45-year-old Paul Mathai looks forlornly at his nearly empty cow shed. A few months ago, all the nine paddocks were occupied. Today, only three of his dairy cows are left. And he has no calves left. He lost them to the dreaded Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). “I first started noticing a lot of saliva […]

Our professional lives are often so cramped with problems to solve, targets to reach and deadlines to meet that we may find it difficult to think. However, it is when we stop and make time to think that we increase the possibility to gain insights that will “move the needle”. At a recent “Private Sector […]

In rural communities where most smallholder farmers live, veterinary centres are often located many kilometers away, closer to the semi-urban areas. The result is that many smallholder farmers such as these ones from Mahua village in Nepal, do not always have reliable access to veterinary products for their livestock. GALVmed is working with Hester Biosciences […]

In Moshi area, located in the north eastern Tanzania, GALVmed’s local partner Milele Animal Health is implementing a last mile delivery of animal health inputs to smallholder farmers. We talked to some of the farmers about their livestock health challenges and how Milele is trying to address those challenges.

An estimated 600 families live in the village of Makhdumpur, in the state of Bihar, in India. Many of these families are smallholder farmers who are still struggling to get access to essential veterinary products for their livestock. Together with our partner Hester Bisociences Ltd, we are working on making available the most needed veterinary […]

In the state of Utter Pradesh where GALVmed is working with Hester Biosciences to set up sustainable distribution channels for most needed veterinary medicines and vaccines, we meet some of the smallholder farmers and service providers and talk to them about their livestock health challenges, their hopes and aspirations once they will have better access […]

In parts of India, rural women are vital in delivering animal health products to smallholder farmers who need them. These women are locally referred to as Pashu Sakhis loosely translated as friends of the animals. The Pashu Sakhis are female animal health workers and they have always played an important role in connecting their communities […]

To commemorate the 2019 World Veterinary Day whose theme was the Value of Vaccination, the Veterinary Social Business (VSB) division of Hester Biosciences Limited, a GALVmed partner in South Asia, recently conducted a weeklong livestock vaccination campaign. The seven-day campaign was an innovative awareness activity on the value of livestock vaccination. The campaign targeted all […]

In July 2018, GALVmed’s partner  Boehringer Ingelheim launched a new project known as The Last Mile Initiative. The project is designed to address weak distribution channels and help smallholder farmers in Africa increase their knowledge on disease prevention and treatment. While the Last Mile Initiative was initially launched in Kenya, there are plans to expand […]

In a new article posted on his Gates Notes blog, Bill Gates says rearing goats can greatly boost women’s empowerment, especially in rural areas where money earned from sale of goats stays in the women’s hands and gives them more control of their finances. This means that women not only improve their status within the […]