Engro Foods, Engro Foundation and USAID entrepreneurs, with facilitation of MEDA Pakistan, partnered in a mission to strengthen the socio-economic fabric of primary milk producing communities in Northern Sindh and Southern Punjab region, through The Women Empowerment Through Livestock Development (WELD) project.

Empowering women to become agents for change within their communities, the WELD project aimed to boost livestock production and widen access to commercial milk marketing by developing women entrepreneurs and improving their earning potential and livestock management skills. According to a recent survey, over 80% of livestock management practices are carried out by rural women, who spend five to six hours daily on these tasks.

To achieve this goal, comprehensive training and implementation opportunities were provided to rural women on commercial milk marketing, livestock management and best practices to improve yield and aid production.

Under the WELD platform, between July and December 2013, Engro trained 18,682 milk producers covering 533 villages in 122 Union Councils. In the same period, we selected and trained 250 Female Village Milk Collectors (FVMC), and 322 Female Livestock Extension Workers (FLEW).

The WELD project sought to enhance milk production by improving technical know-how of rural women engaged in livestock management. For example, more than 65% of those who received training claimed that their animal’ production increased by 0.98 liters of milk per animal per day. The revenue generated of increased milk stood in excess of Rs. 266 million from July 2011 to December, 2013.

To further aid production and economic growth, Engro identified potential areas to further the reach of the company