Islamabad: In a major push to modernize the country’s agricultural backbone, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has announced that the federal government will provide complete funding for the development of an indigenous Foot and Mouth disease vaccine, a move he says is essential for unlocking Pakistan’s livestock export potential. The announcement was made on Wednesday during a national seminar titled “Harnessing Pakistan’s Livestock Potential,” held in Islamabad, where the Prime Minister also inaugurated a new national livestock tracking initiative.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The decision to fund the Foot and Mouth disease vaccine project comes at a critical moment for Pakistan’s agriculture sector, which officials say has been held back for years by outdated practices, weak disease control, and limited access to premium international markets.
Why the Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Matters
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral illness affecting cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goats. It rarely kills adult animals but severely reduces milk production, damages trade competitiveness, and can trigger export bans from countries with strict biosecurity requirements. For a nation aiming to grow its dairy and meat trade, controlling FMD is considered a non-negotiable first step.
Addressing the seminar, the Prime Minister said that increasing livestock exports simply is not possible without effectively bringing this disease under control. He confirmed that the Foot and Mouth disease vaccine initiative would be professionally managed through outsourcing to ensure the final product meets international scientific and safety standards.
This full funding commitment signals a shift away from piecemeal disease-control efforts toward a centrally coordinated, science-driven approach — one that mirrors how other major livestock-exporting nations have historically tackled FMD outbreaks.
PAITS: A New Era of Livestock Traceability and Foot and Mouth disease vaccine
Alongside the vaccine announcement, PM Shehbaz formally launched the Pakistan Animal Identification and Traceability System (PAITS), a digital platform jointly developed by the Punjab Information Technology Board in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The system is designed to track and register livestock nationwide through a combined web portal and mobile application, supporting identification, registration, tracing, health monitoring, and real-time oversight of animals across the country. PITBPITB
Officials say PAITS will do more than just track animals — it is expected to turn livestock into “bankable assets” by enabling farmers to access formal financing and insurance products, something that has historically been difficult in Pakistan’s largely informal livestock economy.
Pakistan’s Untapped Livestock Potential and Foot and Mouth disease vaccine
During his address, the Prime Minister highlighted a striking contradiction: Pakistan is the world’s fourth-largest milk producer, yet the country continues to underperform in dairy and meat exports due to weak disease control mechanisms, inadequate traceability, and limited processing infrastructure. He argued that with focused investment in modern technology and scientific research, the agriculture and livestock sectors could meaningfully strengthen the national economy within just one year. Pakistan Today
Officials at the seminar backed this assessment with hard numbers. The Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Agriculture and Food Security noted that livestock contributes nearly 60 percent of Pakistan’s agricultural GDP, making it the backbone of the sector. Separately, Federal Minister for National Food Security officials pointed to enormous untapped trade potential, estimating that dairy exports alone could be worth around US$14.5 billion, while meat exports could generate close to US$5 billion annually if the sector is properly modernised. UrduPointUrduPoint
Training the Next Generation of Agricultural Experts and Foot and Mouth disease vaccine
The Foot and Mouth disease vaccine and PAITS launch were not the only major announcements of the day. The Prime Minister also confirmed that, building on a previous batch, another 1,000 fresh agriculture graduates from all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir will be sent to China this year for advanced training at government expense. This follows a first cohort of graduates who already completed specialized training in modern agricultural techniques abroad, with lessons from that program expected to shape the next phase. UrduPoint
The Prime Minister also stressed the importance of coordination between federal and provincial governments, acknowledging that agriculture remains a devolved subject under Pakistan’s 18th Constitutional Amendment, which means success will depend heavily on cooperative federalism rather than unilateral federal action.
Analysis: What This Means for Pakistan’s Economy
For a country facing persistent balance-of-payments pressure, boosting agricultural exports is more than a sectoral goal — it’s a macroeconomic necessity. A functioning Foot and Mouth disease vaccine program could open doors to lucrative halal meat and dairy markets in the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond, regions that often impose strict animal-health certification requirements before allowing imports.
However, analysts note that turning policy announcements into results will require sustained funding, transparent outsourcing of the vaccine’s development, and genuine provincial buy-in for PAITS registration to reach the scale needed for real impact. Pakistan has previously launched ambitious agricultural modernization schemes that struggled with implementation gaps, so the coming months of rollout will be a genuine test of execution.
If successful, this reform package could mark a turning point for a sector that officials at the seminar described as chronically underdeveloped relative to its natural potential — abundant land, ample water resources, and a large farming workforce that has yet to be matched by modern infrastructure and disease management systems.
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Conclusion
The federal government’s decision to fully fund a Foot and Mouth disease vaccine, paired with the launch of the PAITS traceability system, represents one of the most concrete steps yet toward modernizing Pakistan’s livestock sector. With billions of dollars in potential export revenue on the table, the success of this initiative could play a meaningful role in strengthening Pakistan’s broader economic outlook — provided the ambitious rollout matches the scale of the announcement.
Food and Agriculture Organization – Pakistan: https://www.fao.org/pakistan/our-work/success-stories/project-success-stories/improving-animal-disease-surveillance-in-pakistan/en/
Punjab Information Technology Board – PAITS: https://pitb.gov.pk/node/9773
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