UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:	Heifer International

Affiliation:	- Non-governmental organization

Name of Focal Point:	Chen Taiyong, China Country Director, Heifer International

Initiative Title:	Ya'an Dairy Goat Project

Internet links:	: http://www.hpichina.org/english/index.html http://www.heifer.org

Scope:	Regional: - Asia and the Pacific

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: July Pre 1997 End: June 2002

Lead Institution:	Heifer International

Stakeholders/Partners:	Ya’an City Bureau of Animal Husbandry Sichuan Agricultural University

Relevent issues:	- Improved Housing - Job Creation and Enterprise Promotion - Food security and sustainable agriculture - Enhancing agricultural productivity through adequate and sustainable inputs - Community-based and indigenous approaches to food production - Diversifying agricultural production systems - Access to financing, investments or markets - Capacity building - Technology transfer - Empowerment of local rural communities - Capacity building - Access to local markets - Research on local and resource system, site-specific, low-cost technologies and extension services - Community-based programmes for efficient land use - Soil fertility improvement practices - Access to financing - Capacity building - Poverty eradication - Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic, social development - Sustainable development in a globalizing world - Health and sustainable development - Gender equality - Education

Objectives/Challenges:

Objectives
1. To nurture local food systems through agricultural development that contributes to economic, environmental and social justice.
2. To enhance producers’ capacity to improve their quality of life and to increase income through training, Passing on the Gift, and internal sharing of resources and knowledge
3. To increase the income of the first group of participants by 60 percent within three years by distributing locally purchased does.
4. To improve the genetic quality of area dairy goats.
5. To increase the average milk consumption, production and sales in the region.
6. To increase forage production by families using zero-grazing techniques.

Challenges
1. Donated goats were first transported to Beijing for isolation and quarantine. Later they were taken by train to Chengdu by train and by truck to Ya’an. The stress of transport and poor feeding and management by inexperienced early participants led to the deaths of some of the original 78 imported British Saanen goats. This affected the progress of Passing-on-the-Gift. (Recipient families are required to pass on the first offspring of their gift animal – or the equivalent in training or resources.)
2. Ya’an’s mountainous terrain made it difficult for technicians to visit recipient families. Through constant training, some of the more experienced farmers became goat health workers and helped other farmers.
3. At the start of the project, most recipient families lacked goat pens or had very poor goat pens.
4. Inbreeding became a problem in 1991 because there were no new bloodlines beyond the first shipment of 78 Saanen goats.
5. Farmers were unable to get good prices for their milk because of a monopoly held by two local dairy goat milk processing plants. Some farmers tried sending milk directly to households in nearby towns for cash income. Other farmers were unable to bypass the monopoly and were forced to stop raising goats.
6. Too few bucks were available to service the many does. Artificial insemination was widely adopted, and some farmers became expert AI practitioners in their villages.
7. When the price of goat milk dropped in 1998-1999, some project participants sold their goats. However, they never stopped Passing on the Gift and tried hard to pass on the money equivalent with proceeds from raising dairy cattle.

Lessons Learned:

Lessons Learned:
1. Creative incentives help ensure pass-ons. (Only one Saanen goat was distributed to one original recipient family at a time. Changes were barely noticeable and happened slowly. Some farmers did not fully appreciate their goats. As a solution, all Passing-on the-Gift recipients were asked to pay a deposit of 30 yuan -- US$4.25 -- to the project holder. If farmers raised the Passing-on-the-Gift goats well and passed them on as agreed, the deposit was returned to them.)
2. Steady project progress requires stability in project holder staffing. (Project holder personnel changed often, which significantly undermined the project’s progress.)
3. Flexibility helps farmers complete the Passing-on-the-Gift process. (Passing on the Gift was originally conducted in the traditional way – the loan of a goat and the pass-on of an offspring. Some farmers did not pass on the offspring to satisfy the requirement. So the process changed from the pass-on of an offspring to cash repayment. New recipients then began receiving cash loans so they could buy the best quality goat available in the market.)

Policy Options:

1. Technical training should be reinforced. In Ya'an, goat specialists and teachers from Sichuan Agricultural University were invited to train farmers. Trainings were also provided in the form of classroom teaching, leaflet handouts and village broadcasting.
2. Artificial Insemination should be practiced when bucks are in short supply. In Ya’an, 13 Artificial Insemination stations were set up.
3. Efforts should be made to popularize practical, effective goat pens to ensure the best performance of the goats.
4. Care should be taken to ensure diversity in the breeding pool. In Ya’an, 209 Saanen goats were selected from then Ya’an City Bureau of Animal Husbandry Goat Farm purely for breeding purposes so their offspring could supplement the breeding pool for future generations.

Summary:

This case study concerns Heifer International’s work with farmers to improve nutrition and income by breeding and raising dairy goats near the city of Ya’an in China’s western Sichuan Province.
Over the course of the 17-year project, per capita income rose from about 300 yuan ($US42) to as much as 1,650 yuan (US$233,) enabling families to strengthen food security, pay for children’s schooling, improve housing and buy bicycles and other household items.
In 1985, Heifer International’s China Program initially provided to Ya’an-area villagers 58 female and 20 male British Saanen goats along with training in their care. Farmers receiving goats agreed to take part in Heifer unique practice of Passing on the Gift. This means recipients agree to pass on the first offspring of their goats – or the equivalent in training or other resources – to other farmers in need.
Before Heifer China’s began work in Ya’an, the area had 6,760 dairy goats producing 1.2 million kilograms of milk. By the end of 1996, Heifer had provided training for 12, 328 people – 6,495 men, 5,833 women and 936 children.
By the end of 1999, there were 37,000 dairy goats in the area producing 7.53 million kilograms of milk. The Heifer-provided goats yielded 43 percent more milk than local goats.
By 2002, 1,206 farmers had received goats and passed on another 1,394 goats to other families.