CGIAR centres and initiatives signing a 7-point ‘CGIAR Call to Action’ at the June 2012 Rio+20 UN sustainable development summit. Mark Kinver at the BBC reports today on a global group calling for decision-makers at the June Rio+20 sustainable development summit to take a concerted approach to agricultural policy, based on science. The International Livestock … Continue reading »
The Ethiopian economy is currently witnessing strong growth; however agricultural productivity in the smallholder sector, in dairying for example, is not as high as it could be. The BBC reports on developments in the country, including from a dairy development project of the Dutch development organization SNV. As part of the report, Berhanu Gebremedhin of … Continue reading »
Cattle grazing field in Nicaragua. A new report from CGIAR warns that changes are needed in agriculture and food consumption around the world if future generations are to be adequately fed (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). A Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, which is an initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture … Continue reading »
Goats drinking water at an Oxfam-funded borehole in Dilmanyale Village, South Wajir District, in northern Kenya; many people move to the village because of this water source, but once the animals have finished drinking they must walk over 10 km to get to pasture (photo on Flickr by Anna Ridout/ Oxfam International). Andrew Harding, the BBC’s … Continue reading »
Food shortages are affecting some 10 million people in the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa in July 2011; Oxfam reports that in some parts of Kenya and Ethiopia, 60 percent or more of the livestock herds have perished (image credit: UNHCR and USAID). >>> The humanitarian news service IRIN reports yesterday on the severe drought ravaging the … Continue reading »
Number of malnourished children per square km, from the advance copy of ‘Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics,’ by ILRI scientists Polly Ericksen et al., published on 3 June 2011 (map credit: ILRI/CCAFS). The BBC reports on a new study saying that some areas in the tropics face famine … Continue reading »
The African Cape buffalo is all but gone on the Mara ranches adjacent to Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve; ‘The status of Masai Mara as a prime conservation area and premier tourist draw card in Kenya may soon be in jeopardy’—Joseph Ogutu (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). Matt Walker reports on the BBC this week that populations of … Continue reading »
Min piglets at the experimental station at the Institute for Animal Science, in Beijing, China (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Jeremy Cooke of the BBC reports in this video on a genetically modified pig, dubbed ‘Enviro-Pig’, being developed in Ontario that may be among the first of GM farm animals developed for human consumption. (Salmon genetically modified … Continue reading »
Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), works in Africa and South and Southeast Asia on livestock food safety and disease issues (picture credit: ILRI/Mann). With more than 6 billion people and over 20 billion livestock, the world is getting crowded—with risks increasing of livestock diseases causing devastating human as … Continue reading »
A native chicken of Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Richard Black, the environment reporter at the BBC, reports from Nagoya, Japan, yesterday (18 October 2010) that delegates at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity will consider adopting new set of targets for 2020 that aim to tackle biodiversity loss. ‘The UN biodiversity convention meeting has … Continue reading »
