Improving animal welfare and well-being through farmers in the rural areas in India

“Healthy Cows, Happy Farmers”. While the project motto is simple, the challenges ahead are quite complex: raising awareness for more animal health and teaching best practices in cattle handle for small dairy producers in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in India. This is the task of a small group of employees from Boehringer Ingelheim in this year’s Bag2thefuture competition, an initiative coordinated by the Making More Health Program.

The competition encourages employees to form cross-functional teams, conceptualize, create and implement a social project on their own. The goal? Foster social intrapreneurship, international exchange while offering support to social projects focused on the development and empowerment of communities to make more health available. Important is the willingness to make a real difference in the lives of humans and animals wherever needed.

“We are a multicultural group from all over the globe, each one of us has different functions within Boehringer Ingelheim, both in human pharma and animal health, with very diverse backgrounds like veterinary, marketing, sustainable development and finance”, explains Nupur Parekh, Management Trainee- Finance & Controlling in Ingelheim.

India is world’s biggest milk producer

The desire to contribute to development, facilitate more animal health and ensure the livelihood of remote communities is exactly what moves the “Healthy Cow, Happy Farmers” team. After taking part in a workshop in the city of Coimbatore, South India last year, the group was so touched by the challenges faced by small dairy farmers that its participants decided they wanted to make a bigger contribution.

“We are all prone to teamwork, and the mix of our personal and professional experiences helps us to look into things with different perspectives, pushing us to thinking outside our comfort zones,” highlights another team member, Sofia Dias, Swine Marketing Manager in Italy.

First, the team the magnitude of the environment. India and its 1.3 billion population are the world’s biggest milk producer, being responsible for no less than 22 percent of global production. From every angle, numbers are massive: the country has a cattle population of around 193 million and no less than 75 million dairy farms – a high proportion being composed of landless, small and marginal farmers.

“Dairy farmers in remote areas caught our attention for several reasons. Apart from the love for their animals and the need to ensure their livelihoods, we also understood a powerful cultural element. Upon arrival, we had a crash course on Indian culture – where we were told that in many rural areas, it is considered good luck to keep cows. As a result, most homes own one, two, or three cows, and use their milk to feed their families, and as an income source.” shares Kars Ten-Have, Head of Animal Health Belgium.

This leads to a gloomy reality where several animals are lost to preventable diseases, affecting animal welfare and the well-being and subsistence of those families who own them.

‘Train the trainer’: cascading knowledge in cattle management

Among the key obstacles small dairy producers face are, low milk production, access to regular veterinary interaction as well as training opportunities. This is the gap Boehringer Ingelheim employees are about to fill. At the core of “Healthy Cows, Happy Farmers” project, lay the development and implementation of an innovative learning module to enable dairy producers better handle their cattle, improve animal health and ensure their income in sustainable ways.

“Listening to the locals and their needs is crucial. For this reason, we are planning to collaborate with a local stakeholder in the dairy industry to offer insight, support and spread the word. Our teams come with the technical expertise. The idea is to disseminate knowledge on good practices by implementing a ‘train the trainer’ program, a cascade of information focusing on topics such as mastitis control, profitable dairy farming, breeding and feeding management,” explains Catherine Dubois, Brand Manager at the Ruminants segment in Canada.

The approach is different from anything done in the region. We surveyed, built a plan and focused specifically on the farmers’ needs rather coming with a ready-made solution. Our aim is to co-create a solution with them and look for improvements.

“This is an ongoing project which we hope will be fully functional in the end of 2021. We are confident that the outcomes will really help many small-holder farmers in Tamil Nadu, India. We know that when animals are healthy, humans are healthier, too,” concludes Yoann Germain, Sustainable Development Manager in France.