ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Japan International Cooperation Agency will help Sindh to revive its livestock potential under a five-year project, for which an agreement was signed on Wednesday.

The project on sustainable livestock development in rural Sindh is the start of a livestock development master plan jointly worked out by the provincial government and Japanese experts.

The strategy and plan of action will cover the period until 2020 based on the scrutiny carried out from 2011 to 2012.

The proposed project aims to increase the production volumes of milk and meat through the improvement of per animal production capacity, the increase of the number of the animals per household, and the improvement of the marketing of those products.

The project will lead to the increase of the income and assets of the livestock farmers in the target districts, particularly small farmers including tenant and non-farm households, who occupy 80pc of the total households in rural Sindh.

The prime objective of the project is to promote agricultural growth with high employment elasticity, reducing inter-regional as well as intra-regional disparities, and to alleviate poverty.

Statistics show that the province has 6.92m cattle, 7.34m buffaloes, 3.96m sheep, 1.26m goats and 278,000 camels while the accumulated livestock holdings of the province stands at 21pc of the country.

According to Japanese experts, the huge numbers of livestock is one of the significant potentials for livestock development in terms of high production capability, various genetic resources, and large amount of food resources and huge value of liquid asset.

Sindh also serves as an outlet of livestock not only to foreign countries but also to neighbouring provinces. The potentials should be fully exploited for the development of the livestock sector in Sindh, experts say.