Abstract:
Pakistan with current estimates is the 4th largest milk producing country in the world with 33 Billion litres of milk produced annually. The potential is huge but the sector operates mostly in the informal economy and needs a consistent effort to formalize and be able to contribute better to the national economy. Out of the total milk produced, 97% is in the informal sector (i.e. loose milk consumed in the villages and or sold in the cities through "Gawallas" in unhygienic conditions and without any quality standards). There are 8 Million farming households in Pakistan with a total herd size of 50 million animals. 97% of these farmers are not linked to formal markets and hence are not progressing in economic terms. Moreover, the overall animal herd of Pakistan is thinly spread across thousands of square kilometres with an average of 2 to 5 animals per household. Dairy farming practices are very old and traditional and need overhauling. To formalize and improve the industry, a private sector led Pakistan Dairy
Development Company has emerged with guarantee backup by government of Pakistan. The platform proposes to improve the dairy sector through improved research facilities, training and capacity building of farmers, training veterinarians, improving the cold chain through milk chillers, promoting healthy past eurised milk, develop model commercial dairy farms, focus on breed improvement, facilitation of credit financing to dairy farmers and linking the rural area based farmer to the market mechanism. This will improve and formalize the dairy sector. The White Revolution is targeted to achieve an aims to create an additional 3 million jobs in the formal economy and provide an estimated 350 million rupees per day in cash flow to farmers in the sector or to say that an additional formal economy of 3 Billion US$ will be developed for the rural economy. The potential is there but needs technical support from the industry, strategic support from dairy experts, policy and infrastructure from the government and specific projects funding from the international donor agencies. The potential is estimated on the basis of the fact that livestock and agriculture sector contributes over 10% to the GDP, and a milk economy that in value terms is 27.7% of the total agriculture sector. It is an untapped market, expected to grow an additional 3 billion liters in the next few years at a growth rate faster than most sectors, and 30% by 2015.
