The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government launched a Rs2.6 billion programme deploying 145 mobile veterinary clinics, 27 mobile laboratory units and 202 veterinary doctors and assistants across Pakistan's northwestern province.

Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi inaugurated "Ehsaas-e-Bezaban Sehat Gaari" in Peshawar, calling it a structural shift in how veterinary services reach remote farming communities.

"Ehsaas-e-Bezaban Sehat Gaari is not merely a mobile veterinary service but rather represents a commitment, a sense of responsibility and a vision for the welfare of livestock and the communities that depend on them," Afridi said at the inauguration.

What does the rollout include?

The provincial Livestock Department briefed the Chief Minister on programme design. Mobile clinics will operate at the tehsil level — the administrative tier below district — providing vaccination, diagnostic, treatment and emergency veterinary services.

Core deployment figures:

• 145 mobile veterinary clinics
• 27 mobile laboratory testing units
• 202 veterinary doctors and assistants
• 1 central digital dashboard for service monitoring
• Mobile milk-quality testing laboratories for on-site adulteration and contaminant screening

The programme focuses on food animals. No companion-animal provisions appear in the briefing materials.

Why the emphasis on milk-quality testing?

The mobile milk-quality laboratories target adulteration and harmful contaminants — concerns that extend past the farm gate into food safety and consumer health. Detection capability moves from a central laboratory out to the point of collection.

Afridi said the milk laboratories will play "an important role in strengthening milk-quality monitoring and facilitating the timely detection of adulteration and harmful contaminants."

For dairy producers, same-day testing could shorten the path between suspect sample and corrective management decision, reducing contaminated milk reaching retail channels.

What changes for farmers at the tehsil level?

Afridi framed the programme around access. "No farmer should be deprived of quality veterinary services because of geographical distance or location," he said.

In operational terms, the mobile fleet shifts tehsil-level work in four concrete ways:

• Vaccination campaigns reach villages rather than waiting for travel-in
• Diagnostic sampling happens on-farm, with results routed through the central dashboard
• Emergency cases — dystocia, traumatic injury, acute infectious disease — receive same-day response
• Preventive herd-health visits replace or supplement episodic treatment

Afridi said the design aims "not only to provide treatment but also to strengthen disease prevention and improve livestock productivity." That framing aligns the programme with herd-health economics rather than reactive care.

What is the production-economic case?

Livestock underpin household income for millions of KP families, according to the Chief Minister. Disease losses in cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats translate directly into lost milk, lost draft power and lost off-take for sale.

"Healthy livestock will contribute to higher productivity and increased incomes for farming families," Afridi said.

The dashboard component implies performance tracking: calls completed, vaccinations delivered, samples processed, response times. The Livestock Department did not release target metrics or a reporting cadence in the inauguration materials.

What's next?

The provincial rollout will test whether mobile delivery matches stationary-clinic performance on core herd-health indicators. For veterinary professionals in KP, the 202 new positions create jobs while raising the bar on service coverage.

Afridi set an explicit objective: "Our objective is a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where farmers are prosperous, the rural economy is strong, livestock is healthy, and people have access to safe and quality food."

Reporting baselines, disease-incidence trajectories and milk-quality test results will determine whether the Rs2.6 billion translates into measurable gains at the farm and on the consumer's table.