Enhancing dairy sector export competitiveness - International Trade ...

ENHANCING DAIRY SECTOR EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS IN PAKISTAN(vii)The animal health needs to be linked directly to public health and this concept has to beinculcated in the minds of the dairy farmers and producers to raise the significance of properveterinary care and animal welfare. If the concept can be streamlined into the generalveterinary policy of the country, the same can be used as an effective marketing tool in tradewith the partner countries. The cause needs to be championed by the Ministry of FoodSecurity and Research and the relevant provincial departments and needs to be projected tothe local farmers and consumers.Veterinary Support and Animal Health(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)National and provincial level government should activate its available infrastructure. There area number of animal healthcare hospitals in the country whose effectiveness is far below therequired levels. Human resource hiring policy for these hospitals and veterinary care centrehas to be ensured with preference to the local inhabitants so that their interest in posting attheir home stations should be used as a motivational tool to retain them for provision of qualityservice to the stakeholders.The extension workers and veterinary specialists posted at various divisions should becompensated against the level of their performance. This method would provide monetaryincentive to increase their veterinary outreach efforts. It is proposed that a bonus may beawarded to those officials having the lowest disease incidence rate in their respective hubs.Use of resources of local Panchayat and Daira 119 facilities of local village heads can be usedwhile appropriate trained personnel from within the local community can be posted asveterinary attendants under the supervision of the village heads. UC centres under thedivisional hub headquarters at union council levels should be established, which can monitorthe performance of these medical attendants and also can provide medicines to them. Thiseffort will greatly facilitate healthcare efforts in the farmers’ communities and enhance theoutreach to the nooks and corners of the country.As suggested above, there is urgent need to form veterinary training institutes and universitiesin the country to overcome the dearth of trained medical staff in the veterinary field. Thisrequires medium and long term strategy. The government should form veterinary academies inmajor Tehsils as a first step and afterwards may form colleges and universities to overcome ashortage of trained medical professionals. Again, a consortium of medium and large farmersas well as international agencies with the local governments would greatly facilitate this effort.Trade Potential of Dairy ProductsGenerating Exportable SurplusAs discussed above, whilst Pakistan is the fourth largest milk producer in the world, it has not been able touse its comparative advantage in the milk production to explore trade opportunities in this sector. Largelythe sector encounters issues relating to productivity, integration of value chain to produce value addeddairy products, awareness on enhancing productivity and healthcare, compliance to domestic regulationsand international standards, and above all generating exportable surplus that can earn better value formoney that the stakeholders put into the dairy and ancillary industries.The geographic dispersal of the milk producers and many other factors explained in the preceding sectionsmake the task difficult for the policy makers when it comes to the question of exporting milk and dairy119These are usually formed by the medium and large size farmers in their agricultural lands. These Dairasare also used as guesthouses for guests coming from outside. Storage of grains and other agriculture implements is also done here. Besides, in almost allDairas, the farmers also house certain animals including cows, bulls, dogs etc.76