Improving the reproductive management of smallholder dairy cattle and the effectiveness of artificial insemination: A summary

Economic development is progressing rapidly in Asia. One of the many consequences of this phenomenon is an increased demand for food arising from animal agriculture. This increased demand for animal products creates the possibility for a greater dispersion of economic resources, which to this point has been largely confined to urban areas. Thus, the opportunity for poverty alleviation in rural areas exists, but obstacles to this process must be removed. A high priority of the member states of the RCA (Regional Cooperative Agreement for Asia and the Pacific) is thus to support research and the adoption of technologies that can help overcome these obstacles. Ironically, population expansion, although increasing demand, can have a net negative effect on livestock farming, by restricting the amount of land available for raising animals. Therefore, one major focus on increasing production of animal products must be the increase in productivity per animal and per unit of land. Improvement of nutrition is an important strategy for improving the output of livestock production and results can be obtained in the short-term. On the other hand, selective breeding is a highly effective and sustainable approach for increasing animal productivity in the long-term. Reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination (AI) allow single animals to have multiple progeny, reducing the number of parent animals required and allowing for significant increases in the intensity of selection, and proportional increases in genetic improvement of production