A ‘Livestock Master Plan’ is MISSION CRITICAL for India’s state of Bihar

Shama Khatoon, outside her goat shed in Bihar, is a widow supporting her family through goat rearing (photo via Aga Khan Development Network/Mansi Midha).

The article is written by Steve Staal, leader of ILRI’s Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods program.

This is a banner year for the livestock sector in the state of Bihar, India. Here as elsewhere, the ubiquitous barnyard farming systems of the world’s developing regions have long been under-researched and under-developed. But the natural capital found in this state’s livestock value chains constitutes a ready foundation for accelerating broad-based development.

A group of local and international experts have done the math and found that the goat economy and dairy frontier in this emerging market are ripe for disruption.

They have run the analytical calculations, plotted the plausible scenarios, developed the business models, and created a comprehensive road map showing ways forward.

The ‘Bihar Livestock Master Plan’, launched earlier this year, describes public and private investments that can significantly grow and sustain and modernize the livestock sector in this state.

This effort was funded and supported by the South Asia Agriculture Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.\