Improving Small Ruminant Production

Abstract

Livestock production is a key livelihood strategy and a way of life for most smallholders in the Hindukush. Depending on ethnicity, access to land, labor force, and ecological conditions, small to large herds of goats, sheep, cattle and buffalo serve as a primary or secondary source of livelihood. Ongoing deterioration of environmental conditions—frequently due to overgrazing—and the depletion of timber and firewood resources—often linked to demographic and economic pressure both in the highlands and the lowlands—increasingly worsen living conditions. Alternative livelihood strategies and pathways to more sustainable natural resource use are needed. A combined research and development project, based on long-standing local research and participatory development efforts, launched in the North-Western Frontier Province of Pakistan (NWFP), aims to better assess and compare the situations in 3 different valleys, and to test concrete options for improving livestock output. Standard de-worming practices are being combined with a novel method of supplementing locally produced, season-specific, critically deficient nutrients for the animals, based on local environmental needs.