TCDC concepts rapidly gave rise to practical expression. The vital role of livestock in sustaining Asia's agriculture and their potential to increase income levels, rural employment and living standards for millions of small farmers was realized. In order to overcome obstacles to livestock development, coordinated efforts were made along with the introduction of programmes and policies for disease eradication and animal production. Asian countries probed possibilities to create a common forum for developing strategies to tackle the most pressing of these problems of livestock agriculture in their Region.

This led to the founding of the FAO Animal Production and Health Commission for Asia, the Far East and the Southwest Pacific*, known by its familiar acronym, APHCA. The Commission, initially proposed by the Fifth FAO Regional Conference on Animal Production, was approved and established by FAO at the 60th Session of the FAO Council under article XIV of the FAO Constitution. APHCA, itself, became operational in December 1975.

(*The designation "Asia, the Far East and the Southwest Pacific" was replaced by "Asia and the Pacific" in 1986.)

Member countries of FAO/United Nations, located wholly or partly in the Region defined by latitudes 50o north and 50 o south, longitudes 60 o east and 130 o west, can become members of APHCA.

Chronology of membership:

• Six countries signed the Instrument of Acceptance and became the APHCA's founding members, effective 29 December 1975, i.e., Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh, respectively (6);
• Malaysia, Australia and Singapore joined in 1976, respectively (9);
• Indonesia and Pakistan joined in 1977 (11);
• Iran became member in 1978 (12);
• Mauritius joined in November 1979 (13) (and withdrew its membership in 1988);
• Papua New Guinea joined in July 1980 (14);
• Mauritius withdrew its membership in 1989 (13);
• Myanmar became member in 1990 (14);
• Singapore withdrew its membership while Lao PDR joined in 1996 (14);
• Bhutan joined the Commission in 2000 (15);
• Mongolia joined in 2006 (16); and
• Samoa joined in 2007 (17).
• The current (17) member countries are: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

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The main objectives of APHCA are:

• To promote livestock development in general; and more particularly
• To promote national and international action and research programmes relating to animal husbandry and health problems;
• To build up regional and national livestock programmes based on collective self-reliance and mutual assistance within the Region;
• To promote livestock production as an industry and as part of the farming system based on self-reliance at the farm level; and
• " To raise the level of nutrition and living standards of small-farmers and rural communities through optimal exploitation of resources for livestock development.

In summary, the objectives of developing livestock as an integral part of agriculture have been focused on small-farmers through programmes which are relevant to Asia's farming systems. Harmonious integration of crop/livestock/poultry/fish production would maximize production, thus providing direct benefits to the rural millions who are the actual producers.

The strategy for achieving these goals, which are founded on collective self-reliance and mutual assistance between the developing countries, marks a change from the donor-recipient model which has been frequently found unsuitable to Asian conditions.

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• To promote joint action, cooperation, coordination and information exchange among the members for better animal production;
• To assist in control, diagnosis and surveillance of livestock diseases;
• To assist in appropriate agricultural education and research, that relates to the Asian situation;
• To seek cooperation and assistance of UN bodies, other international and government organizations to help implement APHCA programmes; and
• To carry out the above functions so as to raise the enterprise and income of small-farmers' by developing profitable livestock agriculture within integrated farming systems acceptable to the farmers.

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APHCA is led by an Executive Committee which comprises:

• Chairperson
• Vice-chairperson
• Three Executive Committee Members elected by the members annually from among themselves, and
• The immediate past Chairperson of the Commission, who automatically turns to be the Ex-officio Member

APHCA's first executive committee members in 1976. Chairperson (middle): Dr. J.C. Madamba (Philippines) and Secretary (far right): Dr. C.P. Pillai (Sri Lanka)

The Senior Animal Production and Health Officer of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok is the Secretary of APHCA and the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee gives guidance and assistance in the speedy implementation of programmes which have been approved by the Commission.

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Membership Fees: APHCA is mainly funded from annual membership fees paid by its member countries. These fees are fixed according to the country categories, which are broadly related to Gross National Product.

There are three categories for which the current annual fees (effective since 2003) are US$ 2,128; 6,502; and 10,724 respectively. These fees are paid to the FAO Trust Fund in Rome. The Secretary and part of the APHCA Secretariat staff are provided by FAO.

Core Budget Support to the Commission: The Government of Australia made an extra-budgetary contribution of A$175,000 during 1982-85 as special core budget support to the APHCA Trust Fund. These funds were utilized to support programmes including regional/national training courses, TCDC activities, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control, and rinderpest eradication programmes in the Region.

National Currency Funds (NCF): As most of the countries of the Region have been faced with an adverse balance of payments situation, it has not been possible to get any commitment for foreign exchange. It was therefore decided to establish National Currency Funds (NCF) in order to promote technical cooperation among developing member countries, these funds being only available for use in the country which provides them.

Philippines was the first country to launch her NCF by depositing Peso contribution in the Philippine National Bank in 1976, in addition to the regular annual membership fee contribution to the APHCA Trust Fund Account. This was followed by the Governments of Sri Lanka, India and Thailand in the same year.

The establishment of NCF was later made a formal part of the Agreement for the Establishment of the Commission as a result of the following amendment passed in 1979 at its Fourth Annual Session: "Article XV - Finance 3: In addition to making their annual contributions provided for in paragraph 1 or supplementary contributions in accordance with paragraph 6 of this article, Members of the Commission may establish national funds into which they may pay moneys in their national currency or in other currencies to be used for implementing the Commission's programmes and projects. Any such national fund shall be administered by the member concerned."

At the annual session each year, the Commission prepares a detailed work programme. Funds are required for the implementation of these activities. Since the only guaranteed funds available to the Commission are modest (i.e., membership contributions plus FAO support), the NCF has been used to promote APHCA activities.

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The NCF is used mainly for the following types of activity:

• Training of participants from a developing country within another developing country;
• Mutual exchange of scientists, technicians and teachers amongst member countries; and
• Training of small-farmers in livestock production; and arranging of seminars and workshops.

The modus operandi of financing these activities is that the host country provides from its NCF the local expert(s), local costs covering board, lodging and small daily allowance/pocket money; whilst the respective governments nominating the participants (or APHCA, upon request) meet the international travel costs. The host country also provides training venues and local transport as required.

The fourth APHCA Session in Manila, Philippines, in 1979.

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Many action-oriented programmes have been developed, aiming at a breakthrough in rural livestock agriculture and resource development by means of disease eradication, improved services and inputs, organizational efficiency, diversification of farm production, rural cooperation and other initiatives. Major targets of the specific programmes are:

• Control and eradication of major diseases, which hamper livestock and poultry production in the Region;
• Development of the rural economy through increased milk production of small farms;
• Increase of livestock feed resources through better utilization of farm byproducts, recycling of crop and animal wastes and by development of new sources of feeds which reduce dependence on human foodstuffs;
• Development of buffalo, the traditional farm animal and beast of burden, as a better work, meat and milk producer; and
• Development of the goat, seen as the poor man's cow, for increasing productivity of small farms.

The implementation of these programmes is based on an exchange of experience, expertise, technology and information, common discussion through seminars and workshops to identify problems and find their solutions and inter-country training and visits to stimulate development activity at national levels.

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Through the three decades of existence, APHCA can claim numerous accomplishments, additional to its routine work and ad-hoc services. The Commission's scope of work has changed to the more focused areas of activities in animal production and health, i.e., animal genetics, small-scale dairy and meat production and processing, livestock and environment, transboundary animal diseases, etc.

Exchange and dissemination of information on animal production and health has been one of the most active and much-appreciated programmes of the Commission. Through the APHCA homepage (www.aphca.org) and e-mail services, relevant data and information have been disseminated. Hard copies and CD-ROMs of FAO and APHCA documents/publications are distributed upon request.

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1. Dr. C. Perumal Pillai (Sri Lanka) [December 1975 - January 1979] - Dr. Pillai was one of the founders and the first Secretary of APHCA. He joined FAO as Regional Veterinarian for the Asia-Pacific Region in 1968 and later on became Regional Livestock Development Officer. Under his driving force, FAO established APHCA - then the FAO Regional Animal Production and Health Commission for Asia, the Far East and the Southwest Pacific - in 1976. He served the Commission as its first Secretary until January 1979. Dr. Pillai passed away in Colombo on 2nd March 1997.

2. Dr. Balbir Krishna Soni (India) [August 1979 - April 1990] - Dr. Soni served FAO as the Regional Animal Production and Health Officer and the second Secretary of APHCA between August 1979 and 1991. One of his key achievements, amongst the others, was the raising of APHCA core budget support scheme for which APHCA received A$175,000 - during 1982-85 - as extra budget contribution from the Government of Australia. Dr. Soni is keeping well in Bangalore, India.

3. Dr. Masao Sasaki (Japan) [March 1991 - December 1995] - Dr. Sasaki joined in FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in February 1983 as Livestock Officer and was thereafter promoted Regional Animal Health Officer and Regional Animal Production and Health Officer in 1986 and 1991, respectively, the latter when he also served APHCA as its third Secretary. He left FAO in January 1989 to take up his post in JICA.

4. Dr. Denis Hoffmann (Australia) [1997 - November 2002] - Dr. Hoffmann started his career in FAO as Senior Animal Production and Health Officer and served as the fourth Secretary of APHCA in 1997. He took his early retirement from the Organization in November 2002. He occasionally serves FAO as consultant mainly in animal health aspect.

5. Dr. Hans-Gerhard Wagner (German) [September 2003 – present] – Dr. Wagner was transferred from FAO HQs and resumed his post of Senior Animal Production Officer at the FAO Regional Office in 2000. He was appointed Senior Animal Production and Health Officer and became the fifth Secretary of APHCA in September 2003.

…...APHCA has five Secretaries during the past 32 years. Each of them, working in their own individual style, has contributed to the success and existence of the Commission……

Financial crisis between 1993 and 1997:

Financial statement quoted from the Session in 1998 - …The Commission noted that the total expenditure incurred in l997 as of 31 December was US$6,527 against the approved budget of US$63,380. The reason for this low expenditure against the approved budget was due to the fact that at the 1st January 1997 the account showed a negative balance (- US$11,606) and FAO HQ in Rome indicated that, according to the rules, the APHCA Trust Funds could not be overdrawn…

APHCA has gone through the financial crisis and is now in a stable financial position to move forward with its new focused mandates designed by the Members.

Present and Future

APHCA has, in addition to reaching practical goals, built a fund of good will and a reputation for performance with the other United Nations agencies and international organizations, developed countries and other institutions which seek to support programmes for rural development based on small farmer livestock production in the years ahead. The philosophy of collective self-reliance and mutual assistance is now well embedded in the Region and its countries and will be a key concept as APHCA moves forward with confidence in the future.

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