The project aims to conserve indigenous farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) in Asia to improve livelihoods of poor livestock keepers. It focuses on documentation, assessment and training to develop tools for breeding, management and cost-benefit analysis of alternative breeds. It also conducts market and policy analysis. The project is led by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam with support from ILRI and funding from GEF to address sustainable use and conservation of indigenous FAnGR diversity.

1. The long term objective of the project is to secure and improve livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through utilisation and conservation of indigenous FAnGR. Red jungle fowl cock Indigenous chicken flock Beetal herd– Makhi-cheeni Ban pig Project objectives are being achieved through three main components and focus areas;
i.Tools for documentation and assessment of FAnGR: development and testing of appropriate tools for breeding and management, as well as a framework for their implementation at community level; diversity assessment and conservation of priority breeds; and cost-benefit analysis for alternative breeds in low-input production systems.
ii.Training and capacity building: assessments of training needs; development of training materials; conducting targeted training.
iii.Market and policy analysis: stakeholder analysis; development of a conceptual framework for characterizing existing indigenous FAnGR marketing systems and guiding marketing options; identification of policies and their impact.
Collaborating Institutions
Conservation and sustainable use of indigenous farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) in Asia and in other regions of the developing world merit considerable attention. These regions are home to highly diverse FAnGR, which both directly and indirectly contribute significantly to their keepers’ livelihoods and to humankind in many other ways. Diversity of FAnGR is, however, fast disappearing, hence an urgent need to conserve the existing functional genetic diversity. This can be achieved by sustainably improving the productivity of the existing breeds and crop-livestock production systems to respond to the current and future increases in demand for livestock products. Being centres of origin for several major livestock species (e.g. pig, chickens and goats), South and South-East Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are particularly rich in genetic diversity of FAnGR. Why conserve indigenous livestock? Rich diversity in these countries is being genetically eroded following indiscriminate crossbreeding and breed replacement programs. With a number of livestock breeds having already become extinct, there is a growing and urgent need to characterize and sustainably use/conserve the remaining breeds, so as to meet the increasing demand for livestock products and to be able to effectively respond to the uncertain future demands in marketing and production systems as well as to the challenges posed by climate change. The FAO Global Action Plan has identified the lack of relevant institutional capacity as a key constraint to the conservation and utilisation of FAnGR. Thus, there is an urgent need to generate evidence in partnership with livestock keeping communities and to create awareness at the community and government decision making levels on the key place and roles of FAnGR. In addition, the related links between poverty alleviation in rural areas and the improvement of livestock production through sustainable use/conservation of FAnGR diversity must be stressed. This can be achieved through:
•Capacity building and training of relevant stakeholders;
•Developing and making available decision-support tools and frameworks for information generation and knowledge management so as to enable prioritization, sustainable in-situ utilization, and conservation of indigenous FAnGR. Little has been done in developing countries with regard to strategies that enable the sustainable use of FAnGR for securing and improving human livelihoods. Such strategies will need to address the following aspects:
•which indigenous populations/breeds exist today, and what contributions are they making to the livelihoods of their keepers?
•how can such contributions of FAnGR to human livelihoods and sustained environmental health be enhanced or optimized (i.e. how can maximum economic returns be achieved)?
•how can the information above be incorporated into decisions on conservation and utilization programs, and/or mainstreamed into the planning processes and resource allocation for the existing indigenous and non-indigenous FAnGRs?
•how best can agricultural improvement programs be designed so as to minimize potential negative impacts on the genetic diversity of FAnGR and the environment?
•how can existing policy and marketing agencies be better informed to be more supportive of sustainable utilization of indigenous FAnGRs?
3. Project justification and rationale
Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) (National Executing Agency) Website: www.fangrbd.org
Others: Ministry of Environment & Forest; Department of Livestock Services; World Vision Bangladesh
University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan (UAF) (National Executing Agency)
Website: www.fangrpk.org
Others: Ministry of Climate Change; Pakistan Agricultural Research Council; Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Government of Punjab
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (UoP) (National Executing Agency) Website: www.fangrsl.org
Others: Ministry of Environment; Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development; Department of Animal Production and Health; Provincial Ministries of Livestock
National Institute of Animal Husbandry, Vietnam (NIAH) (National Executing Agency) Website: www.fangrvn.com
Others: Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; Ministry of Agriculture (Dept. of Livestock Production); Provincial Livestock Departments
Development and Application of Decision Support Tools to Conserve and Sustainabily use Genetic Diversity in Indigenous Livestock and Wild Relatives (website: www.fangrasia.org)
1. Introduction
2. Constraints for conservation
4. Goal
5. Expected outputs
National Project Directors: Prof. A.K.F.H Bhuiyan (Bangladesh); Prof. M. Sajjad Khan (Pakistan); Prof. Pradeepa Silva (Sri Lanka); Prof. Le Thi Thuy (Vietnam) Regional Project Coordinator: Prof. M.N.M. Ibrahim (Biotechnology Theme, ILRI, Narobi), Regional Project Office, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Project Leader: Dr. Okeyo Mwai, Team Leader, Improving Utilization of Livestock Genetic Resources, Biotechnology Theme ILRI Nairobi
Donor Organization Global Environment Facility
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world’s largest public funder of international environmental projects, is supporting the Development and Application of Decision-support tools to conserve and sustainably use genetic diversity in indigenous livestock and wild relatives project initiative led by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam. International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is coordinating the project with implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme.(UNEP). Working in the four partner countries the project addresses ways to secure and improve livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through utilisation and conservation of indigenous FAnGR and their wild relatives.
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License August 2012