Livestock Cooperation with IFAD

HOMS, (ST) – During the first half of this year, 45 rural families from the villages of Homs benefited from the project to develop livestock, according to the project manager, eng. Rami Al -Ali, who explained that the project is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for a period of 8 years in order to increase the income of poor rural households that depend on livestock production through improving pastures’ productivity and supporting the rain fed farming systems with a focus on manufacturing and marketing.

The manager of the project pointed out that a survey is currently being implemented in a number of villages to study aspects of the educational, social, economic and marketing and health of livestock breeders in Palmyra and neighboring areas,  explaining that committees of the local community in a number of villages had been formed to propose the most needy families to be a link between the committees of any project management and the villagers.

For his part, Director of Agriculture Bureau in Homs, Eng. Nazih al –Rifai, said that the first component of the project aims to increase the income of small farmers by improving the productivity of the unit of animal through genetic improvement and the application of the foundations of management of the herd and enhancing services to provide feed and veterinary services and better use of fodder resources. This component has several branches including systems leading to digitize herds of livestock, follow-up performance of the productive, support for the genetic improvement of livestock and production of improved breeds, support animal health services and medicine vet and train veterinarians to systems and methods of implementation of epidemiological surveys, support extension services, training in the field of livestock and set up milk collection centers near the areas of production to reduce transport costs and work to improve the quality control of red meat in slaughterhouses.

He also pointed out that pasture improvement and development of feed resources is a major goal of the project through regulating the use of pasture to ensure the sustainable management of resources that are rehabilitated and intensify the cultivation of shrubs in selected areas and choose suitable points for watering cattle while encouraging the creation of built low-cost water harvesting in strategic locations and enhancing use the leftover crop and food manufacturing to fill the gaps in the balance of feed in the rain-fed farming systems in the areas of stability, the second, third and fourth and the use of modern technologies to improve the nutritional value of crop residues, vegetables, fruit and olive trees.

Concerning the development of small enterprises and rural microfinance, Eng. Al Rifai clarified that the development of small and medium-sized enterprises depends on where the establishment of micro-finance funds to target groups that are selected according to the national standard of poverty.

Sh. Kh.