Ethiopian livestock development stakeholders held an inception workshop which discussed a 15-million Euro project at the International Livestock Research Institute today.
The Health of Ethiopian Animals for Rural Development (HEARD) project to be implemented in Amhara, Oromia and Somali regional states is fully funded by the European Union.
HEARD is a four year (2019-2022) new EU program aimed to enhance the quality and quantity of integrated veterinary services delivery through improving animal health, Melaku Assefa, project coordinator at Ministry of Agriculture said.
The project targets to increase sustainable livestock productivity and improve marketing of livestock products by enhancing quality and reliability of integrated public-private veterinary service delivery, he added.
According to Melaku, the project also supports the certification of export abattoirs through the development of meat inspection courses and provision of training that provides safe and quality livestock.
EU Country Office Rural Transformation and Resilience Program Manager, Berhanu Taye said the project is expected to create an enabling and more remunerated environment for all livestock sector stakeholders’ relative to their contribution to the domestic and export value chains.
The workshop is organized by Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and International Livestock Research Institute.