Smallholder food producers in the developing world are most at risk of global warming. A World Bank report, Turn down the heat, released 19 Jun 2013, says Africa and Asia, home to most of the world’s poorest of the poor, will bear the brunt of widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat waves and more intense cyclones if business continues as usual.
Can, and should, smallholders help reduce global warming? Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, a bio-geo-chemist working as a joint appointment with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, and the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research in Germany, is exploring options for win-win solutions that help mitigate climate change while increasing food security.
In a project called ‘Standard Assessment of Mitigation Potentials and Livelihoods in Smallholder Systems’ (SAMPLES), Butterbach-Bahl and his colleagues from the Center for International Forestry Research, the World Agroforestry Centre, the International Rice Research Institute, ILRI and other CGIAR centres have been applying innovative strategies to measure greenhouse gas emissions from current agricultural and manure management practices.
‘Livestock live talks’ is a seminar series at ILRI that aims to address livestock-related issues, mobilize external as well as in-house expertise and audiences and engage the livestock community around interdisciplinary conversations that ask hard questions and seek to refine current research concepts and practices.
All ILRI staff, partners and donors, and interested outsiders are invited. Those non-staff wanting to come, please contact Angeline Nekesa at a.nekesa[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard +254 20 422 3000) to let her know. If you would like to give one of these seminars, or have someone you would like to recommend, please contact Silvia Silvestri at s.silvestri[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard +254 20 422 3000).
ILRI Clippings 