Tajikistan’s roughly 3.8 million hectares of pasture – almost 29 percent of its total land area – feed the country’s meat-producing livestock. But these natural resources, particularly year-round pastures near villages, are being depleted and degraded.

Since 2013, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have been working with the Government of Tajikistan on a livestock and pasture development project to halt land degradation and improve land management.

The project’s initial phase has aimed to increase the nutritional status and incomes of 22,400 poor households in the country’s Khatlon region by sustainably enhancing livestock production. Building on the success of phase one, the project’s second phase will now reach out to an additional 38,000 livestock-keeping households to help improve their productivity and strengthen their resilience to climate change.