Development experiences of livestock production systems in Hindu Kush Himalayan region ¹

P.M. Tulachan and T. Partap

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal

1.    The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Dr Mahesh Banskota and Ms Camille Richard, respectively Deputy Director General and Rangeland Management Specialist of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), for their valuable suggestions while preparing the paper. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and may not reflect those of ICIMOD.

Abstract

The paper reviews the development experiences of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region countries in the livestock sector. Primary focus of research and development has been in the introduction of improved cattle breeds and forage crops but adoption has been poor due to the inappropriteness of some of the technologies and lack of supporting policies. A more integrated approach to research and development for adaptation and development of appropriate technologies and policies is advocated.

Introduction

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is the largest and most diverse mountain setting in the world, comprising 3500 km long complex landscape of mountains, plateaus, river gorges, and plains. Politically, the region includes Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan, China's Xizang Autonomous Region, Western Sichuan, North West Yunnan and Chengdu, the northern hilly region of Burma, Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, Indian Himalayas, Bhutan and Nepal. This vast tract of landmass includes such ranges and chains known as the Himalayas, the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, the Hengduan Mountains, and the Tibetan Plateau. Over 150 million people representing scores of ethnic groups live within this fragile and marginal landscape and another half a billion inhabitants depend on its resources, downstream in the hinterlands.

Livestock production systems, a part of the livelihood systems of the majority of HKH people, contribute significantly to their household economy. In the large part of the cold and dry region, pastoralism is the only livelihood option, and here livestock contributes close to 100% to household income. Where agro-pastoralism is the main farming activity, the contribution is 50–70%, and in mixed crop–livestock farming systems, it is 10 to 30% (Tulachan and Partap 1997).

Past three decades have seen considerable research and development (R&D) efforts in the livestock sector across the eight countries of the HKH region. The thrust has been on improving the livelihood of mountain farmers through livestock sector development. Ample experience has been gained in this respect which is reviewed in this paper. Attempt is made to discuss how far R&D efforts have succeeded. This is followed by a discussion on lessons learnt and the gaps. It emphasises mixed crop–livestock systems. The paper starts with an overview of cold and dry rangelands followed by mixed crop–livestock system occurring in the southern flanks of the Himalayas. It also describes briefly relationship between livestock and natural resources.

Dominant livestock production systems in the HKH region

Farming systems in the HKH region present a mosaic of distinct agriculture and livestock production systems, representing various agro-ecoregions. Pastoralism and agro-pastoralism cover a vast part of the HKH in the highland areas, notably in Tibet (China) and some northern areas of Pakistan, India and Nepal. In the sedentary farming dominated by food grain and mixed crop farming systems, livestock play crucial role providing draft power, manure, meat and milk. Shifting cultivation is prevalent in the eastern Himalayan region—North-east India, and bordering areas between China and Myanmar. Here livestock farming is a part of the livelihood of the shifting cultivators.

Rangelands of dry and cold deserts

Rangelands and pastures cover more than 40% of the HKH region and over 70% of the Tibetan Plateau; supporting approximately 25 million livestock. It sustains livelihoods of several highland ethnic communities inhabiting these high mountain grazing lands (Miller 1996). Table 1 shows the distribution of rangelands in each of the HKH countries.

The rangeland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau covers 42% of the total area of grassland in China. The number of large livestock in these rangelands, mainly yak, horse and cattle, was 17.2 million in 1986, which formed 14.5% of national livestock. The number of goat and sheep was 37.7 million, which comprised 20.9% of national stock. Animal products coming from this region, such as wool, cashmere, hair and mutton account for 12.3–13.5% of the national production (Wu 1994).

The eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of western Sichuan has a variety of pastoral systems (Table 2). Common to all systems is the use of communal land as pasture. They differ, however, in the degree of mobility of herds and households. With increasing altitude, mobility increases and reaches its maximum with nomadic pastoralism, which utilises the most marginal areas in the region.

Source: Miller (1996).

The degradation of these rangelands due to over-exploitation is a matter of concern today. It has occurred in terms of the loss of their vegetation cover (known as 'black beach' in China) on the Tibetan Plateau. While the causes of this degradation are still not well understood, it is believed that the general desiccation, or drying up, taking place on the Tibetan Plateau may be responsible. Overgrazing of livestock has also been perceived as the cause of 'black beach'. Small rodents such as pikas ('rabbit-rats') and zokers ('mole-rats') also cause considerable rangeland degradation in this area (Miller 1996).

Table 2. The descriptors of different types of pastoralism in western Sichuan.          

Source: Wu (1994).

The rangelands are the largest category of land in Pakistan comprising about 68%, or about 60 million hectares of the country's total land area. They extend from the Alpine pastures in the northern mountains to temperate and Mediterranean ranges in the western mountains and arid and semi-arid desert ranges (Noor 1987). Of Pakistan's total rangeland area, about 84% can be considered as mountain rangeland. Livestock, dependent primarily upon rangelands for forage, contribute 30% of the gross domestic product generated by the agricultural sector in the country. Mountain rangelands are of considerable importance in Balochistan since about 93% of the province can be classified as rangeland and all of it is mountainous. Balochistan also encompasses about 73% of Pakistan's total area of mountain rangeland (Sharma et al 1997).

The Forestry Master Plan of Pakistan has reported an estimated 86% of the rangelands of the country in very poor condition and degraded due to mismanagement and years of overgrazing. In Balochistan, the Arid Zone Research Institute estimates that 12 million hectare (56%) of rangelands are in poor condition (Miller 1996; Sharma et al 1997).

Mixed crop–livestock production systems of the Himalayan sub-tropics

In mountains and hills of Nepal and India, livestock production system is integrated with crop production such as paddy, maize, millet, wheat, pulses, fruits and vegetables. In this system, livestock supplies draft power, manure, milk and meat, while crops provide food and fodder. Commonly found livestock species in mixed farming are cattle, buffaloes and goats. In this production system, the majority of the animal feed/fodder come from crop residues. For example, in Nepal, crop residues contribute about 47% of animal feed (HMG /ADB/FINNIDA 1988). Similarly, in Kumaon Himalayas (India), nearly 56% of the total dry fodder derivable from cropland is contributed by two millet crops: finger millet and the barnyard millet (Singh 1996).

In the mixed farming systems of Nepal, livestock population in relation to the arable land per person is one of the highest in Asia. The population of livestock in Nepal is estimated to be about 6.2 million head of cattle, 3.1 million buffaloes, 5.4 million goats, 0.9 million sheep, 0.6 million pigs (DEFAMS 1991). In the subsistence agricultural system, for 90% of the population, livelihood is based on livestock rearing. Livestock contribution to national gross domestic products is about 15%, and to agricultural GDP about 28%. In the hills and mountain regions of the country, at the household level, livestock contributes 20% of household cash income (Nepal Rastra Bank 1988).

In the Indian Himalayan region, a large proportion of livestock species are raised under the mixed farming systems. Cattle are most common (47.5%), followed by buffaloes (12.3%), goats (15.8%) and sheep (10.4%). Under this system, the land holdings are small and therefore livestock supplements family income, and serve as capital asset. Animal dung and bedding materials are used as manure for the crops. Almost entire energy requirement of hill agriculture is met either from bullock and human power (Rao and Saxena 1994). Bhati et al (1992) reported that in the mixed farming areas of Western Himalayan region of India, pressure of livestock population has been increasing. They reported that, in the low hills, average number of livestock per household was 11 animals: six cattle and five sheep and goats. In the mid-hills, the numbers were eight animals in mixed farming system, and nine animals in the vegetable based farming system. In the high hill wet zone, an average household kept three animals, principally cattle (Dev 1994).

Livestock and shifting cultivation

Shifting cultivation is a common practice in the eastern parts of the HKH region, comprising Northeast India, Bhutan, and Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh, hilly areas of Myanmar and parts of Yunan province in China. In this ecoregion, farmers do not generally practice sedentary farming. Some of them keep livestock mainly for household nutrition and income.

Bhutan, a predominantly mountainous country, has shifting cultivation, called tsheri, as a predominant form of land use over an extensive area, especially on the eastern region. Total area under shifting cultivation accounts for 32% of the total cultivated area of the country (Upadhyay 1995). Subsistence farmers, who practice shifting cultivation, grow mainly maize as the major crop (67% of the output). Here, livestock is raised to supply manure to crop fields and in some cases to supply draft power. Shifting cultivators normally graze their animals in forest areas and support land during the day, and bring back the animals to their shelters at night.

In the north-eastern Indian Himalayas, jhuming (shifting cultivation) is a predominant land use system supporting 1.6 million tribal people over an area of 426 million hectares (Partap and Watson 1994). In this region livestock includes cattle, buffaloes and goats. Cattle account for 61.7% of the total livestock population. Cattle and buffaloes are predominant in the valleys and plains. The pressure of the livestock population on land resources is less in the eastern Himalayas than in the western Himalayas (Dev 1994).

Livestock and degradation of forest resources

Overgrazing and open grazing are often argued as major causes of poor regeneration and degradation of forest areas in the Himalayas. Livestock density per unit of land in the Himalayas is much higher than in the lowlands and there is lack of fodder crop production for animals in the mountains (Rao and Saxena 1994). Another view is that the main causes of degradation of natural resources in the Indian Himalayas are cutting down of forests for commercial purposes and to meet the needs of growing human population. For example, large scale timber extraction has been carried out in the North eastern region of India during the last few decades. The humid tropical forests of the eastern Himalayas are meeting substantial timber and plywood requirements for India as a whole. Its forests generate 90% of Arunachal Pradesh's revenue. Timber worth about $120 million was exported to Delhi in 1982. Due to deforestation resulting from commercial logging, energy and grazing problems have increased in the East Himalayan region of India. Most of the forested area in the North East Indian Himalayas consists of degraded bamboo forest of various types. The establishment of three giant paper mills in the region has further aided greater extraction of bamboo resources from the region (Dev 1994).

The above facts and figures not withstanding, the growing livestock population has, indeed, had some effect on natural resources. It has created great pressure on access to common property resources. In western Himalayas, the increasing growth of an already high livestock population has far exceeded the carrying capacity of forests and other grazing lands. Present stocking rates are too high to keep pace with the ecological regeneration of the commons (Singh 1996). The intensity of grazing and browsing is at about five livestock units per ha of grazing land, although no studies have yet determined whether this stocking rate is high. The average landholding in the Himalayan region is small, therefore, crop residues are not sufficient to feed the existing animal population, and fodder cultivation is not very common. This will obviously impact on livestock raising on common and forestlands (Dev 1994). Access to common land per animal head ranges from 0.02 ha in Greater Himalayas to 0.34 ha in the Middle Himalayas under traditional type of farming.

Livestock research and development experiences

Development efforts in the livestock sector so far have been narrowly defined. They centred on the problems of animal breeds, animal health and feed. The major purpose was to bring about the 'white revolution' through livestock particularly dairy sector development for increased family income and employment of mountain farmers. The technical innovations were geared to meet this objective and it largely succeeded in several pockets of foothills and mid hill region, which are well connected with market towns through roads. This high-input-high-output model of the lowland plains was replicated as such in the mountains. However, it did not succeed in the majority of mountain areas which are characterised by inaccessibility, fragility and marginality. Some of the experiences are discussed below.

Improved cattle breeds

One of the key focuses of technological innovation was improving local cattle by crossbreeding with exotic cattle from Europe and North America. The Indian State of Himachal Pradesh (HP) started programmes for upgrading cattle in the 1950s and again in the early 1970s. The focus was on producing Jersey crossbreeds, and there were recommendations of specific Jersey crossbreeds for low hills and high hills. However, in spite of three decades of planned development in breed improvement of cattle, crossbreed animals constitute only 6% of the total cattle population in HP (Negi 1994). Similarly in Uttarkhand, the Central Indian Himalayas, crossbred cattle make up less than 2% of the total cattle population (SHERPA 1997).

In Nepal, almost 90% of the countryside remained largely untouched even after the efforts of three decades of introduction of exotic stock, and the programme has been less than successful in meeting the targets set forth by the proponents of the programme (Joshi 1996). The institutional programmes attempting to upgrade local animals by crossbreeding with exotic stocks did not serve the rural communities nor could they satisfy the needs of the small urban population.

General failure of introduction of such improved breed technology in mountain conditions was mainly due to two factors. Firstly, mountain conditions of inaccessibility and the lack of access to inputs and services (even if affordable) limits the prospect for rearing such improved cattle breed, which are quite dependent on concentrates and quality fodder and on veterinary services. Secondly, farmers prefer the risk-free and low cost option of local cattle since they adapt easily to local resources and diverse needs. Table 3 summarises the reasons for limited success with efforts to improve native cattle through crossbreeding with exotic in majority of mountain farming systems in the HKH region.

Although crossbreeding in cattle had little success, the case with dairy buffalo has been different. Breed improvement programme for dairy buffaloes have largely succeeded primarily because the starting stock were native buffaloes and not of exotic origin. In Himachal Pradesh work on buffalo breeding was initiated only in a few areas until the 1980s. Due to the lack of technical know-how in the preservation of buffalo semen, breeding was performed through natural services by locating 92 Murrah bulls in 1980 at different places in the state. The technique has now gained popularity to such an extent that demand for Murrah semen strains far exceeds the production. Artificial insemination facilities for buffaloes have now been extended to 190 extension stations in the state. Number of buffaloes in the herd increased significantly and that of the cattle decreased or remained stagnant (Singh and Sharma 1990). In the mountain villages, buffalo milk contribute 98% of total milk (Singh 1992).

Table 3. Advantages of local cattle over crossbreeds or exotic cattle in mountain farming systems.                                             

Source: Adapted from, Negi (1994), Joshi (1996) and Singh (1996).

Improved forage crops and modern varieties

Feed shortage has been a major problem for livestock farmers throughout the HKH region. In Uttarkhand, the Central Indian Himalayas, present shortage of feed and fodder is estimated to be 65% (SHERPA 1997). The magnitude of the problem varies from zone to zone. In Nepal too, the shortage of animal feed is very acute during dry period and winter (Tulachan 1985) and livestock are generally fed two-third the required amount (Pariyar 1993). Nepal as a whole has feed shortage of 20–36% (Sherchand and Pradhan 1997), the problem being more acute in hills and mountains. Bhutan also has acute fodder problem in winter (Bajracharya 1993).

To support cattle improvement programmes, research and development work in forage improvement has been pursued since improved cattle need higher quality and quantity of forages in order to perform optimally. Improved forages have been developed and introduced in lowland areas, where input and irrigation are available. However, they have not been so successful in the mountain areas, because of high input-dependency and high-demand on scarce land and irrigation resources (Singh 1996).

Shortage of feed is a problem in pastoral systems in the rangelands. Here also, there have been efforts to improve the feed situation through the introduction of improved grass species. However, experience so far has been far from satisfactory. One such effort in the Quianghai-Tibetan pastureland in western Sichuan (China) illustrates the case:

Introduced hybrid forage seeds have become vulnerable in conditions of drought—the present hybrids either die or revert to their original natural form. They also require expensive fertilisers. More serious problem is that of introduction of alien species is creating niches for pests and diseases of vegetation, animals and humans. Based on the statistics, at present there are about 600,000 hectare of the rat-damaged rangelands, and 500,000 hectare of pest-damaged rangelands in western Sichuan and locals attribute this disaster to the introduced species on these lands (Wu 1994).

Similarly, in the shifting cultivation areas of Bhutan, pasture–livestock development model was proposed as an alternative. The technique involved undersowing pasture plant mixtures into maize or buckwheat crops and fencing. However it was realised that large-scale adoption of the model by farmers was impossible without subsidies on fertilisers and seeds (Upadhyay 1995).

In a recent workshop organised in Lucknow, India by the Society of Himalayan Environmental Rehabilitation Peoples' Action (SHERPA) on fodder and forage problems of Indian Himalayas, it was recommended that while high-yielding exotic varieties of fodder may be introduced, the emphasis should be on encouraging proven high quality local varieties, which are better adjusted to local environmental and ecological conditions. Such varieties can be further improved for better yields. It was also suggested that growing high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of fodder need appropriate subsidies to the farmers (SHERPA 1997). This indicates the poor economic viability of the high yielding forage crops.

Based on past experience of fodder development programmes in Nepal, Singh (1996) states that past initiatives have succeeded where fodder production has been implemented in areas having access to milk market. In areas without access to milk market, there has been some adoption at the initial stages but all have collapsed after subsidies have been withdrawn or other interests of farmers were left unfulfilled.

Adoption patterns of improved animals

An analysis of adoption pattern of improved animals at meso (Utterakhand and Himachal Pradesh provinces, Indian Himalayas) and micro (Dolakha district, Nepal) levels was carried out to illustrate how the adoption of technological innovations was affected by development of road networks and market opportunities. The areas with such opportunities are here referred to as transformed areas. The inevitable prerequisites for higher yielding improved cattle, e.g. access and purchasing power for feed, supplements, heath care and guarantee of sale of the produce, exist in these areas. The income levels of farmers in transformed areas are evidently higher than the vast majority of mountain farmers in inaccessible areas (Sharma 1996; Sharma 1997).

Milk is the foremost among the cash earning livestock products that has a wide market in transformed areas of hills of Nepal and India. Improved breeds of milk buffaloes are widely preferred over local cows because buffaloes yield more milk with higher fat content. Furthermore, they are well adapted to poor quality fodder easily available in the mountain environments. Also, there is easy access to buffalo market by mountain farmers. Improved lactating buffaloes are brought from neighbouring states of the Indian plains and sold in many parts of Nepal hills (Chand 1997). The dry buffaloes are taken back to the plain areas by the same private traders. This trade has become more widespread over time and has led to increase in number of buffaloes in the hills in Nepal and India. This has given rise to increasing trend of buffalo numbers in the herd and decreasing trend of local cattle. The trend is more evident in areas connected by road network to urban economies.

Livestock population trend in the Central Himalayan Uttrakhand hills of India shows that cattle population has declined by 5% while buffalo population has increased by 15% between 1978 and 1988 (Figure 1).

Data Source: Mehta (1997)

Figure 1. Changes in livestock composition (%) and growth in livestock numbers in Uttrakhand, Indian Himalayas (1978 and 1988).

Figure 2 shows the composition of buffaloes and cattle in 1982 and 1992. Female buffaloes at both time periods comprised more than 90%, while female cattle was nearly half that of buffaloes. This clearly demonstrates the preference for dairy buffaloes over dairy cattle. In general there has been increase in the number of female animals and decrease in the number of male animals. The graph also shows 13% increase in the number of crossbreed cows-in-milk. This indicates the success of crossbreeds in some areas with high level of access to inputs (Negi 1994). Foothills and valley bottoms in the mountains have some areas with well developed access roads, inputs, and market. In these areas crossbred cows are also kept under optimal nutrition and management condition for better income.

Chand (1997) estimated 1.64% and 2.36% growth rates per annum of breeding and in-milk buffaloes between 1972 to 1987. It is higher than the recorded growth rates of breeding and in-milk cows in the Himalayas. This shows that the proportion of buffaloes has been increasing and that of cows decreasing among the number of breeding and in-milk bovine.

For example, in Dolakha, a high mountain district of Nepal, the popularity of cash earning dairy buffaloes is higher compared to cattle, and their spatial distribution corresponds to road network that provides opportunities for marketing and for inputs. Concentration of buffalo closely follows the road network, unlike concentration of cattle (local) which is relatively random. In areas accessible to roads there is obvious incentive to keep higher yielding buffaloes than local cattle (Tulachan and Partap 1997).

Livestock related policies and R&D gaps

As mentioned earlier, livestock sector development policies to date have been defined in terms of the problems of animal feed resources, health, and breeds. So the innovations were designed to address these technical/scientific problems, but many inter-related socio-economic and biophysical characteristics, specifically the imperatives of mountain specificities, were neglected (Tulachan 1985; Miller 1993; Miller 1996).

Policies relating to rangelands, which cover significant areas in the HKH region and support large number of farmers and pastoralists, have been based on traditional range science inapplicable to the dynamics and diversity of HKH. In the ranges, livestock development efforts have generally pursued a narrow approach based on animal health, crossbreeding and improved forages instead of taking a more holistic, multiple use approach that builds on improving indigenous livestock breeds and the management of rangeland vegetation and the use of rangelands for uses other than livestock. As a result, the success of pastoral development projects has been poor, or at best mixed (Miller 1996).

The previous narrow, technical approaches to livestock development in the hills and mountains neglected the social, cultural and ecological peculiarities of livestock production. Projects did not take into account the complexities, development potentials and constraints of traditional farmer and herder organisations. Little attention was paid to mobilising people at the local level to manage the process of development themselves and to strengthen their capabilities to manage forest and rangeland resources (Miller 1993). Such approach has also ignored the indigenous knowledge of local people to conserve biodiversity contributing to sustainable use of the natural resources and farmland (Wu 1994).

Data Source: Chand (1997).

Figure 2. Changes in livestock composition (%) in Himachal Pradesh, Western Indian Himalayas (1982 and 1992).

de Haan (1990) concluded that range–livestock development strategies for pastoral areas should seek to: (i) place rangeland development in the context of broader natural resources management approaches; (ii) focus on private institutions such as farmers groups and pastoral associations; (iii) place greater emphasis on the motivation of farmers/pastoralists by securing appropriate incentives and regulations for them to invest in range development and improved livestock management; and (iv) aim at ecological, financial and economic sustainability, while reducing or eliminating government subsidies. These objectives are relevant to pastoral development in Nepal.

Past policies relating to livestock development in Nepal and Indian Himalayas where mixed crops–livestock production system exist; have not successfully accommodated realities of a mountain environment. There is strong evidence of narrow policy and research priorities reflected in continued emphasis on improved breeds of large ruminants (exotic cattle, crossbreeds) despite their limited success to perform and adjust to the diverse needs of majority of mountain farmers. The crossbreeding policy does not take into account the environment in which animals have to live and produce (Singh 1996). For example, the crossbred bullocks had poor compatibility with the local landscape and feed resources. Attempts to introduce crossbreed high yielding cows were not successful because of their requirements for high quality forage and better health services. Introduction of improved forages did not succeed in the majority of mountain landscapes, which are fragile and marginal upland slopes/terraces with no irrigation water. Many of the present policies on credit, prices and access to resources have been designed and formulated to promote technological innovations of productive areas considering only technical aspects. These policies have almost completely overlooked the needs of the rural groups, including the need for protection and conservation.

In Nepal, women contribute 70% of the work effort in livestock raising and have more knowledge than men about treating sick animals (Sharma and Awasthi 1993; Tulachan 1994). Still, women are excluded from extension, marketing, credit and other activities, critical to increasing livestock productivity and income. Women's needs, for example, for time saving technology is not considered in the conduct of research, nor is the extension education system tailored to women farmers.

Similarly, saving child labour in order to allow children to go to school, has never been considered in policy and programme formulation as an issue in livestock development. Use of child labour is common in livestock feed/fodder collection and grazing. Largely, it is the female children, ranging from 7 to 13 years, who are engaged in taking animals for grazing to nearby forests and support land. When rains prevent grazing, the boys and girls of this age group are involved in cutting and carrying fodder from fields. Children are also engaged in collecting dung from common land.

Summary and concluding remarks

Mountain specificities such as inaccessibility, marginality and fragility, diversity and niches play crucial role in determining the livestock species and breeds suitable for the region. Maintaining the biodiversity of forage and animal species has direct implication on preservation of natural resources. So far, the policies and programme strategies for the livestock sub-sector have largely ignored local environmental issues and socio-economic realities of the HKH region. Inspite of three decades of efforts in animal breed improvement, the bulk of livestock population in the Himalayan region remain local species. The capacity of adapted local breeds to meet human needs and preserve environment is yet to receive attention in research and development interventions.

Socio-economic issues related to gender, child labour, markets, community, farmers groups and farm economics, all have direct implications on livestock activities. In view of the crucial role of women the policy strategy should ensure women farmers' participation in all stages of the planning cycle for livestock production and marketing and in extension education activities. Similarly, awareness of socio-economic dimensions can address the location specific priorities. For example, in a fragile and marginal environment where promoting improved forages is inappropriate, control of livestock population through community and farmers group action will be critical. Such action is linked to decentralisation and bottom-up planning. Similarly, in specialised smallholder dairy producing areas where women and children are overburdened with the activities to manage dairy animals, technologies to reduce drudgery will be valuable.

In the high pressure areas of hills and mountains where mixed crops–livestock production systems are operating, livestock production has a positive contribution to make towards sustainable agriculture, through its role in nutrient cycling and maintenance of soil fertility. In these areas, there is considerable potential for investment in livestock production to improve marginal farmers' livelihoods and general economic development. In these intensive farming areas, improved livestock management practices can help rehabilitate degraded forest and range resources, enhance local people's ability to better manage the natural resources they use and facilitate the conservation of biodiversity. However, better understanding of socio-economic and environmental health of agricultural systems at different scales is essential prior to embarking on interventions. Understanding of such a hierarchy entails a better perspective of processes shaping ecosystems in the mountains.

Research areas for international collaboration

Several research areas in livestock sector across the HKH region are not yet adequately addressed by ICIMOD and NARS. ICIMOD and ILRI can jointly work on these areas. At the regional level, there is a need for strategic studies for better understanding of livestock development processes for improving livelihood of mountain farmers, agro-ecosystem health and natural resources. Such studies can focus on the high pressure areas with mixed crops–livestock production systems, where changes are occurring in livestock composition and management, forage resources, natural resources management practices, technologies, gender role and decision-making, markets, farm income and profitability. These changes have not been quantitatively assessed in a way that would enable informed decision-making. Such assessment will help policy makers to formulate appropriate policy strategies.

At the national level, policy studies need to focus on how the present narrow sectoral approach of livestock development can be widened to accommodate the emerging concerns of socio-economic and natural resources management and livestock niche. At the local level, there are many critical issues which need to be addressed for developing appropriate farm technologies and extending them to local farmers. Some of them can be listed below.

• What has been the impact on livestock of breakdown of subsistence farming due to modern technology? Does modern crop technology go hand in hand with modern livestock technology?

• How is the need for farm power met in areas with commercial livestock production systems ?

• What is the role of farm yard manure in maintaining soil fertility?

• What is the extent of substitution between different types of livestock: small ruminants replacing large ones, buffaloes replacing cattle, or are there other patterns taking place? Why?

• What changes are taking place in farming systems in terms of cropping patterns, intensification, use of external inputs, and farm economies due to the process of commercialisation in the smallholders dairy production system? How this commercialisation process is affected by markets and marketing arrangements?

• What are the roles of farm labour shortages, indigenous knowledge and participatory approaches in livestock development?

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