Survey on animal production projects in development cooperation

A survey was carried out in Italy among the members of the Animal Science and Production Association (ASPA), to abstain a profile of the characteristics of animal production projects in development cooperation started after 2010. the questionnaire was sent by e-mail to all ASPA members. Eighteen project were censused. Most of them are concentrated in Asia (45%), followed by projects in Africa (27%) and South America (17%). Eastern Europe is still receiving little attention (11%), but will probably receive more in the future, The trend of the number of projects funded per year is rather constant (3 projects/year). The species which receive more attention are buffaloes (28%) and fish (11%). Only one project was censused for each of the following species: small ruminants, cattle, pigs and camelids. However, the majority of projects focused on many species at the same time (29%) and is directed to more than one sector (44%).Twenty-two per cent of projects are both in the milk and meat sector, 17% are on milk only and 17% on meat only. European (29%) and extra-European (35%) international organizations represents the most important sources of fundings, but Ministries (12%), local bodies (12%) and private institutions (12%) also contributed to support these project, Only 33% of projects are carried out in collaboration with NGOs and 72% with foreign partners, The results show that must of the activities have a multi-actor approach with complementary types of knowledge (scientifically and pratical). The projects take into account the needs and the problems of local breeders, and find complementary solutions using many existing research tools. This approach, based on the exchange of knowledge between Italian and foreign partners, has very often generated innovative solutions.