Category Archives: LivestockFutures

Asia / China / Climate Change / Drylands / East Africa / Environment / Food security / ILRI / India / Kenya / LivestockFutures / PA / Pastoralism / Policy / Report / South Asia

Reframing the pastoral narrative: Ancient mobile herding strategies to make a comeback in a hotter world

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Fulani boy in Niger herds his family’s animals (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Mobility to unlock scattered food, feed, water and other scarce and scattered essential resources is a human strategy as old as humankind itself—and one that remains key for pastoral livestock herders the world over. As the world warms and its natural resources become ever scarcer, it would … Continue reading »

Environment / Event / ILRI / Livestock-Water / LivestockFutures / USA / Water

Water ‘hoofprint’ of farm animals differs greatly by region and livestock production system–and can be reduced

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Village women wash clothes and cattle are watered at a pond in Rajasthan, India (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). The fifth annual Water for Food Conference was held 5–8 May 2013 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, hosted by the University of Nebraska’s Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored … Continue reading »

Africa / CRP5 / East Africa / Ethiopia / Livestock Systems / Livestock-Water / LivestockFutures / Nile Basin / NRM / Project / Water

The ‘happy strategies’ game: Matching land and water interventions with community and landscape needs

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In mid 2011, Catherine Pfeifer, ILRI/IWMI researcher in the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC), posed us a challenge: What kind of exercise could we do that would combine ‘expert’ knowledge of land and water practices with the needs of ‘landscapes’ and communities where these could be applied. The result should be some validated ‘best bet’ … Continue reading »

Climate Change / CRP7 / ILRI / LivestockFutures / PA / Presentation

‘Enormous potential’ of small-scale livestock farming to help mitigate global warming

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The challenge ahead is unequivocal,” says Mario Herrero, senior agro-ecological systems analyst with the International Livestock Research Institute. “We need to feed 9 billion to 10 billion people in the future at a lower economic cost, but also in a socially and economically acceptable way.” Mario Herrero was speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, at a November … Continue reading »

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Central America / Climate Change / CRP7 / Environment / Farming Systems / ILRI / Livestock Systems / LivestockFutures / PLE / Research

Livestock and global change: Livestock live talk at ILRI on 28 November 2012

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Globally, the demand for meat products is growing at 1.8% per year due to increasing populations, economic growth and rapid urbanization. Agropastoral and pastoral systems cover 45% of the earth’s usable surface and supply 9% of global meat production, while mixed crop-livestock farming systems produce 54% of the total meat and 90% of the milk … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Climate Change / CRP7 / Food security / ILRI / LivestockFutures / PA / Report

Farmers across the globe will have to switch to climate-hardy crops and farming–CGIAR report

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Taking a young goat to market at Mieso, in the Mirab Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu). Nature News reports on a new CGIAR study that says ’One-third of our greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture’ and advises farmers to abandon vulnerable crops in the face of climate change. ‘The global … Continue reading »

Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Article / Climate Change / Environment / ILRI / LivestockFutures / PA

Climate change and livestock scientists: Relations warming as understanding grows

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Illustration, ‘Meat and Methane’, by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. A recent news feature in Nature Climate Change, Light is cast on a long shadow, notes the warming relations (forgive the pun) between scientists in the livestock and climate change communities. ‘The fields of climate change and livestock research have not always been cosy bedfellows. But they are … Continue reading »

Burkina Faso / Climate Change / CRP11 / Directorate / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Food security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / LivestockFutures / Mali / Niger / Nigeria / PA / Pastoralism / PLE / Policy / Senegal / Somalia / Sudan / Uganda / Vulnerability / West Africa

Hunger in Sahel worsens as ‘lean season’ begins: ‘The worst is yet to come’

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Football legend Raul Gonzalez, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), learns while speaking to goat herders in Chad that protecting people’s livestock is essential for preventing them from falling into the danger zone during the current food crisis. Livestock will also be essential, the people say, for helping them to … Continue reading »

Climate Change / CRP7 / Environment / Food security / ILRI / LivestockFutures / NRM / Opinion piece / PA

Move our global food systems into a ‘safe space’–Memo to G8 from CGIAR’s Bruce Campbell

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Watch this elegant 6-minute film: How to fed the world by 2050: Actions in a changing climate. Film summary: To achieve food security in a changing climate, the global community must operate within three limits: the quantity of food that can be produced under a given climate; the quantity needed by a growing and changing … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Climate Change / CRP7 / ILRI / LivestockFutures / PA

New tool for determining future weather will help farmers adapt to climate change

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A youth sets out with his weeding tool for his family’s sorghum plot in Katanga Village, near Fakara, in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Philip Thornton, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), who leads a research theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) on Data and … Continue reading »