Wageningen University & Research (WUR), International Dairy Federation (IDF) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) jointly held a virtual webinar exploring greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions efforts in Asia.

Many countries in South and South East Asia are expanding their dairy sectors to increase the self-sufficiency of dairy products. These efforts are made while at the same time global and national plans are made to reduce GHG from livestock and dairy production. The international webinar focused on discussing what this meant for the dairy production on smallholder farms. The target audience of this webinar included stakeholders in South and South East Asia who were active in smallholder dairy farming and dairy processing: processors, researchers, consultants, policy officers, extension workers, and others interested in the development of the Asian dairy sectors.

Presenters from Viet Nam, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka shared plans, research results and experiences about GHG reduction efforts in their respective countries. From the National Agricultural Extension Center, Nguyen Thai Lien Huong presented experiences with reducing GHG in dairy sector in Viet Nam.

Also during the webinar, speakers from global organizations (FAO, WorldBank and Global Research Alliance) focused on options to implement emission reduction in dairy farms. From FAO, Dr. Anne Mottet shared an overview of ongoing and planned projects on GHG reduction in dairy in Asia.