Climate change in Africa and the world at large has impacted on many fronts resulting in drought and floods hence resulting in food shortage. Consequently, poverty levels have increased leading to low development among many developing nations. It is against this backdrop that leading agriculture and climate scientists, policymakers, farmers, and development experts from around … Continue reading
They are huge, bulky and strong! They are disease-tolerant and can survive drought by browsing on leaves on trees that other livestock cannot eat. These are camels! Following severe long droughts that hit northeastern part of Tanzania in the last couple of years, a group of Maasai women of Ketumbeine village in Longido district, Arusha … Continue reading
Animal Genetics has a Special Issue on “A Global View of Livestock Biodiversity and Conservation,” coordinated by Paolo Ajmone-Marsan and Licia Colli. Read more … (Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog) Continue reading
Rain rules the lives and wellbeing of rural people in most developing countries: it determines whether they will have enough to eat, be able to provide basic necessities and earn a living, but climate change has made rainfall more erratic in many parts of the world. “What is scary is how fast things have been … Continue reading
Climate change has gradually dominated discussion in almost every country of the world because of the challenge it poses to the survival of individuals and whole nations. In recent times, whole countries have been threatened by changes in climatic conditions ranging from draught, delayed rainfall, continuous melting of the polar region causing severe flood in … Continue reading
Insurance is about protection against loss — and so, in many ways, is conservation. The similarities between these two industries mean both could gain from a closer relationship. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently announced the trial of an innovative insurance scheme for traditional herders in northern Kenya. There’s a severe need for such … Continue reading
Thandeka Mabuza’s small-scale dairy farm, on the banks of the Olifants River, gives off hardly any of the earthy smell you might expect from a thriving dairy operation. But the lack of manure odour is hardly the only benefit from the farm’s pioneering biogas dairy. By using vats to digest cow dung and then harvesting … Continue reading
FAO, in collaboration with the regional project on sustainable management of endemic ruminant livestock (PROGEBE), organized on 22–25 March 2010, in Dakar, Senegal, a regional workshop on sustainable management of animal genetic resources in West and Central Africa. The workshop was preceded by an electronic forum hosted by DAD-Net West Africa, which took place between … Continue reading
The alcohol in silage can drive significant ozone formation, exceeding the contribution from tailpipe emissions. Livestock operations take a lot of flak for polluting. Manure lagoons not only irritate neighbors’ noses but also leak nitrogen — sometimes fostering dead zones up to 1,000 miles downstream. And ruminants can release copious amounts of methane, a greenhouse … Continue reading
If I had to name one food that’s been in the hot seat over the past 30 years, it would be beef. Linked to cardiovascular disease and maligned for its industry’s dependence on federal corn subsidies, it now has a reputation as the Hummer of foods—an excessive contributor to environmental ills including climate change, nitrogen … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 