Acumen Fund

Improving Livestock Productivity in Pakistan

Within the livestock sector, milk is the largest and the single most important commodity.
In Pakistan's agriculture sector, over 75% of livestock owners are poor farmers owning less than four cows. Additionally, a majority of poor and small dairy farmers face the challenge of low milk productivity in cows.
Despite this low productivity, Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world, yet still, it takes six Pakistani cows to produce as much milk as one cow in the U.S. or Europe. If livestock productivity were increased, the resulting increase in milk yield would be substantial.
The main factors hindering better milk productivity by low-income farmers are a lack of focus on breed and gene pool improvement of cows, poor farm management, and the use of the low-quality feed.

Jassar Farms Private Ltd. (JFPL) is a corporate dairy farming business focused on dairy and breed improvement of poor livestock farmers aiming to increase milk productivity.
Breed improvement in cows can be achieved through artificial insemination using world-class, quality bull semen. However, small farmers in Pakistan are not able to access high-quality semen doses because the prices of these imported semen doses are too high.
JFPL aims to establish a world class local semen production facility to produce top-of-the-line semen for the poor dairy farmers of Pakistan. The end product is priced keeping the poor farmers’ affordability range in mind.
With access to high quality semen doses, the potential milk yield is 8,000-10,000 liters per year.
The Impact
The use of low-cost, high-quality artificial insemination would allow small farmers to increase milk yields from livestock over time. This will lead to increased incomes of livestock farming families.
With Acumen’s investment, Jassar Farms has the potential to impact more than 180,000 poor livestock farming families in the next five years.
This is the first investment for Acumen Fund within the dairy and livestock space and is expected to provide valuable insights into the challenges and possibilities of increasing the productivity and income streams of poor dairy farmers.