Rajasthan Forum for Goat and Sheep Development Launched

18 September 2014, Jaipur, India - The Rajasthan Forum for Goats and Sheep Development (Raj Forum-GSD) held its first meeting of the core group at the offices of ARAVALI, at Patel Bhawan (HCM-RIPA) in Jaipur on September 16, 2014. Participants included representatives from the Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of Rajasthan (Dr Umesh Aggarwal, Joint Director (Plan) and Dr Arvind Sharma, Veterinary Officer), Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (Dr D S Meena, Associate Professor and Liaison Officer; Dr Vikas Sharma, Assistant Professor; and Dr Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Assistant Professor), Rajasthan Agriculture Competitiveness Project (Dr P S Kalra, Project Coordinator – Livestock), BAIF (Mr Ramcharan Choudhary, Programme Officer), PRADAN (Mr Sanjay Sharma, Team Leader), Urmul Khejadi Sansthan (Mr Dhanna Ram, Secretary), WASCO (Mr G S Nathawat), representatives from ARAVALI (Mr Ashok Chouhan, Coordinator, RACP Unit; Mr Dileep K.Yadav, Regional Coordinator and Mr Varun Sharma, Programmes Coordinator) and SA PPLPP (Ms Varsha Mehta, Team Leader). The absence of entrepreneurs and rearers’ representatives from the forum’s meeting, as the most significant stakeholders, was underlined, and it was agreed that members present would share contact details of individuals and organisations that could possibly represent the rearers and entrepreneurs. Others who would be issued invitations on behalf of the Forum were CSWRI, Avikanagar and CIRG, Makhdoom. Other technical experts and resource agencies may be invited occasionally as ‘special invitees’.

The Forum, which is a platform for collaboration between and among government and non-government stakeholders interested in and committed to development of goat and sheep-based livelihoods in the state of Rajasthan, has been established with seed support from SA PPLPP, with the following broad objectives:

• Building collective wisdom, and knowledge sharing on experiences of agencies with small-ruminant based livelihoods development in the state of Rajasthan; 
• Perspective building and advocacy for promotion of pro-poor policies for small-ruminant based livelihoods development in the state.

Following an initial round of introductions, members expressed their ideas and opinion for setting the Forum’s agenda in the short-to-medium term. It was agreed that a vision document would be prepared with inputs from all the members, and this would also serve as the guiding light for the Forum’s activities. All members present at the meeting agreed to share their respective expectations from the Forum, which would form the basis of the Forum’s vision statement.

To facilitate communication among members in-between meetings, it was agreed to form a closed discussion group on Google, for which the responsibility would rest with ARAVALI. As the Forum’s Secretariat, ARAVALI would also compile information about all ongoing programmes, schemes and policies pertaining to small-ruminant based livelihoods, and share the same with members of the group for their comments, criticism and experiences with the scheme, programme or policy.

It was stressed that continuity of members is crucial for the effectiveness of any community of practice to be successful, and nominated members should make every effort to be present during the forum meetings, which are envisaged to take place on a bi-monthly basis at present. The second meeting of the core group is proposed to take place tentatively in the first week of November, 2014.