Livestock & Dairy Development Department Punjab 4.74

Punjab is the largest province, population wise (both human and animal), of Pakistan. It is the biggest contributor to the national GDP. Its share in Pakistan's GDP was 59% in 2014. It is especially dominant in the Services & Agriculture sectors of the economy. It has a vibrant private sector, and poised much to gain from meaningful reforms, which increase efficiencies in business processes, allowing the government to concentrate on regulation and facilitation to benefit the stakeholders involved with the livestock and dairy industry.
In the pre 18th Constitutional Amendment period, there was not possible clearly articulated policy framework for the provinces regarding livestock. The situation had already got deteriorated in the wake of devolution of power from provincial to local governments without consulting the stakeholders at the local level. Livestock was one of the affectees.
Historically, the private sector was restricted from entering areas of business dominated by government, with limited incentive to develop markets, create demand, and increase economic activity. The consequences are distortion of market forces and inefficient business processes. Eighty percent of small holders, who constitute 90 % of the breeders, are landless. They need to be at the heart of any policy to exploit the livestock potential in the short term. The time has come to take the challenge from the front and convert it into an opportunity.
The Livestock and Diary Development Department has been tasked to initiate next generation reforms that would bring the much awaited benefits of a functional democracy to the public by translating the popular will into tangible and measurable reality. The bottom line of reforms is to transform the livestock and dairy sectors into competitive and productive sectors of economy for ensuring the food security and bringing prosperity to the stakeholders while generating exportable surpluses. South, particularly Multan, Bahawalpur and Cholistan area have been targeted to produce organic meat; DG Khan Division, particularly the Tribal areas of DG Khan and Rajanpur has been focused for the first time for boosting local economy by producing organic meat through small ruminants. Central Punjab will be converted into production house of silage and hay for local and foreign markets besides becoming production house of milch animals. Northern Punjab will be the focus for production of small ruminants and rural poultry aiming at foreign markets.
It has been decided to harness the prowess of local breeds by unleashing the genetic potential and re-defining the benchmarks that led to certain un-economic decisions by the farmers with undesirable fallout. Camel is focused for meat, particularly veal production and milk products. The thrust of reforms is on the indigenous capacity building by using local strengths and wisdom. Modern processing technologies for small to medium players of the supply chain will shift the value gain up to the primary producer i.e. the subsistence level farmer. The Government will focus on the disease prevention along with associated protocols of vaccination, deworming and disease surveillance. The crux of approach is to prevent disease from occurring so that no need of cure is left. Rationalization of resources will be accordingly ensured. Areas of priority of HRD in the domain of livestock and dairy have been declared, which is a new shift towards forward planning. Relentless efforts have always been made for curbing the menace of middleman, who historically used to be an undesirable reality. Although the spread of very phenomenon has been arrested yet much is needed to eliminate the specter altogether but in a phased manner. For the first time, a unique response has been proposed for competing the middleman phenomenon in the market through institutional response of designing and offering financial products flexible and competitive enough to help provide productive capital to the farmers. The roles of PAMCO and PLDDB are being re-defined in the same context. PAMCO will focus on the capacity building of small to medium processing informal enterprise with associated capacity building of existing processing systems and HR by introducing technologies in small to medium processing and packaging. The PLDDB will concentrate on the designing and facilitation of provision of productive financial products for the farmers with the help of lending institutes. Both have been retracted from the research on primary production systems for which L&DD’s research paraphernalia is enough besides dedicated universities like UVAS and UAF. A Livestock University in Bahawalpur will be a giant step towards sustainable development of the Southern Punjab in tandem with other policy interventions for the area.
Rural women, students, Imam Masajid and Lambardars, being the opinion makers at the village level, have been envisaged in the role of livestock social activists to ameliorate the conditions of their environment, to channelize their energies for the economic uplift of their neighbourhood through education, training and awareness. Livestock Nomadic clans have been addressed for the first time by any government.
Extension services are being boosted with provision of 4580 medical/ A.I./ disease diagnostic/ vaccination kit mounted motor cycles connected with the farmers through 9211 system for timely provision of services. They will be deployed along over 500 defunct Octroi posts in the Punjab, which has been decided to be handed over to L&DD department for using them as relay centers of their services on the rural landscape.
Administrative dynamics are being boldly changed. Newly introduced Virtual Governance System is in line with Government’s inherent desires and efforts to make quality service delivery round the clock available. If fully implemented, it has the potential to transform the sector and the mindset of its stakeholders. Real time performance monitoring through the very system has enabled the Government to incentivize the performance of HR. A comprehensive regime of performance based incentives has been envisaged, which will boost the quality and quantity of service delivery to the delight of the public.
For the first time in Lahore, quality assurance system regarding quality of fresh meat has been deployed through 9211 platform of virtual governance. The same has put the control in public’s hands to check the veracity of quality claim of fresh meat at sale. Strict crackdown on unwholesome meat’s trade has started gaining the public confidence. The same will be replicated in the rest of the province. The Government has decided to revive the country medicine’s regime and to create stringent quality control regime for quality assurance of animals and birds’ food items. The concept of one health and control of zoonotic disease has been introduced for the first time. Approval has already been granted for creation of a Zoonotic Diseases Research Institute. Comprehensive disaster management protocols have been devised for the Livestock in the Punjab.
Skill development, education, training, and capacity building of HR and primary, secondary and tertiary systems of production, supply chain, finance, and marketing of livestock and dairy sectors are the hall mark of first ever Livestock Policy of the Punjab.
Market led growth of the sector has been envisaged by keeping the government away from creating distortions in the marketing and value formation channels and concentrating on facilitation of the markets and stabilization of the business environment. Similar unfair practices by the private sector to distort fair market competition shall also be checked in the same spirit in the context of ensuring food security and prosperity of stakeholders, particularly small farmer. The policy aims at contributing visible push in the GDP in coming years.