Animal agriculture is integral to food systems throughout most of the world; an estimated 600 million low-income smallholder farming households rely primarily on raising livestock for their livelihoods. Supporting safe, sustainable livestock production is central to advancing the well-being of farming families.
Heifer International applies the One Health approach — a concept recognizing the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health — to help smallholder farmers and their communities care for their livestock and build food systems that feed families while reducing the burden on people, animals and ecosystems.
We provide climate-smart livestock training to help farmers improve animal management and health alongside production.
We prioritize Earth-friendly practices that reduce waste, produce sustainable feed and conserve the land.
We train networks of community animal health workers to provide vaccinations and veterinary support to local farmers.
We promote rigorous animal well-being standards and biosecurity protocols that keep livestock safe and reduce the risk of disease.
We partner with farmers, cooperatives and market actors to adopt humane handling and hygienic processing across value chains.
We facilitate market connections and extension services that build access to quality inputs, information and agriculture services.
One Health is a global, integrated approach to balancing and optimizing the health of people, animals and the environment, recognizing that these systems are interconnected and interdependent.
Heifer International defines One Health as a multidisciplinary, multisectoral collaboration to protect and foster the health and well-being of animals, humans and the environment, with the goal of ending hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth.
This longstanding concept has gained momentum in response to significant global health challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic. One Health calls on various sectors, disciplines and geographies to work together in a unified movement to address risks to human and environmental health while advancing sustainable development.
A healthy human population hinges on healthy animals and a healthy environment. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 percent of all human infectious diseases are zoonotic — capable of being spread by and from animals — and 75 percent of all emerging human infectious diseases come from animals.
The spread of zoonotic diseases is exacerbated by population growth, stressed land and environmental degradation, unsustainable agriculture practices and international commerce. Given the importance of livestock to smallholder farming communities’ nutrition and livelihoods, we know we must address livestock health and consider the human-animal-environment connection to safely increase food production and achieve our mission.
Under the One Health approach, animals that are fed, housed, vaccinated and processed in a safe and environmentally friendly manner can protect human health while simultaneously benefiting smallholder farmers and their families.
Taking a comprehensive approach to health has been an important component of Heifer’s programs for many years, and we are continuing to fully integrate One Health concepts and practices into our global work.
Through the One Health approach we holistically address issues facing smallholder farmers, including food safety and security, plant and soil health, disease prevention, antimicrobial resistance mitigation, and agricultural production and land use, with the goal of fostering safe food production and sustainable livelihoods.
Our current One Health best practices fall into three categories — animal health, community heath and environmental health — that compound and complement one another. These practices are tailored to the local context, recognizing that each of the 19 countries where we operate has a unique climate, culture and level of access to resources. Additionally, we engage farmers and local stakeholders, including community animal health workers and value chain actors, providing training to introduce the One Health concept, promote best practices and nurture collective action toward the One Health vision.
Livestock play a key role in providing nutritional, economic, social and environmental benefits for smallholder farming communities in low-and middle-income countries, and Heifer is committed to contributing to a livestock sector that fosters environmental responsibility alongside profitability.
Our sustainable livestock development work is part of our integrated, market-based model for strengthening smallholder households’ economic and climate resilience. Through this work we apply the One Health approach and other sustainability principles to help farming households develop and adopt practices which, when properly implemented, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, regenerate degraded landscapes and improve animal health and well-being, while addressing household nutritional deficiencies and boosting incomes.
These practices include holistic and safe livestock production standards that benefit both producers and consumers, and a focus on ecosystem health, encouraging regenerative and climate-smart methods such as rotational grazing, composting and waste management, reforestation of native plant species and cultivating fodder.
Heifer has developed and implemented a training and entrepreneurship program to address animal health needs of the smallholder farming communities with which we partner. The program trains interested individuals as community animal health workers — called community agrovet entrepreneurs — to provide affordable animal well-being services in their areas.
The initiative is designed to fill gaps in remote areas where government veterinary services have limited reach — amplifying, rather than replacing, existing service providers. Community agrovet entrepreneurs supply livestock inputs and low-cost care, including deworming, vaccinations, parasite control and artificial insemination to improve breed stocks, as well as other extension services to increase farm production and efficiency.
Community agrovet entrepreneurs also earn income from their services, accelerating economic development and job creation in rural communities.
Livestock play a key role in providing nutritional, economic, social and environmental benefits for smallholder farming communities in low-and middle-income countries. Ensuring farmers and their communities have access to adequate animal health services and disease control, climate-smart technical training in livestock management, appropriate feed and other resources to keep animals safe and healthy is foundational to our sustainable livestock development approach.
As part of this work our projects promote a set of comprehensive standards to improve livestock production with minimal stress to the animal. These recommendations are specific to species and include adequate shelter and safety; improved breeding; fresh water and nutritious feed; and hygienic, humane handling, transportation and processing.
The recommendations are outlined in more detail in Heifer’s Animal Well-Being Guidelines and Standards.
The One Health approach recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
Download About One Health Strategy DocumentHeifer International advances Sustainable Livestock as part of our integrated, market-based model for strengthening smallholder households’ economic and climate resilience. This document outlines our Sustainable Livestock approach.
Download About Advancing Sustainable Livestock To Benefit Smallholder FarmersThis document details Heifer’s biosecurity standards for improved animal management.
Download About Biosecurity StandardsIn Tanzania’s southern highlands, smallholder dairy farmers wrestle with high rates of livestock disease and death due to scarce resources and lack of education, but Heifer’s agrovet training revitalizes animal well-being and farmer incomes by turning farmers like Zawadi into livestock stewards.
