Diminishing livestock population
Posted by Unknown in Beef, Cattle and Livestock, Dairy Animal, Pakistan on Sunday, 9 September 2012
By Zafar Samdani
The Dawn
Livestock plays an important role in the agriculture sector. Agriculture is regarded as the backbone of national economy and livestock is its jugular vein.
lt is vital for farmers, providing them with means for survival in times of duress, and enabling them to cope with the negative fallout of crops that are either lower than estimates and expectations or when market forces make the farming community's labour financially non-rewarding.
But it is a source of strength only as long as the breeding of animals continues and growth rate maintains pace with the consumption and export requirements. The scenario becomes a potential threat to the economy in general, the agriculture sector in particular, and a frustrating development for domestic consumers when the balance between the growth rate on one hand and consumption and export on the other, is tilted in favour of the later.
This is applicable to both milk and meat but these, however, are not exactly the same areas. Pakistan depends on milk from buffaloes and cattle, while meat needs are provided overwhelmingly by mutton. Admittedly, beef is also widely consumed by the people but only small quantities of beef are exported so far, while the export of mutton is on the increase.
The taste of Pakistani mutton has developed quite a following in many countries, particularly in the Middle East region and it is also less expensive than mutton from most other meat exporting countries. Moreover, imports from a Muslim country are preferred by people of the middle-eastern region. Pakistan's physical contiguity with the Middle Eastern countries is an additional advantage for mutton's export.
There is a tradition of export of small ruminants from Pakistan to Iran and Afghanistan as also the practice of smuggling of goats and sheep, more of the former to destinations in these countries. The two, export and smuggling currently seem to have hit an escalating streak that must have been good news for the government's efforts for building exports but this is likely to undermine sheep and goats resources.
In the absence of any noteworthy progress in the breeding of small ruminant gains for exports could get translated into losses for the local populace and hurting the goats-sheep availability in the country.
That process appears to have commenced already. At least 2,500 sheep and goats are daily exported from Lahore. This may not look like a frighteningly large number but one has no idea of the number of animals smuggled out of the country. Judging from the evidence - both direct and indirect, the smuggling of small ruminants is considerable and continuously rising.
The livestock minister of Balochistan has recently expressed his concern about both export of animals and their smuggling from the province and warned of serious action against people involved in illegal trading and official exporters who are not following their contracts.
Breach of a basic clause in the contract of exporters has serious repercussions for the sector. Exporters are required to breed animals but they are simply purchasing their requirements from the market and officials who are supposed to keep tab on the correct fulfilment of contractual clauses look the other way for one reason or another.
One need not go into details as most people know why malpractices take place in sectors that are exploited for financial gains by the individuals and groups. This happens because either corruption or influence peddling is in play. But this is the surest prescription for creating a shortage of mutton and a crisis in the country.
The impact of higher export and smuggling of mutton is already to be seen in the escalating price of mutton in the domestic market. It has gone up from Rs130 per kg to Rs180 for the same quantity within a period of about a year. On the other hand, judging from the number of small ruminants slaughtered, for instance in Lahore, mutton consumption has gone down.
A total of about 7, 000 goats are daily slaughtered in Lahore. While the population of the city has been rising, the number of animals slaughtered has remained unchanged for sometime.
This can only be interpreted as the reduced consumption of mutton, a major source of vitamins for the populace. The combination of higher price and static incomes of a majority of the populace has been instrumental in a shrinking demand for mutton. This would have negative implications for national health, already not an area of glowing health.
People in the livestock business say that consumption pattern is the same in most large or middle-sized urban centres across the country, particularly in Punjab and Sindh. According to these sources, mutton's consumption in the NWFP and Balochistan has, however, not declined.
These sources also maintain that the requirements of the two provinces are being increasingly met by inter-province trading, largely the sale of goats from Punjab to customers in the NWFP and Balochistan. Many of these animals are smuggled to Afghanistan and Iran.
While mutton consumption is high in the Frontier province, its own resources are limited as the province has, according to the livestock census of 1996, 2.82 million sheep and 6.76 million goat as against Balochistan's population of 10.84 million sheep and 9.36 million goats. Needless to emphasize that Balochistan is less populated than the NWFP.
As per the same census, Punjab has the highest population with 6.14 million sheep and 15.30 million goats; statistic for Sindh are 3.71 million sheep and 9.73 million goats. The total population of Pakistan was 23.54 million sheep and 41.16 million goats. The census estimated the annual nation wide growth rate at 0.11 per cent for sheep and 3.75 per cent for goats. Growth rate has been worked for a period of ten years from 1986.
While growth is on the lower side, more disturbing is the fact that breeding continues to follow traditional lines and exports are not being sustained by the setting up of breeding farms, as per the requirements of export contracts as also in the greater national interest.
Resources are thus rapidly depleting and nothing is being done to encourage sheep and goat farming on a progressive and scientific basis. This is bound to cause a disaster in the foreseeable future if concrete measures are not adopted for protecting the sheep and goat wealth of the country from merciless exploitation by mercenary elements.
