ISLAMABAD, June 27: The federal government will launch a first ever Rs1.9bn subsidised national programme in all the four provinces as well as Azad Kashmir during 2006-07 to modernise the livestock sector.

Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that this programme had been included in the 2005-2010 Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) for which Rs1bn had initially been earmarked under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

The ultimate objective of this project was to enhance the country’s foreign exchange earnings by increasing exports of quality foods like milk and meat and its value-added products like leather garments and hand-knotted carpets.

Official said the target of national milk production in 2010 had been fixed at 43.3 million tons which would require concerted efforts and well orchestrated strategy to effectively transform the livestock sector. It would include all aspects of dairy development which means improving milk collection network, increasing dairy potential and enhancing milk processing and marketing.

The government had directed all the four provinces to significantly help improve milk collection, processing, dairy production and development programme through the new subsidized national programme.

Hundreds of small and landless dairy farmers (located in two districts each of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan and AJK) and marketed-oriented rural dairy farmers of all parts of the country would be the major beneficiary of this programme.

Farmers’ organisations/associations will be formed to provide subsidised veterinary/breading cover and balanced feed and assistance for fodder production and its preservation and marketing of milk and animals to the registered farmers. These farmers will also be provided short-term training on different aspects of profitable dairy farming.

Bulk buyers of milk will be an important beneficiary of the project. High quality fresh milk purchased from small and landless dairy farmers will be cooled and transported to private sector milk processing plants.

Another beneficiary will be the Animal Breed Improvement Directorates of livestock departments of Punjab and Sindh.

The proposed programme is expected to increase milk

production in the country by 10-15pc thus ensuring better availability of milk and milk products. More than 10,000 rural subsistence dairy farmers are likely to enter the milk marketing chain due to the project interventions. Production and marketing of milk is expected to increase by 30-40pc in the project area aimed at improving livelihood of hundreds of rural market-oriented dairy farmers of all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir.

The project will have its Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) in Islamabad and Provincial Project Management Units (PPMUs) located in Lahore, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad. The ministry of Food and Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) will coordinate with the provinces to achieve the objectives of the project.