About 70% of the world’s 1.4 billion extremely poor live in rural areas, making less than $1.25 a day. Of this number, more than 800 million small farmers and herders engage in livestock production. In this context, improving animal health in rural communities where farming is the economic engine is critical. For small family farms with only a few animals, the loss of just one animal to disease can threaten the well-being of the entire family.

Through a decade-long collaboration, Pfizer Animal Health and The Resource Foundation have developed a comprehensive education and training program to increase the capacity, productivity and quality of life of rural farmers in eight Latin American countries. Since its inception, the collaboration has benefited more than13,000 rural farmers in 100 communities across Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2011, this Latin American success story has been expanded and replicated in five states in India.

Over the years, Pfizer has provided nearly $2.2 million through The Resource Foundation to promote rural development initiatives that increase the capacity of low-income farmers. Through integrated training initiatives that leverage the know-how of local nonprofits and expertise and collaboration of veterinary and medical professionals, universities and public authorities, farmers at the base of the economic pyramid acquire advanced animal husbandry skills while also gaining personal health skills that improve the health of their families.

According to results data from the past ten years of program collaboration, learning modern farming practices has had a direct effect on improving the quality of life of more than 50,000 individuals . The success of this partnership continues to grow, responding to the needs of rural
farmers not only to improve their production levels, but also to gain access to markets and increase their incomes.

Highlights include:

• A Goat School Project that, since 2001, has benefited more than 1,000 goat-farming families from 19 communities in Brazil’s arid Bahia region. The initiative enables small farms to raise goats and aims to reduce child labor, increase the income of families and combat malnutrition.

• In the Chumbivilcas province of Peru, 1,600 farmers of cows, sheep and alpacas succeeded within 18 months in considerably reducing the principal gastrointestinal, pulmonary and liver parasites and have eradicated symptomatic anthrax. This helped improve animal health in the province, which in turn has increased incomes of families.

This year’s program involves more than 3,000 farmers and their families in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru as well as 7,250 farmers and their families through the program’s expansion to India.

Prevailing poverty levels of Latin America’s and India’s rural populations directly affect the integral development of farmers and their families and lead to a series of additional hardships such as: malnutrition and poor education, limited, if any, access to basic health services, and insufficient income to meet families’ needs. Holistic, capacity-building programs, such as this one, are the key to reducing poverty among the world’s rural poor and harvesting a brighter future for next generations.

To see a video about this partnership, please click here >>.

To see photos from The Resource Foundation's "Plant a Seed" Benefit Event honoring Pfizer Animal Health, please click here >>