Did you know that: In Africa and Latin America, a 1 percentage-point increase in the ratio of remittances to GDP results in 0.29 percent and 0.37 percent declines, respectively, in the number of people living below the poverty line?. The impact of the financial crisis on remittances and more is discussed in this annual publication … Continue reading
Author Archives: ILRI Communications
Africa / Agriculture / ILRI / Livelihoods / Regions
Ireland—Minister Of State for overseas development launches ‘Khulungira: Harvesting hope in an African village’
Minister of State for Overseas Development, Mr Peter Power, T.D., today launched an exhibition highlighting the potential of science for Africa’s smallholder farmers at the Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre in Dublin. Leading international agricultural researchers, such as Dr Carlos Seré, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Dr Richard Jones, … Continue reading
Drought / East Africa / Kenya
Drought in Kenya: desperate measures in desperate times
The camel, its legs attached with branches, brays desperately, blood spurting from the cut artery; nomads in Turkana in Kenya’s extreme north have been reduced to sacrificing their animals to survive a bruising drought. “I brought this dromedary to have it killed and make a little money after the other one died of hunger with … Continue reading
CGIAR reforms make research decision-making distant
CGIAR reforms take research decisions too far away, says Hartmann, director-general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). This year (2009) marks the end of an era in agricultural research. Not only has Nobel Prize-winning agronomist Norman Borlaug died, but the network of research centres with which he was closely associated is in the … Continue reading
Kenya’s first test tube calf
Three years after Kenya got its first test-tube babies, the Daily Nation can reveal another first from the world of test tubes – a healthy calf. The calf, which the Daily Nation has named Bully, is one of two test tube calves born three weeks ago in an experiment by veterinary scientists from the University … Continue reading
Cattle / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Livelihoods / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Research
In Kenya, better cows for better health
A parasite researcher in NYU is hoping totackle African Sleeping Sickness by creating genetically enhanced cows that cannot catch or transmit the disease. She’s been planning the project since 2006, when she attended a workshop in Nairobi. At the meeting, local farmers explained how they need cattle to survive. Most of them can’t afford to … Continue reading
Africa / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Climate Change / Crop-Livestock / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / ECF / Environment / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / Research / Vulnerability
Livestock research addresses issues underlying the pastoral crisis in the Horn of Africa
Things Fall Apart Things have quickly fallen apart in this particular drought in the Horn’s vast drylands because of a toxic mix of underlying factors. Land Use Among the things not being redressed are land-use policies and practices that fail to account for population increases and thus are restricting herders to ever smaller, drier and … Continue reading
Economic crisis is devastating for the world’s hungry
1.02 billion hungry people in 2009 – FAO hunger report published The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released today by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). … Continue reading
The spread of new diseases: The climate connection
As humans increasingly encroach on forested lands and as temperatures rise, the transmission of disease from animals and insects to people is growing. Now a new field, known as “conservation medicine,” is exploring how ecosystem disturbance and changing interactions between wildlife and humans can lead to the spread of new pathogens. Look up into the … Continue reading
Global hunger worsening, warns UN
Targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without greater international effort, UN food agencies have warned. The UN’s annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people – a sixth of the world’s population – are undernourished. It says the number of hungry … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 