May 5, 2021

Pakistan to introduce major change in dairy industry

Pakistan will be introducing a fundamental change in the country's dairy sector through massive artificial insemination with imported semen, essentially eliminating local hardy cow breeds that could produce up to 40 liters of milk daily.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to launch a project to increase milk production, under which Rs40 billion (US$260.8 million) worth of imported semen will be available in three years, which is expected to help improve the characteristics of local cow breeds and increase per animal milk production to 5,000 liters from the current 1,100 liters.

Pakistan produces 59 billion liters of milk annually from a herd of 49 million cows. However, the average milk yield of local cows is just 1,100 liters per lactation against Australian cows' 7,000 liters and American cows' 11,000 liters.

The per capita annual milk consumption in the country stands at 200 liters, which cost Rs18,000 (US$117.34).

Experts believe that the artificial insemination effort that aims to achieve hybrid breeds of cows would not yield results.

Additionally, the yield potential of local breeds have not been fully exploited as no major systematic genetic selection has been done so far.

Moreover, there are concerns that a flawed programme of artificial insemination would deprive Pakistan of pure local breeds.

- The News International