CHALLENGES TO THE DAIRY SECTOR IN 2022
Dairy sector plays an important
role in the economy of Pakistan and the livelihood of the people of Pakistan especially in remote areas people are mostly dependent on small scale dairy farming. Dairy
farming got a lot of attraction from investors from the last decade hence now it
becomes a major contributing industry in Pakistan.
Due to its organic growth and
secure investment, a lot of investors invested in this business and contributed
a lot towards the betterment of supply and demand of the milk in the market as
well as contributed to the country's economy considerably as a proof in the year
2020-2021 when Corona Pandemic hit all the world, where the growth of other
business stopped or closed, dairy sector continue its growth and role and
became the reason of survival for the people of Pakistan. Hence its the need of the
hour to make policies that support small and commercial scale farmers.
Contribution to the National GDP
The livestock sector has emerged as the largest sector
in agriculture where its contribution is more than 60% and more than 12
percent to the GDP with a growth rate of 8% which is considerably good, this
is an impressive growth rate concerning the financial indicators, overall
this industry provides employment to 1.5
million people directly or indirectly which is again very impressive.
Major Challenges to the Dairy Industry in Pakistan
1. Inflation
2. Outbreaks
3. Policy
4. Market and Demand
5. Adulteration
6. Technicalities
7. Poor Managemental Practices
8. Lack of value addition
1. Inflation
Due to the unstable economy dairy
sector suffered a lot, Pakistan is majorly dependent on imports of all inputs like
feed ingredients, additives, medicine and even breed. Due to uncertainty prices
of these all gone up more than 100 percent, therefore cost of production is out
of control of farmers but in the other hand there is no parameter to set the
market according to cost of production therefore al ot of farmers bearing
financial losses and over the period of time some investors stooped their
projects due to these continuous losses.
Electricity is a major cost because in intensive dairy system a lot
of energy needed to run smooth system like milking operations, dairy ventilation,
feed mill, water and drainage system etc. all dependent on electricity but its
cost is unbearable for farmer because dairy is not a factory there should be
subsidy to the electricity so people in power should evaluate this to save this
industry.
Feed/Machine Inputs
In Previous years government has announced
duty free imports of theses inputs but in recent times a lot of constrains with
respect to import regulation and impose of duty, taxes and dollar rate almost cumulative
increase the cost of these inputs by 100 percent, Hence again cost of
production become so high that at current milk prices Rs. 80 Base Rate. Its impossible
to run the system because farmers facing continuous financial losses so it’s
very important for the government to think about this dying sector before it’s
too late.
Major Disease Outbreaks
Disease surveillance
and control is the need of hour because in current year farmers of Pakistan
felt a lot of depression due to 4 major outbreaks in the summer season i.e. BEF
( Bovine Ephemeral fever) , Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), Clostridia , Tick Fever ,
HS (Hemorrhagic septicemia) .
Impact of these disease is worse on the economics of the farmer,
due these outbreaks farmers experienced a lot loss in term of medication,
morbidity and mortality, small and commercial farmers who is totally dependent on
these animals felt a lot of financial loss and their recovery is nearly
impossible because there is no system to cover the losses of these poor farmers
at Government level.
Furthermore Vaccine if available not working because
supply chain problem, lack of vaccine administration, lack of training, lack of
vaccine knowledge , ineffectiveness of vaccine due to mutation in the type of
virus/causative agents. Most of Vaccine are not available in the market
therefore no prevention possible due to which farmers have to invest a lot of
money on the treatment of animals. This is again increase the cost of
production of the farmer even make survival of the animal nearly impossible.
So there should be NCOC type department and local vaccine
production should be consider so that we can save a lot of farmers, if this is
not possible import duty on the vaccine should be minimize or import of
important vaccination should be legalize on minimum possible check and requirements.
Lack
of Technical Staff and Best Farm practices
At farmer level due to lack of knowledge and awareness
best farm practices are not taken into account, somehow due to high cost of technical
staff or veterinarian. So it’s the need of an hour to start a work after consultation
with proper technical staff so that we can make project successful by making standard
operating procedures of every department.
Lack
of Value Addition Facility and Market
It’s a Fact that Milk is a raw/crude output , to get its
market compatible rates value addition is must for profitable dairy farming
through value addition we can make Pasteurize milk , Butter , cheese , ghee ,
dry milk , infant formula , UHT milk,
and cream these products are in demand not only in domestic market but also
internationally but major constrains are equipment are not available locally ,if
available their cost is too high and at low volume it’s not viable as a
business, and due to high cost of production our products cannot excel in the
international market .
Solution
and recommendation
Since we have discussed all major issue related to dairy
and livestock so there should be a clear cut policy for the betterment of Commercial
dairy farms i.e
Subsidized code of electricity should be declare to facilitate
the clean and Hygienic milk production in Pakistan.
Taxes/ Duties on the input of dairy and livestock farms should
be lift immediately.
To minimize dependency on the import there should be
research on the local meals and additives production.
Subsidy should be announced for the dairy mechanization.
For surveillance and monitoring of disease there should
be a department like NCOC which can advise vaccination schedule, monitor
imports of vaccine, carry out production operation of vaccine and can handle the
outbreaks.
So an immediate analysis and attention to dairy business is
needed to meet the increasing milk demand which is an essential part of diet of
everybody.
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