“If a comprehensive strategy is not adopted to save these breeds, a serious crisis will fall on dairy sector,” he apprehended.

The population of milch animals was fast depleting, he warned and said that their prices have gone up from Rs40,000 a couple of years back to Rs70,000.

Moreover, pressure on land is making it more expensive to maintain buffalos in dry period, as such it had become a general practice to first milch the animal dry and once its season was over sell it to the butcher. Ironically, the short sighted attitude of cattle pen owners has led to a population slump, the dairy farmers’ leader said.

Haji Muhammad Akhtar said that due to depleting pasture lands, raising and breeding of milch animals was becoming more and more difficult.

He demanded that dairy farmers must be provided funds and technical assistance to reverse the prevailing slump in population growth rate of high-yielding milch breeds.

Source: The News