By Asif Suleman Sahi – LIVESTOCK IN PUNJAB

Writer is a veterinarian and working as Additional secretary livestock department punjab

Introduction

Pakistan is the 4^th largest Milk producer and 10^th largest beef producer in the world.  Livestock sector contributes 11.7% share in country’s GDP with about 8 million rural families are engaged in livestock production out of which 90% are landless. This sector has the largest engagement of rural woman as a they spend 29% of their time on livestock related activities. It is not only a labour intensive, but also an agriculture cost reducer and Eco-balancing activity. Among many other facets, livestock is also a source of energy in rural areas and provides animal source of protein, fat and minerals. Besides main products, it is also associated with many byproduct industries such as leather, animal casing, gelatin, oil, fats, cosmetics etc. Total herd size in Punjab is 26.78 million buffalos and 24.3 million cattle out of which, 8.03 buffalos and 7.29 cattle are breedable (female above 3 years of age and generally taken as 30% of the total population). Out of this herd, the ‘ready for service’ population (50% of the breedable population) is 4.01 million buffalos and 3.64 cattle.In Punjab, the animal breeding and rearing is divided into three distinct segments which are mentioned below:

80% of animal population consists of Traditional Rural holdings carrying out subsistence dairy practices. This large proportion of animal population is managed by small farmers, holding 1-4 animals with average milk production of 3 to 5 liters/day. Animals are fed through Grazing wheat straw & Green fodder. Milk is generally consumed at home to make butter and Ghee and surplus milk is sold to the collection agents (dodhi). They have limited access to markets.

15% of animal population consist of “Rural Commercial” segment and may be termed as ‘Progressive’. Average production is 6 to 10 liters milk/ day and 80% of milk is sold to retailers, intermediaries collection centers, processing companies and collecting agents (dodhi). It is Rural Market oriented regime. Animals are fed with Green fodder, wheat straws/bran & seed cakes.

Only 5% of the population belongs to this segment, which is established purely for ‘Commercial’ purposes, through purpose built investments. Average production of animals is around 25 liters and milk is sold to either the processors; city buyers or marketed under their own brand.

There are only 15 farms which are working on proper ‘Corporate’ structure. They are established by large groups producing high quality milk, which is sold either through the processor or under their Own brand. Good farming practices are adopted by a team of Professionals and get an average milk production of around 25-30 liters.

           

Most of the animals in Punjab are kept in the traditional manner, where they are fed by grazing or use green fodder, without realizing the need of nutritious feed that an animal needs to be productive. The livestock sector in Punjab is huge and scattered and has a great potential as a number of advantages are associated with it. However, this potential can only be achieved if the issues confronted by this sector are addressed.

Objectives:   Support livestock development in a policy environment that enables farmers to realize the dividends of livestock farming by smartly investing in core public goods and inducing private capital/initiative in the sector for poverty alleviation, food security and generation of exportable surpluses.

Issues

• Animals suffer nutritional deficiencies due to low input of feed, which in turn gives low output of Production. Substantial population of livestock does not receive required amount of total digestible nutrients (TDN) and there remains 60% deficiency of digestible crude protein (CP).
• A number of other reasons such as breed limitations and improper feed are also a cause of low productivity.
• 70% of the animals are non-descript and therefore, least productive due to poor Genetic Issues.
• Lack of systematic R & D doesn’t let the breed develop. Short coming also includes data collection and dissemination.
• Unstructured advisory services limit Service Delivery, especially in view of hugely scattered livestock production system (major chunk is 1-4 animals).
• Lack of institutional and human resource capacity that results in poor compliance regime and high incidence of Diseases.
• Incidence of disease is a trade barrier in international markets. To control the diseases, curative approach is adopted instead of preventive approach due to which diseases are not fully eliminated.
• Lack of coordination between stakeholders (LDD Department, Academia, Industries and Entrepreneurs etc) which prevents synergizing and adopting a comprehensive program for improved production.
• Monitoring and Evaluation is poor and inconsistent.
• Market distortion has been created by import tariff regime on dry-milk, whey powder, tea whitener etc. This creates a price distortion for the local dairy products, which prevents the farmers from making extra efforts to improve the production.

Nutritional Deficiency

The issues being faced by livestock sector can be resolved to achieve its full potential. Some solutions need improvement in infrastructure and others require policy and regulatory changes. To resolve the issue of nutritional deficiency, following steps can be taken.

• Improve Forage quantity and quality, which will increase livestock growth up to 50%.
  • Devise ‘Animal Nutrition Strategy’ across all ecological zones of Punjab to give clear way forward to the private and public stakeholders.
  • R&D should also suggest appropriate feeding regimes, like low-cost feed, drought resistant fodders/forages etc. in respective areas. Implement all the suggested interventions, which are backed by R&D.
  • To reduce the cost of production and introduce the advantages of proper nutritional feed to the farmers, free seeds for silage/hay etc. may be distributed.
  • Punjab Animal Feed Stuff & Compound Feed Act, 2016 may be strictly implemented.

Breed Improvement

Breed improvement is an important aspect of getting good production. Punjab is lacking behind in improving its Indigenous breeds like ‘Sahiwal’ and Cholistani cattle. The breed can be improved through selective breeding following a well deliberated breeding plan. Few of the steps are:

• Improvement of Non-descript animals breed, through cross breeding with exotic semen. This will improve milk production of the progeny.
• Propagation of indigenous breeds at respective natural habitat.
• Selective breeding through Population Genetics (Progeny Testing Program, Pedigree etc.). This can be started with around 30,000 animals.
• Selective Breeding through Molecular Genetics (Genomics) which includes identification of specific markers, say for milk traits and then applying these markers to estimate the performance of other animals.
• Establishment of Gene Bank and collaboration with other universities and institutions.
• Selective breeding through Bio Technology (Embryo Transfer) either independently by the Department or in collaboration with universities.
• To improve the local breed, Government may produce and distribute A-Category certified breeding males to private entrepreneurs/ farmers on cost-to-cost basis. These males will be available for breeding purposes in the local area.
• Quality semen of indigenous breed may be produced & processed for distribution all over Punjab.
• Artificial Inseminations with quality semen of local and exotic breeds may be facilitated and promoted.
• A regulatory Framework in the form of Punjab Livestock Breeding Act, 2014 already exists, which needs to be fully implemented.

Service Delivery and Advisory Services

Advisory services play a very important role in improving the performance of the sector. It prevents diseases, ensures that farmers use in time vaccine to protect their animals from diseases. Farmers are also made aware of best animal husbandry practices which ensures better animal health and increased production. This aspect has been neglected for some time and it is now the information are required to be disseminated to the farmers for production gains. Few of the steps which can be taken are:

• Carrying out awareness campaigns and provide Advisory services to farmers and entrepreneurs.
  • Establishment of Sahulat Centers to be made hubs of information and advisory services pertaining to feed & feeding, artificial insemination and vaccination etc.
  • Dissemination of information through FM/ Radio talks.
  • Documentaries, Short Films, Videos, Robo Calls, Text messages, Tickers, Alerts , News Bulletin, Literature , Feasibility Studies etc.
  • Establishment of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) through Customer Support Helpline:
    • To address the Farmer’s Queries and Complaints; Feedback.
    • Interaction of Farmers with relevant Livestock Experts on Panel
    • Real time assessment regarding performance of service delivery and Advisory Services.
  • One or two days in a month may be fixed in different areas to be called, “Farmer’s Day”. The team of experts may visit the area on the given day, where farmers will gather for an interactive session with the experts. The issues being faced by them will be discussed and resolved at the spot.
  • Places where veterinary institutions are not available, Mobile veterinary dispensaries (MVDs) or mobile training buses carrying relevant contents, may be used. They may visit 4-5 villages a day for 5 days a week to render advisory, preventive and curative treatment services.
• Awareness and preventive service delivery shall reduce cost of production.

Capacity building of institutions and HR.

Human Resource is the backbone of any organization and institutions paly a very important role in building up the capacity of HR and prepare them to meet the challenges. Therefore, institutional reforms are important to enhance the capacity of human resource. Few of the suggestions are enumerated below:

• Merger of different sections of Livestock department which perform almost similar functions and can be linked together for a unified control. For example, merger of Directorate of Livestock Services Training Centers (LSTC) and Directorate of Communication and Extension (C&E ) may be merged and renamed asDirectorate of Professional Development & Advisory Services and so on.
• Liaison with universities to conduct periodic training and capacity building.
• A calendar of Annual Training Plan to be prepared on the basis of need assessment. Different modules to be developed and training manuals prepared for capacity building.
• Training of the trainers to impart further training to the stakeholders, which includes both, public and private sector.
• Short Diploma Trainings for Livestock Entrepreneurship in collaboration with TEVTA, NAVTTC or Skill Development Fund may be organized for all the stakeholders.

Disease Control

Traditionally the focus of disease control has been towards curative side, which is a reactionary approach. Government must try to adopt and promote preventive approach to control the diseases. Secondly, no ‘disease free zone’ is notified in Punjab, which is a hinderance in export of animals and meat because of traceability issues. The incidence of disease can be controlled with steps like:

• “Disease Surveillance & Reporting”: Actual situational awareness will lead to effective control of diseases. The information received through active and passive surveillance will be used to map the hotspots, where disease incidence is maximum.
• The hotspot maps are used to isolate the affected areas and identification/Characterization of Circulating Pathogens.
• After identification, the disease control measures can be adopted using all available sources.
• We have a regulatory regime of animal health, controlled under “Punjab Animal Health Act, 2019”, which needs to be implemented.

Vaccination

Vaccinations are of different types and play an important role in eradicating and preventing diseases. We run short on production of adequate vaccine to cater for total animal population. There had been efforts to develop vaccines which last for about a year, but still some vaccines are administered on six monthly schedules. Even vaccine for Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) is not produced in sufficient quantity to cater for all the animals. Therefore, the vaccine production and supply are issues, which needs to be addressed. We need to follow the schedule to achieve the targets envisioned in notified vaccination policy. Vaccination production and transportation through cold chain arrangements are also required for its better utilization.

Punjab needs to establish Disease Free Control Zones or Compartments to rear the animals to produce exportable products. Areas like Cholistan and Thal etc can be considered for establishing such a zone and isolating it from other animals.

Research

Research and Development holds a key position in the progress of any sector and Livestock also heavily depends upon it for better breed, improved production and disease control through vaccination and medicines etc. There are facilities for conducting research, but to make research more meaningful and derive better results, it is to be structured in a way that research needs are established by developing a strong consultative linkage amongst Academia, Livestock Department, Industry & Farmers.

The Government may take meaningful research initiatives on the proposals of recently notified a “Research Advisory Committee”. Funding for such projects may be provided through Annual Development Program or through development partners. The funding to Academia may be linked with adaptive research projects to gain maximum and early advantages of research efforts. To avoid duplication and carry out focused program of research, an ‘Annual Research Agenda” coupled with research KPIs may be developed and followed.

Monitoring

Monitoring of all the initiatives whether new or old, needs to be done to find out if the project or the initiative is achieving its objectives, or a mid-course correction is needed, or project objectives need to be re-visited. This enables the planners to steer the efforts towards right direction. With the introduction of IT, ‘real time’ monitoring has become very easy. We can now use paperless digital/electronic tools for real-time monitoring and evaluation with alert generation in case of any exigency or laxity of the business process and service delivery is observed. The LDD Department had been using a mobile application to record the visits of its surveillance teams/individuals for disease identification, vaccination or artificial insemination etc. The same can be improved to develop a multiple interface application having client, service provider, departmental manager and policy maker views separately.

Marketing

Once the corrective measures are taken and that results in increased production, we will need efficient markets to dispose it off, so that high volumes of output are sustained. At present livestock market is distorted due to:

• Relaxed import tariff regime on dry-milk, whey powder, tea whitener etc.
• Conversion of confectioners, bakers, ice-cream, cheese, food-chain industry to synthetic products instead of pure-dairy by-products. Therefore, it may be ensured that the source of dairy byproducts used by confectioners, bakers, ice-cream, cheese, food-chain industry are of dairy origin. This may be confirmed through functional audit of the concerned entrepreneurs.
• Price capping on livestock products without realizing the high cost of production is another discouraging factor. A better solution is Grading/standardization of various livestock products and then fixing the prices accordingly.
• Value addition of livestock produce is another area which needs substantial improvement. More concentration on by-product industry is needed, especially the products, which qualify to be exported to niche markets e.g. leather, animal casing, gelatin etc.
• Due to weak compliance regime and generally non-compliance of international quality standards, international trade faces entry barriers to the niche markets. As a starter Halal Development Agency of Punjab can play a vibrant role in getting the entrepreneurs “Halal” certified to facilitate them in approaching high-end market.
• The legislative framework for food standards, quality & safety need to be harmonized.

Conclusion

The livestock sector of Punjab has a great unexplored potential and even little effort and support can bring in a revolution in this sector. The number of animals and milk production ranks high in world ladder, but the productivity of the animals is minimum. Reason being 80% of the animals are non-descript and nothing much has been done for indigenous breed improvement, giving a very low productivity. Proper feed, animal husbandry, disease control, timely and proper vaccination, Research and Development, compliance with standards and efficient markets is the way forward.

Annex A

SERVICE DELIVERY INFRASTRUCTURE OF LDD DEPARTMENT

Civil Veterinary Hospital (Category A)

• Provision of treatment to animals.
• Checking and monitoring of vaccination.
• Provision and Checking of A.I services.
• Supervision of slaughter house of the area
• Handling and reporting of disease outbreak
• Provision of services in Any emergency e.g. flood, corona, dengue etc

Civil Veterinary Hospital (Category B)

• Registration of farmers
• Provision of treatment to animals.
• Checking and monitoring of vaccination.
• Provision and Checking of A.I services.
• Supervision of slaughter house of the area
• Handling and reporting of disease outbreak
• Provision of services in Any emergency e.g. flood, corona, dengue etc

Civil Veterinary Dispensary (Category C)

•  
• Registration of farmers
• Provision of treatment to animals.
• Checking and monitoring of vaccination.
• Provision and Checking of A.I services.
• Conduction of school focus programme.
• Handling and reporting of disease outbreak
• Provision of services in Any emergency e.g. flood, corona, dengue etc

Civil Veterinary Centre (Category D)

•  Vaccination of the animals under jurisdiction
• Provision of first aid and treatment to the animals
• Registration of farmers

Mobile Veterinary Dispensary /Customized Motorbikes

•  
• Conduction of farmer days at village level
• Following proper, map route and schedule
• Provision of treatment to animals at door step.
• Provision of services in Any emergency e.g. flood, corona, dengue etc
• Provision of vaccination services in villages by maintaining  cold chain
•  Provision of first aid and treatment at door step at village level

Laboratories

• Performance of different lab test at samples provided by field staff including blood, faecal and milk samples.
• Checking of titration of the vaccinated animals
• Provision of services in outbreaks
• Vaccination of area reported for outbreak

Mobile Lab

• Blood Sample, faecal sample and milk Collection by staff of Mobile Lab in the field at village level

Mobile Training Bus Advisory Role

• Provision of training to livestock farmers and show of documentaries at different topics like country medicine, AI services, rural poultry, water requirements, mineral feeding to animals etc in local language
• Awareness about livestock schemes
• Provision of training to school children
• Training of poultry unit beneficiaries
• Training of staff

School Focused Programs Advisory Role

• Training of school children by the in charge VO of the area.
• Topics include rural poultry, importance of vaccination, livestock farming, feeding and housing management etc.
• Awareness about livestock schemes.

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