Nepal

The livestock sector in Nepal makes substantial contribution to the agriculture GDP and also plays important roles in human food and nutritional security, livelihood, regional balance, gender mainstreaming, and rural poverty alleviation. Though there has been great achievements in the livestock sector in the last five years in Nepal, subsistence level of livestock farming is still predominant in the rural areas of the country and there is a huge yield gap (milk, meat) compared to other developing countries in the region. Further, a large proportion of  Nepal’s population is undernourished, and nearly half of all children under five are chronically malnourished.

It means there is a great need for research interventions in the country to contribute to farm income, address malnutrition, improve resilience and to address livestock associated animal and human diseases and ecological footprint.

What does ILRI bring to Nepal?

• ILRI enjoys some comparative advantages in the South Asia region because of its several past and ongoing projects that have delivered positive outcomes. Priority areas for ILRI-led research and development in Nepal include:
• Livestock genetics and breeding including community based breeding strategies, molecular characterisation and fast delivery of superior genetics through reproductive technologies
• Feed resource development and mitigation of feed associated ecological footprint including dual purpose crops and strengthening of national feed lab to use NIRS technology and ILRI’s global equations for rapid investigation of feed quality
• Animal and human health including one health approach, vaccine and diagnostic development, food safety and control of emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases
• Market research, product diversification and food safety including processing to address perishable nature of livestock products
• Goat development through commercialisation pathways including private led inclusive novel technical innovations
• Innovation upscaling including investment in process capacities for large scale uptake of technologies /innovations through public and private sector engagement
• The above priority areas are aligned with the national priorities and will be implemented in collaboration with key national actors and research for development partners working in the country.  In all its efforts ILRI will make sure that the national partners enhance their capacity both individually and institutionally in terms of knowledge, systems and practices. Further, ILRI will extend its support to the policy makers and contribute to the policy making process with evidence and most up-to-date knowledge and techniques.