Livestock productivity under threat as diseases hound the sector

Around the world the production of dairy products is fluctuating. Milk is the chief product of the dairy sector. The majority of countries of the world consume liquid milk. The total world production of milk is 696.55 million tons per year. Pakistan occupies 4th position in the production of the milk. Table 1 shows the ranking of the top ten countries in milk production. Annual milk production in Pakistan is 34 million tons; 58 percent of milk is obtained from buffaloes, 35percent from cows; and the remaining 7 percent is produced by camels, sheep, and goats.

Table 1: Top Ten Milk Producers in the World (Million Tons per Year)

Historically, the livestock sector in Pakistan is a subsistence sector because it is occupied by small farmers possessing 2-3 milk animals to meet their daily needs like milk, items ensuring food security, and daily cash income to meet other expenses. This sector is considered as a secure source of income for small holders and landless farmers. It is one of major sources of employment creation at village level.

About 5.5 million small farmers and landless farmers produce milk, and 93 percent of these farmers possess on an average 2 to 3 milk animals. Punjab plays an important role in the economy of Pakistan due to its flourishing agriculture sector. Agriculture contributes 28 percent of the GDP of the province, and employs 44 percent of the province’s population. About 75 percent of Punjab’s population is involved in some way in the livestock sector, which is not surprising because small ruminants and animals have become a part of the household’s food basket. Animals are also a secure source of income to finance emergency expenditures. About 73 percent of the country’s milk production comes from Punjab, while Sindh contributes about 23 percent; the rest comes from various other provinces

The dairy sector is becoming a commercial sector despite the scant attention of policy makers. Although Pakistan is a principal milk producer in the world, it is still importing powdered milk to fulfil the domestic demand. High portion of the milk produced has been used at farm level and does not enter the dairy industry because fluctuation in prices and insufficient infrastructure restricts the stable supply of fresh milk.

Due to the high growth rate in population; the demand for milk, meat as well as cereals has proportionately increased. The other factors like increased stress of urbanization, improved education level, and nutritional awareness have resulted in massive increase in the use of the high value food products. Production of milk does not meet the per capita milk demand of 176.3 liter per person per year. Increasing demand of food coupled with the deficient per capita availability of milk and meat has put a great stress on the prices of these goods. The higher prices of dairy products have distorted the milk use and marketing activities in rural areas because higher prices hurt the consumers.

About 50 percent of world animal population is residing in Asia region but still there are many factors that can make the future of livestock products decisive. Low yield of milk per animal in Pakistan is due to many factors like losses due to diseases, late age at maturity, unorganized marketing system, farming on traditional lines and lack of extension services. There is a need to create the understanding about trans-boundary diseases and ensure the control of prevailing diseases leading to the low productivity. A progressive control of diseases can not only improve the inter-region trade but also protect the countries from trans-boundary diseases.

Losses due to diseases are one cause of low milk production and farm income. There are many fatal diseases in the country like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Parturient Hemoglobinuria, Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD), and black quarter. Farmers do not vaccinate their animals against the fatal diseases regularly which lower dairy production. Every third cow/buffalo suffers from Mastitis which is greatly responsible for loss of milk. The external parasites such as ticks are also lowering production of this sector. The other constraints faced by livestock sectors include feed and land scarcity, poor management, insufficient credit facilities, and lack of extension services.

Livestock diseases play a crucial role in the life of dairy farmers because diseases not only lower the production but also weaken the farmers economically. Mortality resulting from diseases deprives the farmers from dairy earnings. Morbidity due to diseases is responsible for short term, and long term, product losses. These losses are economically more important as compared to mortality.

A strong livestock sector can be a very good contributor to food security and reduces the poverty in rural areas. However, prevalent livestock diseases of economic importance undermine the efforts toward strengthening this sector. In such a study conducted by authors in district Faisalabad on four livestock diseases – Parturient Hemoglobinuria, Mastitis, FMD and Tick Infestation, it was found that farmers had to bear significant economic losses due to these diseases. Table 2 shows the economic losses caused by livestock diseases both in buffaloes and cows. Farmers have to bear significant overall economic losses per animal per year. These losses coupled with high dairy production costs greatly reduce the gross margins of livestock farmers.

Table2: Diseases Related per Animal Economic Losses in Buffaloes and Cows (Rupees/year)

It was also found that although the share of livestock income in total farm income was about 50 percent, yet the farmers did not realize the economic importance of livestock diseases as many of them (about 27 percent) relied on traditional treatment practices rather than providing modern veterinary care services to their animals. Farmers also lacked in education and awareness about the economic importance of controlling the livestock diseases.

While the economic losses due to livestock diseases were high in the study area, the return on control of livestock diseases could equally be high; given the fact that treatment/vaccination against the diseases was cheaper. Only farmers did not have economic incentives to go for effective control of livestock diseases. It was found that benefit cost ratio of controlling for the livestock diseases was sufficiently higher than 1 which means that per rupee invested in prevention, farmers are expected to gain more. As our results indicated that small and medium farmers earn little net income from their livestock, there for better disease control could increase their low gross margins.

It was also noted that majority of farmers used natural sources for breeding their animals which caused genetic deterioration of animals, further reducing their productivity.

The results revealed that farmers had more buffaloes than cows and it is well known that cows are more productive animals, so the steps should be taken to increase the population of exotic breeds gradually. Most of the milk production in the study area came from large farmers so the policy focus should be more on large farms.

Suggestions:

Proper and well-targeted extension services, along with veterinary care services, should be provided to farmers for the control and treatment of livestock diseases; especially FMD and tick infestation which appear to be a cause of a significant amount of economic losses. Tick infestation can be easily controlled by dipping, but this is not happening; firstly, due to farmers’ lack of awareness about its economic losses; secondly, because farmers are unaware about dipping; and thirdly, because dipping ponds are non-existent in many areas. This problem could be overcome by spreading awareness about the importance of ticks along with making community dipping ponds available at union council levels.

According to results, small farmers had the highest disease losses compared to the gross margins they earn per dairy animal. Focusing on small farmers would help alleviate poverty. Farmers should be given training from time to time, regarding vaccination against livestock diseases. This can be done by using the platform of the Farmers Organization already established in many rural areas.

Mobile health services could be provided by the government to help control diseases. In this way, health care services for animals could be provided at the farm level, and even remote areas could be covered.

Livestock provide over half of farm income in Pakistan, but it does not get the same weight in public expenditure. Increases in public expenditures should be focused on both animal health and animal nutrition. There exists a vicious cycle here; poor feeding practices lead to poor animal health, and affected animals reduce farmers’ incomes, which makes it difficult for them to feed the animals properly.