The proposed project aims at improving the economic viability at cross-border areas of Armenia and Georgia through awareness building campaigns on prevention and control of trans-boundary diseases, improvement of herd management strategies and development of private veterinary business capacities.
The rural cross-border areas face serious challenges with regard to economic growth, employment opportunities, infrastructure provision and access to services. Among these challenges the animal health prevention plays one of the central roles. Therefore there is a need in Armenia and in Georgia for private animal disease surveillance systems that can complement the national program as well as will serve in preventing disease spread through borders, losses in livestock production, increase in farm income, and reduction of persistent threats to human health. Protecting livestock against diseases and preventing their spread is vital to fighting hunger, poverty, and malnutrition in the project targeted regions.
In order to address these challenges CARD proposes to focus on shifting from traditional farming to new animal husbandry approaches, such as (a) herd and labour management; (b) reproduction; (c) housing and environment; (d) nutrition; (e) calf rearing; (f) trans-boundary animal diseases prevention and control and such that may lead to development of a more diversified rural economy.
Geographically, the proposed project will focus on Armenian and Georgian bordering regions: Shirak and Lori provinces (marzes) in Armenia and Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo-Kartli provinces in Georgia.
This project perfectly merges with the Armenian and Georgian government strategies on strengthening of cross-border economic links and creation of private veterinary services that will complement government action on prevention of animal diseases.
