Team
AIR
Animal Identification and Registration (AIR) project funded by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and implemented by CARD in collaboration with RA Ministry of Economy (MoE) proposes to support the state officials, veterinarians and livestock farmers to improve, animal health, food safety, the farm management through development and introduction of AIR system in Armenia.
The project is aimed at supporting the Government of the RA in developing General concept of the AIR for nationwide implementation, to develop capacities, to improve knowledge of state officials as well as veterinarians and farmers on AIR, to evaluate and upgrade the ANI PASS software system, to organize awareness raising and experience exchange events and introduce advanced technologies through demonstrational projects. In this turn, after being implemented, the project will result in increase of the skills of the veterinarians and farmers to effectively implement their duties as well as establish platform for the animal identification and registration system in the future.
Animal Identification and Registration is an industry-led trace-back system designed to help trace sources of animal health and food safety problems. The animal identification is intended to strengthen animal health surveillance in the country by identifying and tracking specific animals. Healthy animals and developed agriculture will provide consumer confidence and protect domestic and international markets. Animal identification and registration is critical in maintaining animal health in every herd, as well as for providing real-time information on animal movement and data required for recording of premises, barns, and summer grazing stations. It will enable reliable producers to access markets and prevent unsafe animal and animal products movement ensuring the quick and accurate handling of emergency situations. A driving factor behind animal identification is the need for food marketers. Currently, in some areas, consumers are ready to pay a premium for meat and animal products that have been tracked from birth. Therefore, food chain operators are intended to make necessary changes for their operations to comply with market requirements. This will allow the industry to be ready to protect and preserve domestic and international markets.
Armenia needs to have a system in place that will protect cattle breeders and livestock farmers, so they can freely export and import products and animals around the world.
Goals and objectives
The proposed project will have the following impact:
Improved animal health and animal breeding management leading to higher productivity of cattle and higher income of farmers.
To achieve this impact the project pursues the following outcome:
Improved farm management at selected pilot farms through development and introduction of the Holding and Animal Identification and Registration system, ready for further nationwide replication.
The following two outputs are expected to be achieved as a result of the project implementation:
Output 1: Awareness of project beneficiaries including state officials, livestock farmers, veterinarians etc. on animal identification and registration, farm management, environmental protection and animal welfare/protection raised
Output 2: Technical and organizational capacities of veterinarians and livestock farmers on animal identification and registration, farm management, environmental protection and animal welfare/protection strengthened
Target Areas
Target Group
Direct stakeholders: a) RA MoE; b) RA Centre of the Agricultural Services State Non-Commercial Organization (CAS SNCO); c) MoE AIR department; d) RA Food Safety Inspectorate (FSI); e) RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure; f) Armenian National Agrarian University g) Livestock markets and animal origin food producers; h) Slaughterhouses; i) Livestock Farmers/ Pedigree Animal Breeders Association; j) Veterinarians/ National Association of Veterinarians; f) Farm and Veterinary Service Centers (FVSCs);
Indirect stakeholders: a) Other republican executive bodies, including the RA Ministry of Health (MoH) and the RA National Statistical Service; b) agribusinesses, including animal origin food processors, traders; and c) consumers, consumer protection unions.
