Nestle modernizes dairy farming in Pakistan

KARACHI: Nestle, the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company, has turned the dairy farming into modern lines in Pakistan to ensure hygiene in milk supply and storage.

“The company has imported state-of-the-art machinery for quality assurance,” Dr Ehsanullah, a senior veterinary doctor at Nestle Pakistan said. Nestle Pakistan has extended its experience with other dairy farmers to improve availability of milk, he added.

He was briefing a group of Karachi-based journalists at Nestle Pakistan’s modern Sarbaz Diary Farm in Okara and one of the world’s largest milk and juice packaging facilities in Sheikhupura, Punjab.

Dr Ehsan explained about the usage of modern techniques for supply of milk from milking to storage plants without human intervention.

Over 400 cows and buffaloes are at the dairy farm, which are imported from
Australia and other countries. The breeds included Friesian, Jersey and cross breeds, while high quality domestic breed of Nili Ravi is also included in the herd of cows and buffaloes, he added.

The farm area is 135 acres and producing around 3,600 litres of milk daily. Dr Ehsan said that a computerised system has been installed to ensure the quality and health of the cattle.

“A gadget has been embedded with each cow / buffalo to monitor the health of the animal,” he said, adding that the gadget linked with main computers and on mobile phones through an application and it reads the requirement of animals.

Describing the induction of new animal and to check any infection in the animal,
he said, new animal brought into the farm were quarantined for a certain time to ensure that other animals remain safe from any infections, if any.

Dr Ehsan said that in order to utilise cows’ waste, the company has installed biogas plant at the farm through which sufficient energy requirements were met.

“The biogas plant has the capacity to produce around 400 cubic metre gas and able to generate 225kW electricity,” he added. Through community development programme, the company is creating awareness about modern dairy farming, he said.

During the visit at Shekhupura facility, Abrar Ahmed, factory manager, explained the working of Nestle plant for packaging of water, milk, dry milk and juices. Ahmed said that the company believed in ensuring quality test before brining products in the market.

Score of analysis and performance tests were conducted of each product to enhance the quality of consumers' lives, he added. Explaining about the drinking water business, he said, Nestlé Pakistan aimed at bringing together multiple partners to preserve and protect water resources by leveraging research and technology to reduce and recycle water, introduce sustainable agricultural techniques to reduce water use vis-a-vis increased yield and provide access to clean and safe water within the communities. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Pakistan is among the three world’s top dairy producing countries in Asia and Pacific Region.