Despite the fact that Pakistan has lessthan 2,000 litre per animal yield, it produces 35.6 billion liters of milk per year, emerging as the fifth largest milk producing country in the world. Pakistan is an agrarian country and livestock and dairy sector plays an important role in the economy of Pakistan, contributing 52 percent to agriculture value addition to the GDP.According to estimates, at least 8.5 million families are associated with dairy sector and 80 percent of them are small landless farmers. Though per animal yield in the country is less than quarter of per animal yield in European countries, there is a lot of potential in Pakistan to overcome this shortcoming by shifting this sector to corporate farming.The foreign direct investment in the corporate farming is the need of the hour as the current foreign investment in this sector is mere $100 million whereas milk processing and value added dairy and meat products can be a source of precious foreign exchange. A multi-national company has set up Asia’s second largest milk processing factory in Pakistan but the investment could not exceed even $150 million.
The country needs technology and the best way to get technology is to invite multi-national companies to invest in Pakistan. Whereas small European countries such as Holland has strong dairy sector, Pakistan lags behind the developing economies in this sector. Diary and livestock sector of the country has the potential to change the lot of this nation if modern techniques are adopted and international brands of value added products are introduced. The departments concerned have to make wise selection of quality animals, take steps for genetics improvement for breeding and set up strong livestock research institutions to bring per animal yield to the European standards.
The local breeds such as Sahiwal, Cholistan and Nili Ravi are much better animals than the imported cows and buffaloes because local breeds give milk until eight to nine lactations while the imported buffalo and cow give milk just until two lactations.Therefore, it will be plausible if the research institutions adopt the latest research and skill and focus on local breeds to raise milk production in the country.
Keeping in view the current situation, participation of private sector in dairy development is the need of the hour. Instead of discouraging the businessmen on one pretext or the others, they need to be encouraged to launch vital development projects in the country.The land strapped Gulf countries can also be involved in corporate farming and UAE can be a big market for the Pakistani products.