Trends in milk production through community participation

Pakistan is ranked as the fifth largest country in buffalo milk production. Approximately 28 million litres of milk is produced annually from 24. 2 million cattle and 26.3 million buffaloes. Nell ravi and kundi buffaloes, Sahiwal & red Sindhi cattle are the quotable examples among the best dairy breeds of Pakistan. The livestock sector is contributing about 50% in the agricultural sector as value addition and nearly 10.8% of the total gross domestic products. About 30 to 35 million rural population is engaged with livestock and livestock products. The population of livestock is increasing at annual estimated rates of 2.38 in Pakistan. The availability of milk per capita per day is 50 ml mean, one cup of tea is available to every person of Pakistan per day and sorry for the second cup of tea. That is why we have to import dry milk to meet the local requirements. Landless small farmer of rural areas produce more than 60% of marketable milk. However, the losses faced by the dairy producers in the form of treatment of diseases, death of animals and low production has been estimated to be Rs 79 billion that is approximately equivalent $ one billion alone in Punjab. Another survey reports the economic losses due to various livestock disease were estimated at Rs 8.4 million per district per annum in the province of Punjab. The situation is not only alarming but also thought provoking for the planners and administrators and chief executives of the nation. This loss, however, can be prevented by providing community based health delivery services through the community based animal health workers (CAHW) under the supervision of graduate veterinarian. Community based veterinary service delivery systems have been introduced in many countries of the world where there has been a lack of veterinary services due to problems of these areas there is often a high social and economic value placed on livestock but due to the socio-economic structure the type of service delivery which has developed in western countries is not possible. The problems transport costs. This means finding other ways of providing veterinary services, which are affordable by local communities and at the same time provide the necessary disease surveillance required by national governments and for International trade. CAHWs in this programme are people who provide preventive and some curative care with livestock as well as facilitate training in their own villages. They are trained as change agents in their village organisations, and trained as trainers with listening and facilitation skills. Together, farmer trainers and technicians train the CAHWs are viewed as an integral part of the village development process and are chosen by the villagers themselves. These programmes continue to show excellent results even after the project funding has been discontinued because of the motivation and creativity of the local people involved. As governments become more aware of CAHWs, there are also moves to strengthen the role of CAHWs in disease reporting and contributing to national disease surveillance systems. The sustainability of small holders and poverty alleviation has been supported and proved by the introduction of community based health delivery system as compared to the conventional government based health delivery system. This system was introduced in the form of ldara-e-Kissan (HALLA Project) in Kasur and Okara districts in 1983. Different livestock production system in the developing countries have opted in the community based system in 46 developing countries of the third world and as a result the infectious and parasitic diseases and outbreaks are controlled through CAI-IWs. This has not only controlled the diseases but also significantly increased the milk & meat production. The present study was conducted to compare the diseases in cattle and buffaloes under the community based health delivery system and the Conventional government based health delivery system in the dairy belt of central Punjab. The magnitude of the incidence rate per annum due to infections/ non-infections diseases was significantly high (36.43%). Similarly the mortality rate of conventional government health delivery system and community based health delivery system the landless milk producers, produced more milk. In this way they increase their income as compared to the conventional government based health delivery system. Reduction in the cost of veterinary services was primarily based on the principle Prevention is better than cure. More than 60% marketed milk is produced by the landless livestock owners in the dairy belts of Pakistan. They are the small holders keeping 1-3 buffaloes or cattle. The study proved that community based health delivery system has a great role in the increase of milk production. With the help of community based health delivery system, we can improve, marketing of animal products, animal health, animal nutrition, animal fertility, genetic potential, and animal husbandry. So with help of community based health delivery system, we can reduce the morbidity and mortality of animals and we can increase the profit through increase in milk production per animal. The community based health delivery system is the most economical and efficient in providing privatised veterinary services. Without the front line community based animal health workers, there would be few, if any veterinary services at all in large parts of many developing countries.

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