**2. Milk production systems: general characteristics**

Unlike the production systems in the developed countries like United States of America, milk production systems in Pakistan have similar characteristics to the most developing countries of subcontinent; smallholders with subsistence- or market-oriented-level farming keeping the major share followed by peri-urban or commerciallevel farming [1]. Dairy farming in Pakistan is practiced mainly by the private sector on various scales, in both urban and rural settings. However, the sector is generally characterized as fragmented and subsistence. With the exception of some peri-urban units, most dairy farming is practiced in mixed crop-livestock systems.

Classically, dairy production systems in Pakistan fall into five main systems of milk production based on location, herd size, and level of management. These are smallholder subsistence, smallholder market-oriented, rural commercial, periurban, and large peri-urban. **Figure 1** shows percentage contribution of different milk production systems in total annual milk production. These systems are explained in the following subsections.

### **Figure 1.**

*Annual milk production from various milk production systems in Pakistan in 2016, based on Livestock Censes [4] and annual growth trends [5].* 
