ICARDA News

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas

P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105;
E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: www.icarda.org
31 January 2009
Media contact: icarda-media@cgiar.org
 
IFAD highlights success of ICARDA-led dairy goat project
The latest issue of the IFAD Newsletter carried an article about the ICARDA-led dairy goat project in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The project, launched in 2006, has been remarkably successful in taking available technologies to the community, and working with farmers – primarily women – to facilitate adoption.
Hope for the future: the dairy goat project has generated massive impact in the target communities, and is being scaled out to broader areas.

•
 Almost 800 women in the two countries have joined local women's organizations, using improved technologies and group-based production and marketing strategies.
•
 Ninety-nine goats of the indigenous Gujri breed have been distributed to poor women farmers in Afghanistan, helping to rebuilding their depleted flocks.
•
 Over 500 women in Afghanistan have been trained in various aspects of dairy production, livestock feeding and nutrition, vaccinations, disease management, and genetic resources.
•
 Supplemental feeding, introduced by the project, has generated substantial benefits. For example, in a 69-strong dairy flock in Pakistan, milk production increased by 60%, yielding benefits worth three times the additional costs.

An IFAD evaluation of the project in April 2008 was very positive; and discussions are now under way to scale up the results through additional IFAD investment under their Rural Microfinance and Livelihoods Enhancement Program in Afghanistan. The article concludes: "Despite the relatively short time since its inception, the program has made a significant breakthrough in implementing improved dairy goat technologies in villages. The program has also generated a high interest in proposed activities such as improving dairy processing, obtaining better feeds and veterinary inputs and forming goat-raising cooperatives at the village level."
 

About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA (www.icarda.org) is one of the 15 international research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ICARDA serves the entire developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean; and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water, improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) is a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting15 international research centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition and health, and protecting the environment.

Back