LAHORE: The Provincial Development Working Party has approved the Livestock and Dairy Development Department’s project for subsidising the provision of silage machines to small livestock farmers.

Deputy Secretary (Planning) Khalid Chaudhry says the PDWP has approved the Rs667 million two-year project to help livestock farmers to reduce their animal feed costs by installing their own silage making machines.

Under the plan, 12 livestock farmers owning five to 20 acres of land and at least 25 animals, both large and small, will be selected from each tehsil of the province to offer Rs300,000 subsidy per silage making machine, he says. This will help reduce the fodder cost for farmers from Rs13 per kg to Rs4 per kg, he claims.

The beneficiary farmers will be selected through balloting if the number of applicants goes beyond 12 in a tehsil, he adds.

He says the scheme may be scaled up provided it proved successful during its present two-year life.

Answering another question, he says the department will specify parameters of the silage machines but won’t bind the farmers to go for any specific one. “We’ll only offer Rs300,000 per machine as subsidy leaving it up to the farmer to purchase any of the machines meeting the prescribed parameters.”

The cost of an ordinary silage making machine in the open market ranges between Rs800,000 and Rs1.2 million.

Livestock farmers face fodder shortage twice a year – in the months of December-January and May-June. Silage is grass or other green fodders compacted and readied for storing in airtight conditions, typically in a silo, without the need for first being dried and may be used during fodder shortage months. Presently, at least 73 private silage making companies are in the field selling their product in the local as well as international (Middle East) markets.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2021