January 25, 2008	Friday	Muharram 15, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 24: The government must invest in the much-neglected livestock sector and ensure the provision of basic utilities and cattle feed at the minimum possible rates if it is really sincere about making milk and meat available to the common man at low rates.

Sindh Livestock and Dairy Farmers Welfare Association President Haji Mahmood Ilahi Qureshi stated this at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday.

Holding the government solely responsible for the increasing milk and meat prices, Mr Qureshi said it had not taken a signal step to solve the problems being faced by the livestock and dairy sector for decades.

“Millions of people are engaged in livestock and dairy businesses and earn their livelihood. And if developed on scientific lines, it has the potential to earn a lot of foreign exchange for the country. But, unfortunately, at present, the farmers are striving for their very survival,” he said, adding that the government despite receiving huge funds from European countries for the upgrade of this sector had never paid any attention to improving the infrastructure of this industry and this was the very reason why the prices of milk and meat were rising.

“There is no subsidy or government support. Apart from paying charges for labour and feed, whose price is constantly increasing, farmers buy water and pay for gas and electricity as well. The payment of power bills is on commercial rates, which are much higher than the agriculture rates,” he said.

Expressing dismay over the lack of research, he said many countries had improved milk production from a limited stock, but Pakistan, despite having a large livestock population and one of the best breeds in the world, lagged far behind in that respect and farmers still used the centuries-old methods.

“India is an example where modern techniques in dairy farming have been adopted and milk is available at much lower prices. Experts in European countries produce 40 litres milk per cow per day. But, in our case milk production per animal has dropped from 12-15 litres to 7-8 litres over the years,” he said.

“There are no modern laboratories and neither do the veterinarians sitting in government hospitals bother to attend to their duties. Farmers vaccinate and treat animals from their own pockets,” he said, demanding that the government must take immediate steps to take the industry out of the crisis by providing farmers with land on easy terms and loans without interest.

Another critical issue, he said, was the daily slaughter of a large number of calves. “Every year in Karachi, 400,000 calves of buffaloes are sold for slaughter because the cash-strapped farmers simply don’t have the resources to rear them. This problem can be solved if the government sets up an infrastructure and help farmers in cattle rearing, which would ensure the availability of more meat and milk.”

Giving the example of dairy farming being practised abroad, he said their animals grazed in open fields, which had a direct impact on their health and consequently on milk production. Unfortunately, in Cattle Colony, Landhi, where about 400,000 animals constitute the city’s prime source of milk, buffaloes and cows were literally caged in small spaces from where they were released only when needed to be slaughtered.

About the concerns over milk quality, he supported the demand for testing of fresh and packaged milk samples at a recognised laboratory, and said that all steps be taken to supply a good quality milk to consumers.