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    >> The Canada-China Animal Health Initiative (CCAHI)

The majority of China’s poorest women and men live in the Western Regions and still rely primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods. Continued and enhanced growth in the economy of the Western Regions is absolutely essential if China is to continue to fight poverty, prevent social instability and reduce the inequity between the poor western regions and the better off coastal areas.

China’s livestock sector has seen dramatic increases in the local consumption of animal products creating the opportunity for value-added livestock production to lift poor, subsistence western farmers out of poverty. However, smallholders remain particularly vulnerable to the continuing threat of animal disease, which could quickly destroy farmers’ livelihoods. Unsafe and unhealthy livestock farming practices that have accompanied the growth of this sector pose significant animal and human health risks that could undo many of the benefits that have been achieved to dates. An animal health extension system that responds to the needs of smallholders is essential not only to meet the growing demand for safe and healthy livestock products and fulfill WTO standards, but also to support sustainable economic and social development of the western regions.

To support poverty reduction in Western Regions and the reform of monitoring, reporting and containment of animal diseases to meet WTO standards, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) agreed to implement the Livestock Health Extension Services Project (LHESP). The LHESP will be implemented from 2005 to 2010 in the western provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), Shaanxi and Sichuan as well as Chongqing and YanBian prefecture of Jilin. The project’s main office will be located in Beijing. Canada’s contribution to the project is approximately CDN $20 million over five years, supported by an equivalent counterpart budget from the Government of China.

The LHESP will increase farm productivity and income for poor rural women and men in Western Regions, resulting in: sustainable livelihoods for poor rural women and men; reduced inequality between costal and Western Provinces; and, improved systems, policy and institutional capacity for the management of livestock health in an equitable and sustainable manner. Project activities will contribute to: an enhanced enabling environment at the national and provincial levels for improving the delivery of livestock health extension services to the poor in Western Regions; increased capacity of relevant livestock health extension systems and institutions in selected provinces to deliver sustainable livestock health services to smallholder livestock producers in a participatory manner; improved education and skills of animal health professionals in Western china with an emphasis on training methodologies; and, a functioning animal and human health information, monitoring and surveillance system.

The LHESP will adopt an integrated approach that links reform-oriented livestock health policy initiatives with practical regulatory frameworks for delivery, monitoring and evaluation at the farm level and in the market place. Training programs in both Canada and China will encompass decision makers at the national and regional levels and contribute to more effective policy development. This participatory process will include government units at all levels as well as the private sector, farmers’ association and the farmers themselves. Village-based pilot initiatives will ensure appropriate linkages between policy and practice lead to the development of a sustainable, effective system of livestock health extension.

The Canadian executing agency for the project is Agriteam Canada Consulting Limited, from Calgary, Alberta. The Ministry of Agriculture of China assumes the Chinese responsibilities related to the implementation of the project in China. The project is overseen by a Central Coordination Committee at the central level, and Provincial Project Implementation Committees in the provinces.