KARACHI: After relying on estimates for more than 14 years, Pakistan is going to carry out a census of its livestock this year, officials have confirmed.
Pakistan’s economy significantly relies on agricultural production, which in the previous fiscal year contributed 19 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the finance ministry’s Economic Survey 2020-21. Livestock is its largest subsector having a 60 percent share in agriculture value addition.
More than 8 million rural families are engaged in livestock production and derive some 35-40 percent of their income from it. Gross value addition of livestock was Rs1.5 trillion in the fiscal year 2020-21.
Despite this huge contribution, no livestock census has been carried out since 2006.
“Pakistan Statistic Bureau has plans to conduct integrated census for Agriculture and Livestock during financial year 2021-22,” the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) has told Arab News.
While the Economic Survey 2020-21 recorded 51.5 million cattle, 42.4 million buffaloes, 80.3 million goats, 5.6 million donkeys, 400,000 horses and 200,000 mules, the figures are estimates based on the 1996-2006 inter-census growth rate which, experts argue, does not represent the country’s actual animal population growth.
“No census has been conducted after 2006 but the estimates are being made while sitting in offices. That has no value,” Talat Naseer Pasha, vice chancellor of the University of Education, a public research university in Lahore, told Arab News.
For Dr. Jasir Aftab, a veterinary and husbandry analyst, policy making in the absence of actual data may be inaccurate and does not allow the sector to realize its growth and export potential.
“Due to lack of actual data the policy making and allocations for the animal related project could not be made properly,” he said. “That is why the country still could not harness the full potential of the country’s livestock.”
After 14-year gap, Pakistan plans census of livestock population
https://arab.news/2ag7e
After 14-year gap, Pakistan plans census of livestock population
- Livestock production is largest subsector of Pakistan’s agriculture, contributes over 11 percent to GDP
- Lack of data, experts say, does not allow the sector to realize its growth and export potential
Challenges for millions pushed back to Afghanistan from Iran, Pakistan
- Over five million Afghans returned home since September 2023 as Iran, Pakistan ramp up deportations
- Those who returned face challenges in form of unemployment, lack of housing, shortage of electricity and water
KABUL: After decades hosting Afghans fleeing crises at home, Pakistan and Iran have ramped up deportations and forced millions back across the border to a country struggling to provide for them.
Whether arriving at the frontier surrounded by family or alone, Afghan returnees must establish a new life in a nation beset by poverty and environmental woes.
AFP takes a look at the people arriving in Afghanistan and the challenges they face.
FIVE MILLION
More than five million Afghans have returned home from Iran and Pakistan since September 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The figure equates to 10 percent of the country’s population, according to the agency’s deputy head in Afghanistan, Mutya Izora Maskun.
Three million returnees crossed the borders just last year, some of whom have spent decades living abroad.
Such a huge influx of people would be hard for any country to manage, Maskun said.
INADEQUATE HOUSING
Months after arriving in Afghanistan, 80 percent of people had no permanent home, according to an IOM survey of 1,339 migrants who returned between September 2023 and December 2024.
Instead, they had to live in temporary housing made from materials such as stone or mud.
More recently, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spoke to Afghans who arrived back between January and August last year about their living arrangements.
Three-quarters of tenants said they could not afford their rent, while the majority of families were sharing rooms with up to four people, according to the survey of 1,658 returnees.
DESPERATE SEARCH FOR WORK
Just 11 percent of adults pushed back from Pakistan and Iran were fully employed, the IOM survey found.
For those who returned in the first few months of last year, the average monthly income was between $22 and $147, according to the UNHCR.
WATER, ELECTRICITY SHORTAGES
More than half the returnee households lack a stable electricity supply, according to the IOM.
The agency said that households headed by women faced “significantly higher vulnerabilities,” with around half of them struggling to access safe drinking water.
SPEEDING UP LAND DISTRIBUTION
More than 3,000 plots of land have been distributed to returnees nationwide, Hamdullah Fitrat, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, said in mid-January.
The process “was accelerated,” he said while recounting a special meeting with supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
On their arrival in Afghanistan, returnees usually receive help with transport, a SIM card and a small amount of money.
