India Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying and ILRI to work together in livestock master plan development

The Indian Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (MoFAHD) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are exploring opportunities for collaborating to promote livestock sector development in the country.

On 23 July 2021 Shri Atul Chaturvedi,Praveen Malik, Animal Husbandry Commissioner/Chief Veterinary Officer, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), MoFAHD met with Rahman Habibar, ILRI regional representative for South Asia, to explore how ILRI’s projects and research work in South Asia and India, which is implemented with state agencies, and national and international partners, can be strengthened to enhance livestock development in India.

Habibar Rahman along with Shri Atul Chaturvedi (on the left) and Praveen Malik (on the right) (photo credit: ILRI).

Among these are the Bihar and Odisha livestock master plans, climate change mitigation, animal disease economics, feed and fodder development, backyard poultry genomics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and One Health projects.

ILRI’s work on the disease economics of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) was of particular interest to the ministry. The commissioner, noting the negative impact of animal losses from PPR, which is close to 8,000 crores in annual losses for farmers, said the ministry was keen on tackling the impact of the disease in the country in collaboration with ILRI.

Rahman explained the importance of the Bihar and Odisha livestock master plan (LMP) projects and how they can be replicated elsewhere in India. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR)-ILRI project on feed and fodder was presented as an example of a collaboration that has developed techniques to help reuse straw wasting in northern Indian states.

Rahman later met Shri Upamanya Basu, joint secretary, DAHD, MoFAHD, to explore collaboration between the Department and ILRI. He said that the two institutions will discuss how to strengthen the involvement of pastoralists in the vaccination of small ruminants to tackle PPR.

Follow-up meetings will be held between the ministry and ILRI to agree on next steps in the collaboration.Habibar Rahman greeting Shri Atul Chaturvedi with the traditional gamosa from Assam.

(The post was written by Kennady Vijayalakshmy, research and communications officer with ILRI in South Asia, with additional editing by Chi Nguyen and Paul Karaimu, communications officer, ILRI).