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Tetra Pak Pakistan’s Dairy Hub Program concentrates on breed, feed, animal diseases, knowledge and management skills of farmers (capacity building). Poorly managed breeding practices, improper/inadequate feeding, lack of veterinary care and nonexistent record keeping require a quantum change at grassroots level. This project was selected because the dairy sector is a vitally important sector of the economy, with millions of people dependent on it and with huge growth potential. This is a critical social issue that Tetra Pak is well equipped to address, with its technology-based global expertise of the dairy industry.
The Program assists in achieving both food security and poverty alleviation. The nutritional value of milk is beyond doubt and is an important complement to energy based diets. Poverty alleviation through smallholder dairy development is an important driver for dairy development in Pakistan. It seeks to improve and diversify livelihoods, creates regular income and employment, and is likely to reduce urban migration. It offers opportunities for empowerment, especially of women. Compared to other food crops, milk production is an economic activity that provides a relatively high added value, although accompanied by a higher risk. In addition, trade in milk and milk products would support the transfer of capital from urban to rural areas.
To address the above social issues and bring about a positive long-term change, Tetra Pak in association with its own customers (milk processing companies) launched a comprehensive Community Dairy Development Program (CDDP), to contribute to poverty alleviation by organising and improving small-holder farmer milk production through Dairy Hubs. This is a one-herd concept that encompasses approximately 800 small-holder farmers from 20 villages located within 15-20 kilometres radius into one Dairy Hub. Village milk collection points (VMCs) are set up by milk processing companies. All Dairy Hub and VMC Points staff is from the local community and women are specifically targeted for employment. Registered farmers are contracted to supply their milk to local VMC point, for which they receive a fair price and bonuses for quality.
Mechanized milking machines are provided to improve animal productivity and a field service officer gives constant support through frequent on-farm visits. A one-stop-shop with farm supplies for animal welfare and feed has been set up in the central Dairy Hub building. Basic tests on milk are conducted before they are sent out to VMCs. Initially Community Mobilisation is undertaken through Tetra Pak Social Organisers. Gender mainstreaming is an important factor because women are crucial partners in the dairy Hub program. One of the key requirements in this regard for capacity building is that the Dairy Hub concept is based on the belief that the social whole is more than the sum of its individual components.
Access to the marketplace has been successfully achieved through MOUs with Multinational and national dairy companies. And since they like to implement their corporate social responsibility strategy by sourcing milk in a responsible and sustainable manner, to participate in these present day dairy supply chains, small scale farmers have to meet their quality standards. The Dairy Hub Program ensures food safety and quality results in introduction of standards and control mechanisms – demands are put on reliability of supply and an efficient collection system with chilling equipment etc. Partnerships brokered by the Dairy Hub program with the private sector ensure their active involvement, leading to good economic returns and offset the higher transaction costs that small scale dairy farmers need to collection and transport of small volumes, by making milk collection systems more efficient.
The partner Milk processors deal effectively with fluctuations in supply and demand (due to reduced production in the dry season, high consumption in holiday seasons or non-consumption in fasting periods) in order to offer smallholders a reliable market. Production – To ensure that scale dairy farming remains sustainable, intensification by increasing milk output per animal and per unit land contributes to economic and environmental sustainability of the overall farming system. Major limitations that the Dairy Hub Program has overcome to increase milk production is related to breeding, feeding, and animal disease prevention and control: Community Veterinary Hospitals and Mobile Veterinary Clinics: Veterinary Hospitals supported by mobile veterinary clinics have been carried out through the Program.
California Mastitis Test (CMT) camps and animal vaccination camps have been set up along with provisions of clean water to improve herd productivity. Breed improvement in many cases is a first requirement to transform smallholders from subsistence farmers to commercial small scale producers that are able to market tangible amounts of milk. Veterinary services based within the Dairy Hub have employed special software developed for registration, farmer coding, livestock tagging, record keeping and monitoring. Prevention and control of animal diseases like the control of mastitis has resulted in a much higher milk output.
Nutrition improvement is through fodder enrichment and preservation. Water management activities are also carried out to ensure supply of clean water. Availability of good quality feed (forage/roughage and concentrate feed) throughout the year is available through silos/ machines and a continuing series of trainings in production and storage of nutrient rich feed has been introduced through the Dairy Hub Program. Previously poor feeding practices also lead to poor reproduction, long calving intervals, and as a result insufficient replacement stock.
Intensification of milk production puts significant requirements on knowledge and management skills of farmers – forage production, feeding, reproduction, breeding, young stock rearing, input purchase, and prevention and control of diseases which have been aggressively managed by the Dairy Hub Program through Capacity Building initiatives by Tetra Pak, DeLaval, Livestock and Dairy Development Board (LDDB) and the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS). The details area: Two months
Train the Trainers program, Four months Dairy Hub staff training program, Four months Women Livestock Extension Worker Program, One year Herd Management diploma. The Smallholder Training Kit (Video Training and published material) improves the knowledge and capacity of farmers. Due to low literacy levels of the rural population, training programs focus on visuals and demonstrations for better understanding. A series of Dairy Hub docu-dramas were aired on Sohni Dharti TV for one complete
season.
(Note: A key person at Latitude has been part of the Dairy Hub programme since its inception and has authored the English information booklets, translation and dubbing of the training videos, in addition to being part of the team that presented the project which consequently won the Asian CSR Awards in 2010 and 2011).