Department of Dairy Technology at UVAS plays a pivotal role in providing outreach, general education, upskilling, and capacity building to policymakers and lawmakers on critical subjects such as economics, law, technology, and climate change. Through seminars, workshops, and training programs, the department equips policymakers with the knowledge and insights needed to formulate informed and effective policies in the dairy and agriculture sectors. By fostering an understanding of the economic, legal, technological, and climate-related challenges and opportunities in these fields, the department contributes significantly to the development of sustainable and environmentally-conscious policies that benefit both the industry and society at large.

Department of Dairy Technology, UVAS in collaboration with Livestock and Dairy Development Department (L&DD) Govt of Punjab convened a Dairy Forum with the theme “Sustainability, Socioeconomic Impact & Modern Trends to Uplift the Dairy Sector”. A technical session was held in which stakeholders and experts had a detailed discussion on the issue of dairy sector followed by a question / answer session. The house came up with some Recommendations to government’s consideration to ameliorate the situation.

Recommendations regarding Livestock and Poultry sectors amidst COVID-19 threat (Letter wrote to Honorable Prime Minster of Pakistan)
Current threat of COVID-19 has devastating effects on the whole food supply chain due to recent containment measures. This situation has rendered Livestock and poultry industries to non-sustainable and nonprofitable situations. These include lowering of demand in the markets at lowest ebb, non-availability of transportation services and workforce in processing plants, blackmailing of farmers to lift their produce at cheaper rates, inability of exporters to supply orders in international markets etc. The house came up with some recommendations which are split into general and industry specific recommendations.

BAN ON IMPORT OF MILK POWDERS (INCLUDING SKIMMED MILK POWDER AND WHEY POWDER) TO SAVE SMALL DAIRY FARMERS OF PAKISTAN (Letter wrote to Federal ministries of Finance, Industries, Commerce and Trade)

Livestock Sector contributes more than 60% to Agriculture GDP of Pakistan. Pakistan is the third largest milk producing country in the world and majority of milk (about 85%) is produced by small landless dairy farmers (estimated to be over 8 million farmers). As such milk is the main livelihood and serves as a cash crop of landless small holders having a herd of only five to seven animals. The World Bank has time and again stressed that investment in livestock sector is the best way to reduce disparity in income and reduce poverty in Pakistan.
Small farmers are already facing issues related to poor nutrition, health, low productivity and improper marketing channels for their dairy animals. These challenges got aggravated due to COVID-19 pandemic and there is disruption in the supply chain. The small farmers have already been facing losses as the cost of production is higher and increasing day-by-day than their milk sale price. At present there is about 45% import duty on skimmed milk powder in Pakistan while it is much higher in India (68%) and Turkey (180%). This import duty on skimmed milk powder has gradually brought relief to the small dairy farmers to some extent.
However yesterday, the Government has announced and waived off taxes and duties on import and supply of different “food items” as part of the Prime Minister’s Relief Package due to Coronavirus. Livestock farming community has generally appreciated the farmer-friendly policies and initiatives of our government so far. If the import duty on milk powders is reduced or waived off, it will badly affect the domestic dairy sector in Pakistan, especially the small landless dairy farmers as they will become highly uncompetitive. This will lead to worsen the poverty and compromising the food security in the country.
Keeping in view the above facts, rather than reducing or waiving off the import duty, I strongly recommend imposing a ban on import of milk powders (including skimmed milk powder and whey powder) to save the small dairy farmers of Pakistan.