Buffalo breeding is an industry that is seen in the south of Iran, however, in the north, a lady named Fatemeh Derisawi has started breeding this type of livestock.
She is from Abadan but lives in Gilan. This difference between the place of birth and life is the beginning to explore and know oneself.
She was born in 1980 and is the CEO of the Cowherds Agricultural Cooperative Company of Gilan Province, a facilitator of rural women in Razvanshahr, a career leader of the Imam Khomeini (RA) Relief Committee, a senior business and entrepreneurship training coach and a professional business improvement consultant.
These are enough to go to this lady and talk to her as a member of women farmers and ranchers in Iran, and she says the following about herself:
“I studied psychology and after graduating and getting married to my husband, who is from Gilan, we had a reverse migration to the village of his birth, and since 2003, we started working in the field of crossbred buffalo breeding. Of course, it it is better to know that in 90% of Asian countries, buffaloes are traditionally kept and grazed in pastures.
Therefore, at the beginning of the work, it was very difficult for us to maintain this semi-wild animal, and due to the lack of a specific scientific authority in the country, it was not really possible to solve the problems related to the industrialization of the buffalo.
Travel to Italy
To solve this problem, my husband traveled to Italy and attended management training courses.
He went through buffalo breeding and returned to Iran with a bag of knowledge and experience, and this trip provided us with a clear path to face the upcoming challenges in the field of transitioning from a traditional farm to a transgenic industrial farm.”
Drisawi’s husband is the manager of buffalo breeding projects in Gilan, and by passing specialized courses on artificial insemination and embryo transfer at the country’s livestock breeding center.
They are also encouraged to use modern methods of reproduction in their herd, as for the first time in 2013. Italian frozen embryo implantation was done in Gilan in their herd, which resulted in the birth of one male calf and one female calf.
Regarding this success, Mrs. Drisawi says: “The use of techniques has made us to have the best gene replicating herd in the country and to be known as a support herd and a model herd for promotion.
Therefore, people interested in this buffalo industry from all over Iran come to visit.
My husband and I are official members of the IBF World Buffalo Federation, and we are invited as speakers at international congresses, and we present our experiences and breeding plans for traditional rural farms to other member countries of this federation and share our findings.
In 2018 and 2019, attending the World Buffalo Congress in Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey, I received a statue and medal design from the advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture Rahor of Pakistan and the head of the World Buffalo Federation.
Achivments
Also, due to the breeding activities, our livestock performance report was published in the specialized magazine “Buffalo Newsletter” and was published in five continents of the world in December 2021.
In 2016, the Drisawi couple established the first and only active buffalo breeders’ cooperative company in the country in order to preserve this animal of the third millennium, which is on the verge of extinction. Until consumption, he has tried to create a sustainable self-employment in the villages of Gilan in the field of raising crossbred buffalo.
Since the buffalo is more resistant to diseases than the cow, and because it has a potential capacity to absorb high fiber and use agricultural waste and wood materials, it can easily be economically affordable for ranchers in difficult conditions, lack of inputs and high costs.
Mrs. Drisawi, the job leader of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (R.A.), with the help of the employment deputy of Gilan province, defined the buffalo farming as a permanent job for the self-sufficiency for 20 persons
Fatemeh Drisawi was selected as the country’s top entrepreneur in 2020. She was able to create job opportunities for more than 200 people as self-employed and 20 people directly in the field of employment generation, and also as an innovative villager in the national festival.
As a facilitator of rural communities and a senior trainer of business and entrepreneurship training in the field of rural women’s employment generation, this lady has cooperated with the agricultural jihad promotion department, which according to her, is one of the most successful promotional projects of the agricultural jihad ministries.
At the end of her speech, Mrs. Drisawi says: “In the last word, as an entrepreneur, I want to say about the determination and national will of Iranians even in the difficult conditions of sanctions that with all the shortages and economic pressures and relying on the knowledge of caring specialists of this country, for the first time in Iran in the field of production.
The frozen buffalo embryo in the Ibn Sina Research Center, Alborz Biofarm Center, using crossbred buffalo heifers in our industrial farm, which is the result of 20 years of effort by me and my husbend, has been able to produce 30 doses, and this is a great achievement for Iran, which is in the world, It has done this after Italy.”
