Sahiwal district in Punjab is the dairy hub of the country and known globally for its high milk-yielding breeds of buffaloes and cows. Last year, the Pakistan Post Office issued a commemorative stamp of Rs8 denomination on completion of 100 years of breeding of Sahiwal breed cows. The stamp carries photo of a buffalo of this breed which is produced and is available not only in Pakistan but in 29 other countries as well.

The livelihood of a large number of people of the district depends on this sector and almost all multinationals dealing in dairy products in the country have an overwhelming presence here.

It is interesting to note that Pakistan is ranked among the world’s five largest milk producing countries, according to studies carried out in 2009. However, the estimates shared recently by the association of dairy farmers and developers put the country at number three with over 50 billion litres of milk produced in a year.

Regardless of which of the claims is true, it is a fact that the milk yield is quite high in the country. Almost half of the milk produced is consumed by small farmers and their families and the rest is sold in markets and to milk processing companies.

Despite this huge production and market of dairy products, it is a matter of concern that not much attention has been paid at state level on developing the livestock sector on modern grounds. Though private investors have invested billions in setting up mechanised dairy farms and importing cattle from as far as Australia, the condition of small farmers owning small number of cattle is not satisfactory at all.

The same situation has prevailed for long in Sahiwal where the poor farmers have been at the mercy of quacks and private veterinary doctors regarding treatment of their animals. Besides, there has been little assistance regarding artificial insemination (AI) of cattle, free vaccinations and awareness-raising.

Against this backdrop, a project launched in two selected union councils of the district has helped solve these problems to a great extent. It has given people a message that their condition will not change till the time they start questioning the government functionaries who thrive on the taxes they pay and hold them accountable for this inefficiency.

The focus was on making people realise that seeking information from the state is their basic right and not a favour, says Shafiq Butt, Programme Manager Punjab Lok Sujag -- a not-for-profit organisation operating since 1997 in Lahore, Sahiwal, and Faisalabad. He tells TNS that with the support of Open Society Foundation (OSF), they engaged community in Muhammad Pur and Bahadur Shah union councils and trained them on how to invoke the Right To Information (RTI) law 2013 to their benefit.

The project that started in January 2015 aimed at inquiry into the services provided by the Livestock Department to farmers and the problems faced by the latter related to their livestock. It was also envisaged that once made answerable, the department would have no other way but to overcome all its inefficiencies. Towards the end of the year, a social audit was also done to find out the impact and result of the whole exercise.

In total, the Punjab Lok Sujag has helped people forward more than 160 RTI requests in a year to different departments including eight sent to the Livestock Department. Quite amazingly, the department answered all these requests well in time. These requests were mainly about the number of staff employed by the Livestock Department, the number of animals in the province, district etc, the budget reserved for veterinary dispensaries in Muhammad Pur and Union Councils and Civil Veterinary Hospital in Sahiwal and the expenditure made during the year and details about the stock of veterinary medicines available.

Alweera Rashid, a member of Punjab Lok Sujag Sahiwal team, says the information received against these RTI requests pointed out many loopholes and gave a direction to the officials concerned to do the needful.

It was learnt that in a district with a population of 2.2 million, 89 union councils and 542 villages, there were 18,22,641 animals including 10,06,247 cattle, 5,23,702 goats and 2,92,647 hens. The Muhammad Pur union council had 32,351 animals and only four doctors which meant there was one doctor for every 8,000 animals. Whereas, Bahadur Shah union council had 22,111 animals and only four doctors that meant there was one doctor for every 5,527 animals.

Prior to January 2015, no medicines had been purchased for the treatment of livestock during the last four years and the poor farmers in these union councils had to hire services of expensive private veterinary doctors. Medicines were available only from private medical stores, something that had rendered the mobile veterinary dispensaries of the Livestock Department useless.

Dr Ghulam Mustafa, District Livestock Officer (DLO), Sahiwal, present at the open forum with the community, appreciates the engagement of the community with government servants and functionaries. He tells TNS that this year veterinary medicines worth Rs6 million have been purchased for free distribution among the farmers and they have plans to take the figure to Rs14 million.

Besides, he says, they are carrying out door-to-door vaccinations of cattle, veterinary doctors will provide free services round the clock and no government officer will charge even a single penny from farmers. The PC-1 of a veterinary college has also been submitted for approval this year, he adds.

Mubashar Hussain, a community member, believes that the change in government’s attitude has come due to the questioning of the people. "If nobody raises voice, the discrepancies remain unearthed and the high-ups uninformed."

A sample survey has also been carried out under the project which has revealed that: 91 per cent farmers take animals to private doctors, 9 per cent opt for traditional methods, 93 per cent do not have access to vaccination services, 91 per cent say there are no doctors or staff present in veterinary dispensaries, 90 per cent have never gone to veterinary dispensaries despite having knowledge of their existence, 91 per cent animals are not covered under government’s breed improvement programme and 100 per cent farmers claim there is no programme in the government sector that focuses on creating awareness among cattle owners on how to come over these problems.

An immediate result of the said intervention is that with the availability of free medicines, the number of visits to veterinary dispensaries in these union councils has increased considerably. Prior to their availability there would be around 150 dispensary visits per month but now the number has risen to around 750.

Captain (retd) Muhammad Hussain TJ, President of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, Sahiwal appreciates direct interaction between farmers and officers of the concerned departments. He says such interactions are necessary as agriculture and livestock are the most neglected sectors. The government does announce pro-farmer packages but in reality nothing concrete is done, he adds.

Naseem Sadiq, Secretary Livestock, Punjab was conspicuous due to his absence. The participants of the forum equated his absence with the general attitude of the bureaucracy towards ordinary people’s issues though his juniors defended him saying he was away on a more important official assignment.