Himmotthan and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) jointly organised a one day workshop entitled “developing stakeholder driven pro-poor livestock development programme in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand” on November 25, 2009.

The workshop was organised under the ELKS programme (Enhancing livelihoods through livestock) of ILRI, which is supported by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Navajbai Tata Trust. The objective of the workshop was to develop the ideas on ‘how to make livestock an important source of sustainable income for the farmers in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand’. Over 33 participants from government and non-government organisations participated in the workshop.

These stakeholders were from Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Department, Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation, National Dairy Research Institute, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Himmotthan, Garwal Vikas Kendra, CHIRAG, BAIF, Mountain Valley Development Association, Appropriate Technology India, et al, who participated and contributed in the workshop.

The key areas of the participatory discussion and brainstorming were breeding, nutrition and marketing for improving the livelihoods of the hill farmers of Uttarakhand. Presentation by the experts in the selected themes was followed by the group discussion for developing the concept note.

At the end of the workshop all participants arrived at a common consensus that dairying, goatry and backyard poultry can be the best option for the pro-poor development through livestock. Finally three working groups of experts were formed for preparing a concept note on proposed areas.