Pakistan sees rise in number of donkeys

The Pakistan Economic Survey 2017-18, released on Thursday, noted that the number of donkeys in the country has increased by 100,000 to 5.3 million.

An overall increase has been seen in the number of livestock in the country.

Nearly eight million families in the country are involved in livestock raising and deriving more than 35 per cent income from livestock production activities. 

It is a source of cash income, providing a vital and often the only source of income for the rural and playing an important role in poverty alleviation and foreign exchange earnings, the report says.

This can be seen with the increase in the number of livestock in the country with the number of donkeys increasing by nearly a million in the country.

Horses, on the other hand, have remained at a steady 0.4 million throughout the last three years with 1.1 million camels in the country.

The number of goats in the country also saw an increase from last year with 74.1 million goats in the country as per the 2017-2018 economic survey.

During 2017-18, livestock contributed 58.9 per cent to the agriculture value added and 11.1 per cent to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 58.9 per cent and 11.3 per cent during the corresponding period last year, respectively.

Gross value addition of livestock has also increased from Rs 1,327 billion in 2016-17 to Rs 1,377 billion in 2017-18, showing an increase of 3.8 per cent over the same period last year.

The demand for livestock can be attributed to population growth, increases in per capita income and export opportunities.

The report stated that during the last couple of years, the focus of agriculture lending institutions has been shifting more towards non-farming activities mainly due to new financing avenues and opportunities in livestock/dairy and poultry sectors.

Poultry

The poultry sector which provides jobs to nearly 1.5 million people in Pakistan has also seen an increase

The current investment in the industry is over Rs700 billion. Poultry meat production for the year 2017-18 was to the tune of 1.39 million tons, which contributed 32.7 per cent of the total meat (4.3 million tons) production in the country. 

During 2017-18, the poultry has contributed 1.4 per cent in GDP, while its contribution in agriculture and livestock value-added stood at 7.5 per cent and 12.7 per cent, respectively.