Economic aspects of livestock production in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The study on the structure of livestock production in Punjab province of Pakistan aims to determine whether the landless participate equally with farm families in livestock production. The impact of mechanisation and land development policies upon animal stocking rate is also investigated. In addition to the above district level analysis, a comparison of livestock production is made between two selected regions with differing production systems to explore the investment priorities. Allocation of resources in livestock enterprises is investigated to identify the resource constraints within regions. Regression analysis of district level cross-sectional data is used to analyse the structure of livestock production in Punjab. A production function approach is applied to estimate the productivity parameters. Alternative livestock production systems are compared in mechanised milkshed versus traditional remote regions. The study concludes that the landless participate equally with farm families in animal enterprise although excluding draft animals. Similar results are shown in three animal categories, viz. milch, young bovines and sheep and goats. Land development policies tend to reduce the livestock population with the exception of milch animal category which is unaffected. In contrast, mechanisation shows a strong complementary relationship with milch animals. Thus, mechanisation appears to be associated with a substantial increase in milk production. The results imply that the ownership of animals is more evenly distributed than the ownership of land in rural Punjab. Hence a rural development strategy based on 'animals' would be more likely to encourage the involvement and participation of the landless and/or marginal farmers who are relatively neglected in crop research and extension programmes. Integration of milk development programmes with the government's mechanisation and land development policies should, therefore, be of higher priority than at present due to strong complementarities among the policies. Research, extension, credit and price policies are suggested to encourage the implementation of the above proposed integrated rural development strategy. These policy proposals are based on the results from the comparison of alternative livestock production systems in the respective regions.