Technology and Digital Innovations
Technology and Digital Innovations
Heifer International Nepal, in partnership with Pathway Technologies and SEWA-Nepal, is driving the development of GeoKrishi SEWA (GKS), a digital platform that digitizes farm advisory and cooperative business processes. Tailored for farmers, cooperative staff, and extension workers, GKS improves productivity, streamlines operations, and strengthens market linkages through mobile and web-based applications. Piloted in two western Nepal cooperatives; Milansar and Prativa Social Entrepreneur Women’s Cooperatives, the platform is set to expand to 300 cooperatives by 2027.
Supported under Heifer’s Innovation in Agriculture and Livestock Value Chain (IALVC) Project, GKS operates on a revenue-sharing model among Pathway, SEWA-Nepal,and the cooperatives, ensuring sustainability beyond Heifer’s support. The platform was officially launched on the Play Store on December 16, 2024, embodying a scalable, locally led approach to transforming agriculture and empowering smallholder farmers.
Additionally, the Digital Mentoring and Continuing Education (DMCE) platform and the Virtual Collection Center (VCC) goat marketing tool are enhancing collective goat marketing through cooperatives. These tools have strengthened relationships between community animal health workers and production material providers while increasing farmers’ income from goat sales through cooperative marketing and the use of appropriate technology.
The project aims to engage 400 Community Animal Health Workers, 50,000 farming families, and 116 Social Entrepreneur Women’s Cooperatives. By increasing the volume of goat sales and boosting revenue for both individual farmers and cooperatives, it ensures long-term benefits. The VCC app has been fully launched in approximately 50 cooperatives, further supporting the initiative’s goals.
Livestock Technology & One Health (LTOH)
Healthy people, healthy animals, and a healthy environment are inseparable, especially in communities where livestock is central to daily life and food security. For the 600 million smallholder farmers worldwide who depend on livestock, safe and sustainable animal agriculture is essential for nutrition, income, and resilience. Heifer International integrates the One Health approach across its work, recognizing the deep interconnection between human, animal, and environmental well-being and its importance in building thriving, sustainable food systems.
Heifer’s One Health approach strengthens livestock health and productivity while reducing risks to people and ecosystems. Farmers receive climate-smart livestock training to improve feeding, housing, breeding, and disease prevention. Community Animal Health Workers including Community Agrovet Entrepreneurs (CAVEs) are trained and mobilized to deliver vaccinations, biosecurity support, and frontline veterinary care. This community-based service network helps prevent zoonotic diseases, critical given that more than 60% of human infectious diseases originate in animals, and 75% of new or emerging diseases are zoonoticrint
Environmental stewardship is equally central. Heifer promotes regenerative and Earth-friendly practices such as improved manure management, sustainable fodder production, and reduced waste helping conserve soil, water, and biodiversity while lowering the environmental footprint of livestock systems. Through strong partnerships with cooperatives and value chain actors, the program supports humane animal handling, hygienic processing, and access to quality inputs and extension services, ensuring food products entering markets are safe and responsibly produced. One Health is woven throughout Heifer’s programming as a holistic framework that addresses animal health, community health, and environmental health simultaneously. By tailoring practices to local contexts and fostering multisector collaboration, Heifer equips farmers, cooperatives, and local institutions to manage disease risks, improve food safety, safeguard natural resources, and build resilient livelihoods.
Through this integrated approach, Heifer advances its mission to end hunger and poverty in a sustainable way, supporting communities to raise healthy animals, nourish healthy families, and protect a healthy planet.
