Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in close collaboration with Dutch Committee for Afghanistan (DCA) and through the technical assistance of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO), will hold the first National Conference on Livestock Sector Development from 14 to 16 February 2016 at MAIL Pameer hall.

According to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS), livestock sector should support food security through increasing the production and processing of animal products.

The aim of this conference is to prepare the ground for developing a strategic plan for the livestock sector for the next 5 years with the purpose of creating an enabling environment that will promote and facilitate more investments in the livestock sector. Livestock farming is one of the major agricultural activities in Afghanistan that is contributing significantly toward achieving development goals of national growth and poverty reduction.

"Currently Livestock owners work very hard to try and overcome them but because of these obstacles, the profits many receive are very little and negligible. Furthermore, as a country we annually import up to $2 billion USD of meat and dairy products." said Assadullah Zamir, Minister of MAIL. "Our focus on growth in Animal products will ensure that the annual huge cost would profit the country and we use the dairy products of our own country."

"Today's conference will pave the ways towards a livestock sector to develop a comprehensive livestock sector policy agenda that should then look at livestock farming from a broad perspective and take into consideration the multiplicity of elements that directly or indirectly affect sector growth." said Tomio Shichiri, the FAO Representative in Afghanistan.

Mawlawi Tarakhail, representative of the Kuchi community in Parliament and Baz Mohammad Jawzjani, also a member of Parliament, participated in the opening day of the conference. Members of the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan, UN-FAO, and other international organizations were also present.

Afghan farmers are working hard to rear livestock and they face many challenges. Secure access to basic production inputs (such as land, water and feed), risk coping mechanisms, enhancing livestock productivity, access to animal health service deliveries, and accessing markets are only few among those challenges.

Economic growth generated by growth in agriculture has stronger poverty reduction impacts than the same growth in non-agricultural activities and the benefit of investments in the livestock sector will expand well beyond the immediate beneficiaries. Investing in livestock means investing in people's livelihoods.

This conference is being held from 14-16 February with the financial support of the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan and technical assistance of FAO.The Conference will also host a specific workshop dedicated exclusively to pastoralism to better focus on the peculiar challenges of this important livestock sector.