Prospects of Livestock Production and its Role in Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan

Livestock is seen as having a key role in poverty alleviation as majority of the poor in developing countries live in the rural areas and that food prices are a major determinant of the real income of both rural and urban poor. Livestock play a vital role in rural livelihood, employment and poverty relief. In Pakistan, livestock sector has seen a growth of around 5 % in the last decade. However, growth slowed down to 2.6 % in 2003-04 and 2.3 % in 2004-05 but it has risen again to 8 % during the year 2005-06. Livestock has its share in value-addition of agricultural economy and has increased from 29 (1990-91) to 50 (2005-06) %., as compared to the share of crop sector that had declined from 65 to 47 % in the same years. About 30-35 million rural population of the country is engaged for their livelihood and derives 30-40 % of their income from livestock raising. The people of Pakistan have inherited traditions of rearing dairy animals and it has remained a complementary activity to crop production. The livestock farming in Pakistan has failed to attract its due importance from the policy makers. Livestock farming provides an important complimentary with food grain production for small farmers. Animal dung is the main source of fuel for cooking and an excellent manure to maintain soil fertility, while crop residues, otherwise mostly going waste are saleable at remunerative prices to livestock farms for feeding dairy animals, and thus enhance economic return for crop production. Despite the importance of dairying in the economy of Pakistan, especially for the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and landless laborers, government policy toward this sector has suffered from the lack of a clear and strong thrust and focus. To a great extent national policy makers and development groups have not recognized or exploited the potential contribution the livestock sector can make to poverty reduction, despite the large share of the poor depending on livestock as part of their livelihood and the increasing demand for meat and dairy products in developing countries like Pakistan. This Working Paper concludes with recommendations for improving the best use of this important sub sector for poverty alleviation.

Keywords: Poverty, livestock, hunger, dairy farming, employment