About 14,000 livestock keepers are expecting the birth of more than 16,000 calves in the next six months, and are looking forward to a change of fortune and an improvement to their livelihood.

Haidar Al-Ahmad from rural Aleppo has recently celebrated the birth of two healthy calves, a male and a female, making him now a proud owner of four heads of animals. He and many other livestock keepers have benefited from FAO’s integrated approach to improve the livestock situation across Syria, implemented under the Smallholder Support Program (SSP). These livestock keepers are expecting the birth of more than 16,000 calves in the next six months, and are looking forward to a change of fortune and a significant improvement to their livelihood and only source of income.

“After benefiting from FAO's artificial insemination campaign, my cows were pregnant from the first attempt. Now, I have four animals after my cows gave birth to healthy calves. This will improve my living situation as I plan to sell the male calf for-profit and keep the female to produce more milk and enhance the breed of future calves,” states Haidar.

FAO’s Artificial Insemination campaign is a response to the dire situation smallholder livestock keepers were facing in Syria, having struggled to increase their assets and sustain their only source of income after the losses of livestock during the crisis, which limited their access to veterinary services and quality semen straws. In addition, fodders, which is a critical input for cows to maintain their reproductive performance, are no longer affordable for many of the livestock keepers because of the drastic inflation.

The Organization has inseminated 22,000 cows with a pregnancy success rate of 75 percent, the campaign’s beneficiaries can expect 16,000 new calves by June 2022 and far more productive holding. The campaign also offers veterinary services across the targeted governorates to ensure the reproductive health of cows during their pregnancy.

Insemination of a cow at the optimal timing and conducted by a skilled technician increases the chances for a successful pregnancy. Unsuccessful artificial insemination would cause losses for the livestock keeper who has to feed a cow without milk production or any revenue for long periods of time.

“In the past, we would make three or four attempts to inseminate the cows, both naturally and artificially, but most of these attempts were not successful and caused extra expenses on fodder without any increase in milk production.” As Haidar explains, livestock keepers were regularly faced with the challenge of inseminating their cows. But in September 2020, FAO imported 30,000 semen straws with high genetic value to help 14,000 breeders in Aleppo, Al-Hasakah, and Deir-ez-Zor, almost 5,800 of whom were female-headed households, to grow the size of their herds and improve their livelihoods.

The artificial insemination campaign is a part of an integrated approach designed by FAO under the SSP for Syrian families who rely on dairy cows for income. The campaign works hand-in-hand with a group of interventions to support rural families to sustain their livestock production by providing them with useful information through its fifty farmers’ field schools established in the rural areas of Aleppo, Al-Hasakeh, and Dier-ez-Zor to build breeders’ skills on animal health and nutrition. Furthermore, FAO promotes self-reliance and sustainability in livestock keeping and fodder production practices, which in turn will revitalize the livestock sector and create a shift in the smallholders' mentality toward profitable thinking.