Author Archives: Peter Ballantyne (ILRI)

Africa / Animal Production / Animal Products / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Livestock / Markets

Livestock production and marketing in Ethiopia

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Livestock is an important sub-sector within Ethiopia’s economy in terms of its contributions to both agricultural value-added and national GDP. Between 1995/96 and 2005/06, it averaged 24% of agricultural GDP and 11% of national GDP. At the household level, livestock are crucial to the lives of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and smallholder farm households; they help to … Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / ASF / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Livestock / Research / Southern Africa / Zoonotic Diseases

Animal health and emerging diseases a focus for CIRAD in East and Southern Africa

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The Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) is a French research center working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues. It’s recently updated site on it work in East and Southern Africa introduces CIRAD’s activities in the region. ‘Animal health and emerging diseases’ is one of the … Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Asia / Capacity Strengthening / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / Livestock / South Asia / Southeast Asia / West Africa / Zoonotic Diseases

Strengthening laboratory capacity in response to emerging pandemic threats: FAO, OIE and WHO working together

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Early detection of zoonotic pathogens emerging in wild and domestic animal populations before they become a threat to human health is a priority for the public health and animal health sectors. An effective and credible laboratory service is an essential component of such early detection systems. As part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / West Africa

What future of pastoralism in a changing climate?

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Pastoralism—a free-range livestock production system—is practised in all of Africa’s dryland regions, and in some communities it is the main source of food security and income. But will pastoralism survive in the changing climate? The August 2011 issue of Joto Afrika provides research findings, lessons learned and success stories from across Africa. Contents include: The future … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / East Africa / Ethiopia / Farming Systems / ILRI / ILRIComms / IPMS / Livelihoods / NRM / Report / Value Chains / Water / WLE

Market-oriented irrigated crop development improves farm incomes in Tigray

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A working paper by Gebremedhin Woldewahid, Berhanu Gebremedhin, Kahsay Berhe and Dirk Hoekstra on Shifting towards market-oriented irrigated crops development as an approach to improve the income of farmers: Evidence from northern Ethiopia was released on 5 May 2011. Rainfed crop production in Ethiopia’s semi-arid areas is associated with extreme rainfall variability which occasionally leads to complete crop … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Diagnostics / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Livestock / USA / Zoonotic Diseases

Next generation animal disease screening tools identified by FAZD Center

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The US National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense> (FAZD Center) just released the report from its second Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop, entitled: ‘Enhancing Ag Resiliency: The Agricultural Industry Perspective of Utilizing Agricultural Screening Tools’. This joins the report of the first Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop: ‘Defining the Needs and Requirements for Agricultural … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Climate Change / Environment / Livestock / Opinion piece

More livestock is climate change key…

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Livestock are the best tool available to arrest the impact of environmental degradation on climate change, grazing management pioneer Allan Savory told Australians this week. Mr Savory, who gave the keynote address to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Bonn a fortnight ago, admits that his assessment is counter-intuitive and “extremely unpopular” when … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Climate Change / Environment / Livestock / Value Chains

Animal Frontiers: From fork to farm – the carbon footprint in animal agriculture

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The inaugural issue of a new journal – Animal Frontiers‘ – has just been launched by the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), and the Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS). Each issue will consist of invited peer-reviewed articles that present several international perspectives on the status of … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Biodiversity / Biotechnology / Indigenous Breeds / Livestock

Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to review progress in animal genetic resources

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The Thirteenth Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will be held at FAO Headquarters in Rome from 18 – 22 July 2011. It will review progress made in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources. The following agenda items / documents are of particular relevance … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Buffalo / Cattle / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Livestock / Wildlife

FAO hosts meeting on buffalo and livestock diseases in Africa

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In June 2011, the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) hosted a meeting on buffalo in Africa. Presentations from the meeting are online, and include: Mapping African buffalo distributions, in relation to livestock disease risk Ecology and social organization of forest buffalo Spatiotemporal dynamics of forage and water resources shape space use … Continue reading →