Entrepreneurship: Pakistani pioneers lead epic struggle for more milk
Fragmented dairy industry unable to export due to low yields.
NAROWAL:
Shahzad Iqbal abandoned the jet-set lifestyle of a corporate executive because he wanted to do something worthwhile for his country. So he invested his life savings in world-class bull semen.
He imports the sperm from potent bulls in the West, with names like Socrates, Air Raid and Liberator, and sells it at affordable prices to farmers so they can breed cows that produce higher volumes of quality milk.
Iqbal is one of a band of trailblazers – from small-town entrepreneurs to managers in multi-national companies – who want to transform Pakistan’s ramshackle dairy industry into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
“It is going to take a revolution to turn it around,” said Iqbal, as his farm workers moved metal cylinders filled with liquefied nitrogen gas that store the semen at -196 Celsius.
The dismal state of the dairy industry is a striking example of Pakistan’s habit of missing opportunities throughout a 65-year history tainted by military coups, political infighting and a form of crony capitalism that has stifled entrepreneurship.
With 63 million cows and buffaloes, Pakistan has one of the world’s biggest herds, but it cannot export milk because the animals’ yields are low.
Preoccupied by power struggles and tension with the army, successive governments have failed to realise the potential of the sector, which engages about 35 million people, or 20% of the population, in direct or related work.
While other countries worked on ways to improve livestock gene pools, fodder and veterinary medicine, Pakistan largely left its farmers to fend for themselves over the decades.
The result is a haphazard supply chain riddled with inefficiencies stretching from the cow’s udder all the way to the tea cup.
Chasing my animals
The challenge for Iqbal and his fellow pioneers starts with men like 65-year-old Abdul Rashid, a farmer limping along with a cane made from a branch, trying to keep up with his cows and buffaloes wandering through flooded fields in Punjab, Pakistan’s agricultural heartland.
Unlike in the West, where livestock is neatly organised in high-tech farms for maximum efficiency, Pakistan’s dairy industry is fragmented.
The majority of suppliers are individual farmers who own three or four cows and buffalos and are scattered in remote villages along crumbling roads or cart tracks.
There is no modern marketing system, so it is up to the farmers to find a buyer for their meagre yields.
“I spend my time chasing my animals and they do not give me enough milk to improve my family’s life,” said Rashid as he struggled to stop his animals wandering across a road.
Rashid and millions of farmers like him rely on middlemen, or dodhis in Urdu, to sell their milk to households, transporting it in rusty cans tied to old Yamaha motorcycles.
In the potholed town of Sahiwal, dodhis dropped dirty ice cubes into the churns. Dead flies floated on the surface, a reminder of the bacteria that often contaminates Pakistan’s milk supplies.
Only about three percent of Pakistan’s milk is processed, unlike in many countries where supermarket shelves are stacked with various domestically produced brands.
Dreams
After 15 years of making good money as an executive for Western beverage and tobacco companies overseas, Iqbal decided he wanted to do something for Pakistan.
Rather than despair, he saw an opportunity, pouring his savings of $1 million into creating a breed improvement project called Jassar Farms.
He dreams of the day when the average Pakistani cow, which yields about 1,600 litres of milk after it calves, can compete with the top of the line Israeli Holstein that churns out 12,500 litres.
Iqbal acknowledges the odds are stacked against entrepreneurs in Pakistan because of red tape, corruption, poor governance, chronic power cuts and a Taliban insurgency that keeps many investors away.
Big money
Iqbal can take comfort from the fact that he is not alone in his quest for reform. Some international companies are also working for change.
Nestle has installed 3,200 industrial-size milk refrigerators at collection points across the country to lay the foundations for the kind of cold storage chain essential for a modern dairy industry, and give farmers a steady market for their milk.
Nestle also holds workshops to drive home a simple message - properly managed cows produce more milk.
So far, Nestle has put 9,000 farmers through the programme. Some have doubled their milk output, says the company, which estimates it could make about $450 million in milk exports from Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2012.
Shahzad Iqbal abandoned the jet-set lifestyle of a corporate executive because he wanted to do something worthwhile for his country. So he invested his life savings in world-class bull semen.
He imports the sperm from potent bulls in the West, with names like Socrates, Air Raid and Liberator, and sells it at affordable prices to farmers so they can breed cows that produce higher volumes of quality milk.
Iqbal is one of a band of trailblazers – from small-town entrepreneurs to managers in multi-national companies – who want to transform Pakistan’s ramshackle dairy industry into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
“It is going to take a revolution to turn it around,” said Iqbal, as his farm workers moved metal cylinders filled with liquefied nitrogen gas that store the semen at -196 Celsius.
The dismal state of the dairy industry is a striking example of Pakistan’s habit of missing opportunities throughout a 65-year history tainted by military coups, political infighting and a form of crony capitalism that has stifled entrepreneurship.
With 63 million cows and buffaloes, Pakistan has one of the world’s biggest herds, but it cannot export milk because the animals’ yields are low.
Preoccupied by power struggles and tension with the army, successive governments have failed to realise the potential of the sector, which engages about 35 million people, or 20% of the population, in direct or related work.
While other countries worked on ways to improve livestock gene pools, fodder and veterinary medicine, Pakistan largely left its farmers to fend for themselves over the decades.
The result is a haphazard supply chain riddled with inefficiencies stretching from the cow’s udder all the way to the tea cup.
Chasing my animals
The challenge for Iqbal and his fellow pioneers starts with men like 65-year-old Abdul Rashid, a farmer limping along with a cane made from a branch, trying to keep up with his cows and buffaloes wandering through flooded fields in Punjab, Pakistan’s agricultural heartland.
Unlike in the West, where livestock is neatly organised in high-tech farms for maximum efficiency, Pakistan’s dairy industry is fragmented.
The majority of suppliers are individual farmers who own three or four cows and buffalos and are scattered in remote villages along crumbling roads or cart tracks.
There is no modern marketing system, so it is up to the farmers to find a buyer for their meagre yields.
“I spend my time chasing my animals and they do not give me enough milk to improve my family’s life,” said Rashid as he struggled to stop his animals wandering across a road.
Rashid and millions of farmers like him rely on middlemen, or dodhis in Urdu, to sell their milk to households, transporting it in rusty cans tied to old Yamaha motorcycles.
In the potholed town of Sahiwal, dodhis dropped dirty ice cubes into the churns. Dead flies floated on the surface, a reminder of the bacteria that often contaminates Pakistan’s milk supplies.
Only about three percent of Pakistan’s milk is processed, unlike in many countries where supermarket shelves are stacked with various domestically produced brands.
Dreams
After 15 years of making good money as an executive for Western beverage and tobacco companies overseas, Iqbal decided he wanted to do something for Pakistan.
Rather than despair, he saw an opportunity, pouring his savings of $1 million into creating a breed improvement project called Jassar Farms.
He dreams of the day when the average Pakistani cow, which yields about 1,600 litres of milk after it calves, can compete with the top of the line Israeli Holstein that churns out 12,500 litres.
Iqbal acknowledges the odds are stacked against entrepreneurs in Pakistan because of red tape, corruption, poor governance, chronic power cuts and a Taliban insurgency that keeps many investors away.
Big money
Iqbal can take comfort from the fact that he is not alone in his quest for reform. Some international companies are also working for change.
Nestle has installed 3,200 industrial-size milk refrigerators at collection points across the country to lay the foundations for the kind of cold storage chain essential for a modern dairy industry, and give farmers a steady market for their milk.
Nestle also holds workshops to drive home a simple message - properly managed cows produce more milk.
So far, Nestle has put 9,000 farmers through the programme. Some have doubled their milk output, says the company, which estimates it could make about $450 million in milk exports from Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2012.