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 »
Saulosi Tchinga is a potato, maize, soya, sheep and chicken farmer in central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday called on African governments to implement policies that will help the continent’s small livestock producers to tap the growing demand for animal proteins. ‘FAO Livestock Economist Uga Pica-Ciamarra told journalists … Continue reading »
Sheep and goats in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by gordontour). ‘The Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (IBAR) is asking the [Kenya] Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MALF) to reserve at least five per cent of the estimated funds its set to receive from the Treasury for the Department of Livestock. ‘These figures translate … Continue reading »
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 »
On Friday, 18 January 2013, Jeroen Dijkman, an internationally recognized authority on agricultural innovation systems and rural development practice and planning, will give a ‘livestock live talk’ seminar on ‘People, the planet, and sustainable livestock’, at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya. View the event announcement: He was previously the director of … Continue reading »
Faith Kivuti with her mother milking a cow in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Jeff Haskins). A vaccine to protect cattle against a lethal disease known as East Coast fever has been launched in Kenya, where Kenya Livestock Development Minister Mohammed Kuti says the development ‘is a big relief to livestock farmers in East, Central and … Continue reading »
Ethiopian woman churning butter the traditional way (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu). A new study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations argues that to succeed, livestock breed conservation efforts must empower women. ‘Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognized as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, … Continue reading »
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 »
A new FAO study reports that more than 85 per cent of poor livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty; here, at a Toureg encampment near Fakara, in Niger, a boy herds a prized animal, and asset, of his family (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A new book on the intersection of poverty reduction … Continue reading »
Increasing livestock production to meet rapidly growing demands in a socially equitable and ecologically sustainable manner has become major challenge for the Asia-Pacific region. To discuss these challenges and to outline elements of a response, FAO, together with ILRI, IFPRI and other partners organized a Regional Policy Forum in Bangkok on 16-17 August 2012. Asia … Continue reading »
