Category Archives: Report

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 »

Africa / PA / Pro-Poor Livestock / Report / Research / South Asia

Huge scope for livestock sector to reduce world poverty–New research brief from Asia commission

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Distribution (density) of poor livestock keepers based on the international US$2.00/day poverty line in 2010 (published in a research brief by J Otte and R Leslie, Animal Health and Production Commission for Asia and the Pacific [APHCA], Jan 2013). ‘. . . [A]mong largely agrarian economies, which are home to the majority of the world’s … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / Article / CRP4 / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / Health (human) / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / MarketOpps / Nutrition (human) / PA / Policy / Report / Zoonotic Diseases

Keeping cows in the city, chickens under the bed: ‘The Atlantic’ magazine explores Africa’s urbanization

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Butcher shop in a slum in Kawangare, Nairobi, Kenya (picture on Flickr by Brad Ruggles). It’s not only people who are rapidly urbanizing in Africa: people migrating from rural areas are bringing their livelihoods with them, which in Africa largely means their cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and pigs. A scientific report from researchers based in … Continue reading »

Africa / Agriculture / ILRI / MarketOpps / Markets / PA / Report

Africa’s food market could reach trillion dollars by 2030–World Bank

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The Butcher Shop by Ferdnand Leger, 1921 (via WikiPaintings). ‘A World Bank report launched last week has suggested that Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030. ‘However, the pre-condition for such a development would be for agri-business SMEs to expand their access to more capital, electricity, better technology and irrigated … Continue reading »

Animal Production / Dairying / Gender / ILRI / PA / Poultry / PovertyGender / Report / Small Ruminants / Women

Taking stock of women in livestock development project: Issues, tips, tools, and a checklist

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Yulita Cosmas, a chicken farmer in central Malawi, with one of her hens (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A publication, ‘Understanding and Integrating Gender Issues into Livestock Projects and Programmes: A Checklist for Practitioners’, from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is due to be published soon. It is being produced by Francesca Distefano, … Continue reading »

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

‘Lifeline’ food crops at risk of climate change: Major adaptation efforts needed, says CGIAR study

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Rose Mnjemo with soya beans, a maize, soya and cassava farmer from Khulungira Village, in central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Agence France Presse reports on a 2012 international study that found that climate change is on track to disrupt lifeline food crops across large swathes of Africa and Asia already mired in chronic poverty. More … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Climate Change / PA / Report

Watch this brief video by New Scientist showing how our climate is changing

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In the absence of aggressive government policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, a number of leading organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank and others, have begun issuing analyses that regard potentially dangerous temperature elevations as not just a possibility should the status quo prevail, but a near certainty even if things start … Continue reading »

Food Safety / East Africa / ILRI / PA / MarketOpps / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Zoonotic Diseases / Kenya / Health (human) / Agri-Health / Report / Interview / Film and video / CRP4

Slum livestock = Food? Income? Disease? All three?–Al Jazeera reports on ILRI research

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Peter Greste, a journalist with Al Jazeera, recently accompanied veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace to the slums of Nairobi, to take a first-hand look at ‘urban farming’, livestock farming in particular. Grace works for the International Livestock Research Institute and leads a health component of a new multi-institutional CGIAR Research Program on … 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 »

Africa / Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Biodiversity / CRP37 / Livestock / Report / Senegal / West Africa

Management of globally significant endemic ruminant livestock in Senegal

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This report on Sustainable management of globally significant endemic ruminant livestock in West Africa: Estimate of livestock demographic parameters in Senegal was released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in August 2012. Authored by Maria Ejlertsen, Jane Poole and Karen Marshall, it describes the results of a 12-month survey to estimate livestock demographic parameters of endemic … Continue reading »