Who We Are

We are an association of people who were engaged in the Bhutan Highland Livestock project between its preparation in 1986 and its final completion report in 1996 
 The project had four main objectives objectives :
  • To Improve the productivity of livestock,
  • To augment the income of farmers,
  • To increase the availability of livestock products for domestic production, and
  • To prevent degradation of the environment,
 As part of its implementation strategy a strong institutional capacity building component provided international training and scholarships for some 36 staff, inservice training for others, interaction with consultants, curriculum development and training for farmers were planned.

​The project, costing $9.3 m in total was funded by the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) assisted by a loan of $4.3 m from the  Asian Development Bank (ADB), a grant of $3.36 m by the Government of Norway and 165 mt of skim milk powder by WFP. 

The project was executed by the Department of Animal Husbandry, and the Bhutan Development Finance Corporation. International technical assistance was provided by MPW Rural Develppment and then te Institute for International Development (IID)
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​The project was formally evaluated twice, in 1998 by the ADB post Evaluation Unit in 1998 and independently by the EU in 2002 as part of the 11th plan preparation and informally in 2016, 30 years after preparation by a team of previous staff, Government and International, and by representatives of the Department of Animal Husbandry in each project area including some farmers.

Each of these reporting success in each of these objectives, and in the results of capacity development to have been outstanding and timely considering when it occurred in Bhutan's modern history and goes much wide than the livestock sector with 2 Minister's of Agriculture, one Prime Minister and a Cabinet Secretary being just the most prominent examples of the contribution of HLDP Alumni to the economy, more below.

The ADB Post evaluation concluded the Project 'was mainly successful' with the income of farmers increasing 60% and a reduction in the need to take animals into the forest to earn income, based on the new pasture resources and breeds introduced.

An independent evaluation the EU funded Master Plan in 1992 concluded that livestock in districts where HLDP had developed pasture were 30% more productive per head than in those districts where pasture had not been developed. 

By 2016 it was clear to the HLDP Alumni evaluation team that the process begun by HLDP, and Helvetas in some areas, in the 1980's had established dairying as a profitable and sustainable alternative to shifting cultivation and forest grazing, thus all objectives had been achieved and can be built on to support exports of high quality dairy products.    

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