Healthy Cows – Healthy Food – Healthy Environment: Enhancing safety and quality of milk in Ethiopia with a focus on antibiotic residues

This applied research project aims to implement and embed the best practices worldwide for producing healthy milk in Ethiopia. Using Ethiopean experience in community based breeding systems to develop a more resilient cow, using Indian knowledge of medicinal herbs for reduction of the use of antibiotic to enforce Ethiopean ethnoveterinary knowledge, educate women to tend herbal gardens to make herbal remedies for extra income and using training of trainers in residue analysis from the Netherlands to set up a National training facility for residue analysis. The project will stimulate innovation: (1) pilot the NLF strategy to produce milk without chemical residues and (2) to strengthen the capacity for milk quality control (3) empower women to grow and process herbs for remedies to heal cattle and reduce the use of antibiotics. Co-creation of knowledge and sciences is achieved through interaction between farmers’ and scientists within Ethiopia, Netherlands and India.