Smallholder farmers in Nepal have been learning about mastitis disease and dairy cattle feeding improvements, thanks to projects funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems and led by Heifer International Nepal. The projects conducted research and educated farmers across Nepal. Dairy farming in Nepal is not a money-making business. The farmers struggle with low milk production per cow and poor farming conditions. However, initiatives have been set up to help change this situation. According to statistics from the Ministry of Livestock Development, there are 7.2 million head of cattle and 5.4 million head of buffalo in Nepal. In 2016, 3,000 dairy farms and 424 buffalo farms were registered. Around half of the number of dairy farms are really small, and have around five to ten animals per farm. A small amount have more than 20 animals and only ten farms have 100-500 cattle. The country produces 1.9 million litres milk per day, whereas the demand is 2.4 million litres. The country is therefore importing milk from India. At the same time, most of the (raw) milk is consumed by farmers and doesn’t reach the market.
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