In order to put a check on early slaughtering of cattle and to encourage organised supply of livestock, backgrounding must be introduced as a business proposition amongst investors.
Unless and until efforts are made by the government on a war-footing to organise the meat sector we will keep consuming our dairy cattle as meat.
Backgrounding is the stage in cattle rearing whereby weaned calves, mostly males, are reared till they can be sold to the feedlot fattening farms. Similar model for female calves of dairy breed must also be developed.
Additionally, breeding farms particularly for goats and sheep must be encouraged to improve the organised supply of cattle. Goat and sheep breeding is an extremely profitable business and therefore must be formally promoted amongst investors.
Efforts must also be made to encourage production and consumption of other types of meat like camel and ostrich so that pressure could be eased from existing sources of meat mainly goats and cows.
Unless and until efforts are made by the government on a war-footing to organise the meat sector we will keep consuming our dairy cattle as meat and in the end will neither have enough meat nor milk in the country and would be forced to import these commodities in order to fulfil domestic demand.
The writer is a banker-turned-agribusiness specialist. Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 10th, 2019
