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Jassar Farms

Improving Livestock Productivity in Pakistan

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Jassar Farms is developing affordable, high-quality inputs for livestock breeding in Pakistan.

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SNAPSHOT
    Jassar Farms is a dairy and breed improvement farm working to increase the milk yields of cows in Pakistan. On average it takes five Pakistani cows to produce as much milk as one cow in other countries. However, most smallholder farmers in Pakistan cannot afford the imported, high-quality bull semen that would improve their breeds. Jassar Farms aims to produce affordable, high-quality bull semen doses that could help more than 250,000 farmers double their milk yields.
The Challenge
  • Milk is the largest and single most important commodity within Pakistan’s livestock sector. Yet more than 75 percent of livestock owners are poor farmers who own less than four cows, and most struggle with low milk productivity. On average, it takes five Pakistani cows to produce as much milk as one cow in the U.S. or Europe.
  • Breed improvement can be achieved through artificial insemination that uses world-class bull semen. But while smallholder farmers in Pakistan currently use artificial insemination, they are unable to afford the imported semen.
The Innovation
  • Jassar Farms was founded in 2005 in Narowal, Pakistan. The company operates a dairy farm and is establishing a Livestock Semen Processing Unit to bring high-quality bull semen to small livestock farmers at affordable prices. It is the only private sector farm in Pakistan to have acquired the technology to transfer embryos.
The Impact
  • Using the bull semen will allow smallholder farmers to double their cows’ milk yields, potentially leading to an increase in income by 33,300 Pakistani rupees ($400 USD) per year per cow. Six male and three female calves from embryo transfers have been born to date. This first generation of hybrid cattle are already producing three times the milk as their mothers.
  • Jassar Farms aims to produce 125,000 semen doses annually, improving the milk productivity of more than 250,000 farming families’ livestock by 2015.