Ahmed Khan Malik

The Sindh government will incentivize the livestock sector in the Financial Year 2024-25 in order to boost this sector, which is the key livelihood of people in the rural areas of the province. The government will provide incentives in the upcoming financial year to boost the production of various sectors of the provincial economy, Syed Mustafa Shah, Project Director of Livestock Wing, told WealthPK.

He noted that the grand objective of the project was to promote agricultural growth with high employment elasticity, reduce inter-regional and intraregional disparities, and alleviate poverty, enabling people in rural areas to contribute more to the national economy. The livestock development in Sindh should therefore be directed to contribute to the higher growth of the agriculture sector by improving the productivity and quality of milk and meat in an employment-friendly manner, he said. Mustafa listed the measures to be taken, such as the delivery of quality preventive and curative veterinary/animal health services to the registered farmers in the targeted areas and doorstep animal nutrition advisory services for optimal use of feed and fodder to enhance milk production. He said the provincial livestock sector faced a big challenge and it was imperative to transform it from a traditional subsistence sector to an industrialized and market-oriented one.

Thus, among a number of options, the establishment of development foundations, including human resources, technologies, and institutions, should be prioritized when the development plans are formulated. When such foundations are established, the development activities could gradually be enlarged based on them. In the long run, he said the common goals were to enhance the productive capacity and productivity per unit of livestock (leading to an increase in the production of dairy and meat products), and upgrade the quality standard and diversification (marketing improvement). "Achieving such goals would eventually help realize self-sufficiency in dairy and meat products to meet various needs of the consumers such as high quality, hygiene, safety, tastes, etc., which would be diversified along with the per capita income increase," he said, adding, "It has been decided to market the livestock products internationally as 'Sindh Brand', assuring high quality and competitive price," Mustafa said.

Sindh has a livestock population of 46.28 million. The number of cattle is 6.93 million (23 percent of the nation's total), 7.34 million buffaloes (27 percent), 3.96 million sheep (15 percent), 12.57 million goats (23 percent) and 0.28 million camels (30 percent). "The province has native tropical breeds such as the Red Sindhi cattle and Kundhi buffalo. Small-scale farmers constitute 80% of the livestock farmers. Thus, the development of the livestock sector in Sindh, particularly for small-scale farmers, needs more attention to remedy the socio-economic disparity among the people, and ensure stability and development," he said.

Credit: INP-WealthPk