"The enhanced Rural AI (TERAI) Project for Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Nepal" project organized a project inception workshop on 14 February 2023 and a two-day semi-annual review and planning workshop on 15-16 February 2023 at Hotel Club de Novo, Butwal. The program started by highlighting the objectives of the semi-annual review and planning workshop by Mr. Kabir Ratna Sthapit, Team Leader of Livelihood component of ADRA Nepal. On the very first day, semi-annual progress reports from IRDC Nepal and FORWARD Nepal were presented to the participants of the workshop and the activities accomplished until January were reviewed. The overall progress of the project was presented by the Project Manager, Dr. Anil Chandra Neupane, ADRA Nepal. He mentioned that the semi-annual physical and financial progress of the project were 29.07% and 26% respectively. Mr. Jagbir Chaudhary, Field Coordinator of TERAI Project, presented the project’s progress on behalf of IRDC Nepal. He also presented that 56 farmer groups had been formed till January 2023, out of which 19 groups had been trained on ‘Group Management & Mobilization, Leadership Development, and GESI’.

Four farmer representatives, i.e. one from each local government of the project areas, were also invited to the workshop to share their experiences of cattle and buffalo farming, their learnings, and challenges they have faced in the dairy sector. Mr. Subhash Chaudhary, Livestock Development Specialist, presented the achievements made by FORWARD Nepal. Beena Chapagain, the Finance and Admin Officer of IRDC Nepal reported that burn rate was against the budget released till January, and 25% of the total annual budget. And finally, Mr. Mahendra Pandey, Chairperson of IRDC Nepal, delivered the closing remarks of the workshop. He was very positive about the dairy project, despite many problems and challenges, and mentioned that there is huge potential in the dairy sector for the upliftment of the livelihood of the smallholder farmers. From head office, Mr. Netra Pratap Sen, Executive Director and Mr. Krishna Prasad Sapkota also participated in the workshop.