do not match with the rapid urbanisation. In spite of a large livestock population, the supply of animal products like milk and meat are very low as compared to advanced countries. This deficiency is the result of malnutrition, high infant mortality, prevalence of diseases and low life expectancy of cattle ..

The main reason for low productivity of the livestock is also due to neglect and poor management .of this secto.. Despite good genetic potential among animals, low production is due to, among others, lack of proper marketing of livestock products. Most of the country’s farming community is unaware of modern techniques in dairy farming. They usually lack information about cattle management and their feed. The idea of balanced diet and intercropping to grow forage crops with main crops is completely missing. The little or no collaboration of researchers and those dealing with agricultural extension services also contribute to low production.

To overcome this challenge the government should set up model dairy farms throughout the country in collaboration with foreign partners. The government is interested in importing live animals like Holstein Friesian or some other breeds from Australia and other countries to increase milk production and supply. Some animals have already been imported and are being maintained at different locations in Punjab and Sindh. According to reports, they are facing different diseases and problems in adaptability.

During early eighty’s herds of the Holstein Friesian and Jersey animals were imported both by private (Shah Jewna Farm, Jhang; Packages Ltd, Sheikhupura) and public sectors (LES Bhunikey, Pattoki). Both these experiments have not shown encouraging results. Therefore, this time decision should be taken after proper planning.

These animals in the United States produced on an average 6,868 litres of milk which gradually decreased in subsequent years and reached to the level of 3,000 litres per lactation. It has been found that genotype X environment interaction is extremely important in cattle breeding in the tropics and the animals of temperate regions maintained in tropical conditions could not behave similarly in two different environments.

The prime dairy animal of the country is buffalo which is known as “Black Gold”. It is well adapted and is popular in the farming community as indicated by increase in its population on an average at the rate of 5-6 per cent per year. By slightly improved feeding and management, it produces milk on an average more than 3,000 litres per lactation with seven per cent fat content. When it is converted to four per cent fat corrected basis, it becomes more than 4,350 litres per lactation, which is quite comparable or even at higher side than that of the Holstein Friesian milk with 3.5 per cent fat content.

Countries and regions round the globe have specific genetic resources well suited/adapted to that area. Most of the countries have made breakthrough in breed improvement using their native breeds.. There are two basic strategies for such improvement programmes. First is to propagate local animals by suitable breeding strategy followed by careful selection. This is a time consuming procedure but has long lasting results.

The second option is to make a synthetic breed using best available breeds of the area by crossing it with some foreign breed having required traits lacking in the local breeds. AFS and AMZ of Australia are the best examples of this plan. Such a programme requires special care and design to have some concrete results. For short-term improvement crossbreeding may be helpful but requires 100 per cent controlled breeding. There is no shortcut other than the above mentioned methods.

Bulk of the total milk in the country comes from buffalo. But no body knows the actual genetic potential of these buffaloes. Neither any one has tried to exploit the genetic potential of the ‘Black Gold’ by providing best possible environmental conditions (better feeding, housing, management, disease control and proper reproductive management).

The second dairy genetic resource is Sahiwal cattle. It has tremendous potential for milk production with adaptability under local conditions. Many countries have imported this animal and used for development of synthetic breeds, including India. Many countries are trying to register this animal as their asset. Tharparker and Cholistani herds are some other breeds which need serious attention. It can be summarised that animals have tremendous potential and can be used for better production with some logical long-term strategy.

The second option is to develop synthetic breed by using some foreign breeds. This process requires at least 40 to 50 years for such development. The plans of synthetic dairy breed at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and at other places failed due to stoppage of funds after 5-7 years. If reasonable funds are available for at least 40 years, then such experiments can be initiated.

The third option is to import well-established dairy breeds from abroad to improve the existing production level. However there is no example of such imports in the past by any developed country. The result of such imports has not been satisfactory. In the 70s there was a fever for importing the Jersey and Friesian cattle. These animals were used for two purposes - for crossbreeding of animals here and raising purebred at different locations like Quetta, Charsadda, Jhang, Sheikhupura, Pattoki by different government farms and private breeders. Due to crossbreeding in F1 these animals showed significantly better performance but their subsequence generations showed declining performance.

In such a situation, the only way to support the livestock sector is to develop the dairy industry on scientific lines in combination with various management techniques, which will not only provide meat and milk in abundant quantities to the domestic consumers but extra quantities can also be exported.

To improve the situation, the following steps should be taken on prompt basis: Production of cost-effective clean milk through improvement of the peri-urban buffalo dairy farms; identification of areas of intervention to prevent losses at the peri-urban dairy farms, through improved health, reproduction, feeding and marketing; development of a model marketing system for farm requirements and products for providing a relief to the producers and consumers, with special focus on school-going- children; training and organisation of dairy farmers motivating them towards environment-friendly, profitable enterprises from non-profitable business.