Livestock farming in South Punjab to lessen poverty

LAHORE: Pakistan is blessed with numerous treasures that have been ignored by the successive governments. Cholistan, a poverty-stricken desert in South Punjab, is one such example, where thousands of acres sweet water zone has been put on back burner.

A decade ago, an intensive livestock farming zone was envisaged in Cholistan when over 50,000 acres of identified sweat water zone was established. Expert evaluated that it could provide 60 million kilogramme of beef and 30 million litres of milk to the country, besides raising 7,600 dairy heifers annually.

The Cholistan desert, spread in Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts, has 6.6553 million acres of land that offers a great opportunity for enhancing country’s meat and milk production.

The temperature in this zone varies from 6 to 50 degrees Celsius and it has a population of only 0.155 million.

Its current livestock population of 1.358 million without proper facilitation speaks volumes about its potential.

The livestock include 576,000 cows, 452,000 sheep, 254,000 goats, 50,000 camels and 19,700 buffaloes.

Land for this purpose was to be leased by Cholistan Development Authority under Article 15 of the CDA Act 1976 for a period of 50 years, extendable for another 49 years in line with the then Federal Government Policy Package for Corporate Agriculture, Livestock, 2002.

The programme was shelved for political reasons, as the then government failed to take the local population into confidence and resolve their apprehensions.

Of the many options available with the government one has to give the local population participation in each project launched. Every aspect of the project was researched and a rough policy was also formulated.

According to that policy, the minimum fixed capital investment was envisaged at Rs100,000/acre of land leased, or as per the investment plan, whichever is higher.

The investor would have to make 40 percent investment within first 24 months, 35 percent within next 12 months, and the remaining 25 percent in next 12 months.

The project was to be completed in 48 months. The package mandates that 25 percent of the livestock would be placed within 24 months, another 25 percent in next 12 months, and the remaining 50 percent in another 12 months.

According to the package, only pressure irrigation will be deployed for fodder cultivation to ensure water conservation.

In case of water quality being unfit, land could be surrendered without any penalties. Land cannot be leased or used for setting up of abattoir in livestock production zone.

The investors vying for allocation of land for livestock farming did ask for improving existing marketing system and channels, encourage establishment of modern meat processing value addition industry.

They term price control as the greatest constraint to improve quality and increase production.

However, they had been assured that the then government of Punjab would lift price control as a general policy on sale of processed, chilled, frozen, packed meat sold at grocery stores, meat processor outlets and / or cold chain outlets, instead of special exemptions.

The government even announced income tax exemption to corporate livestock and agri-businesses vide SRO 106(I)/2008 dated 01.02.2008 and income tax exemption on dividend to shareholders on income derived from corporate farming.

The exemption of 20 percent Customs duty on milk replacers was also announced. To facilitate exports, the Punjab government agreed to provide daily freighter service at concessional rates.

Punjab Agriculture Marketing Company was established to setup cold store chains in Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Multan, while the federal government agreed to abolish quarantine fee.

According to the feasibility report prepared by financial experts, the financial cost of each farm of 500 acres would be Rs135 million and the debt equity ratio would be 60:40.

The return on equity is expected to be 44 percent, while the return on capital employed is expected at 27 percent. All this hard work went down the drain, as nothing has been done to exploit the Cholistan treasures. The present government can develop South Punjab by reviving this initiative to make a dent in poverty in the region.