Shaukat, 28 years old dairy farmer is continually expanding his dairy farm and milk supply by the assistance provided from Nestlé’s Milk Collection and Dairy Development team.
“I was an agriculture farmer working with cash crops. One day, I met Nestlé’s team and they encouraged me to venture into dairy farming. I started a dairy farm with five cows. They encouraged me to adopt best dairy farm practices. Nestlé training programs and scheduled visits by dairy development executives helped me grow my dairy farm business. Initially travelling to Nestlé’s Milk Collection Centre to deliver the milk was very time consuming for me. On my request, Nestlé provided me with a milk chiller and installed it at my farm. Now the milk van comes to collect milk directly at my farm and I am notified through SMS about the milk quality and supply. This has been very beneficial for me”, says Shaukat.
Pakistan has the largest number of milk producing animals but with a lowest yield. Today the dairy sector is facing three key challenges; quality, quantity and cost of producing milk. The demand has been growing at 4.5 % annually while supply has been growing at only 3%. The dairy farmers in Pakistan are not developed at a rapid pace due to high costs of milk production, limited access to farm input supplies and lack of knowledge about best dairy farming practices.
To cope with these challenges, Nestlé Pakistan introduced Kisan (farmer) Club. The transformative approach of Kisan Club aims for major improvements in dairy farm sustainability by helping farmers decrease input costs and increase productivity, resulting in better economic returns. Kisan Club helps achieve this by providing access to subsidized farm supplies, financial support and technical services to farming communities.
Some of the activities initiated under Kisan Club are:
- Capacity building of dairy farmers
- Animal Health, Breeding & Advisory Services
- Assistance on cow purchase, milk chillers and silage making
- Feeding solutions
- Financing through Milk Advances & Bank Loans
Nestlé Pakistan is committed towards improving lives of dairy farmers in Pakistan. All the initiatives taken under this regard are not only helping them on an individual level, but are also positively impacting our society. Nestlé Pakistan believes that by developing progressive dairy farmers (medium scale) into commercial dairy farmers (large scale), we are contributing to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2 (No poverty and Zero Hunger) which aim at poverty reduction, ending hunger, achieving food security, and promoting more sustainable agriculture.