ISLAMABAD — The federal government has finalized plans to initiate the commercial production of high-grade camel milk powder under a new development initiative aimed at driving value addition across the country’s livestock sector.
According to official planning documents, the “High-Value Camel Milk Powder Development Project” carries an estimated total cost of Rs 1 billion. For the upcoming fiscal year, the government has proposed an initial allocation of Rs 85 million. Economic planners expect the enterprise to bolster Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves through premium dairy exports while simultaneously uplifting the rural economies of arid and rain-fed regions where camel populations thrive.
This initiative forms part of a broader budgetary roadmap for agricultural modernization. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research is slated to receive a total proposed allocation of Rs 3.2 billion for the next fiscal year. Within this fiscal framework, Rs 925 million has been earmarked to fund eight new development schemes, while Rs 2.275 billion will be deployed to sustain ongoing sector-specific projects.
Among the newly approved interventions is a large-scale project dedicated to setting up certified potato seed production and distribution centers. Carrying an estimated total cost of Rs 4.59 billion—with a proposed allocation of Rs 120 million for the upcoming fiscal year—the initiative is engineered to reduce dependency on imported seeds, improve crop yields, and safeguard farmer productivity.
Furthermore, the government is set to roll out the “Prime Minister National Farmer Producer Organization Programme.” Budgeted at a total estimated cost of Rs 7.23 billion, the initial phase of the initiative has been assigned Rs 100 million for the next fiscal year. The program intends to aggregate smallholder farmers into structured organizations to enhance market access and improve overall value chain efficiency.
In a parallel move toward localized infrastructure development, the federal administration has approved in principle the “Prime Minister National District Development Programme.” This regional balancing initiative is projected to cost Rs 7.5 billion in total, with an initial funding allocation of Rs 100 million proposed for the upcoming fiscal year to address developmental disparities at the district level.
